PHOENIX - The Los Angeles Angels have granted right-handed pitcher Joe Blanton his unconditional release, but will still have to pay him $8. Kolo Toure Shirts .5 million. The Angels made the move Wednesday. The 33-year-old Blanton struggled in spring training with a 7.08 ERA in five appearances over 20 1-3 innings. He was 2-14 last year and sent to the bullpen in midseason. The Angels will absorb Blantons contract and pay him $7.5 million this year, with another $1 million to buy out the $8 million club option for 2015. Blantons departure leaves the Angels with 39 players on their 40-man roster and takes him out of competition for a bullpen roster spot. The teams starting rotation appears set with Jered Weaver, C.J. Wilson, Garrett Richards, Hector Santiago and Tyler Skaggs. Adam Lallana Shirts . Darvish is scheduled to make his season debut Sunday at Tampa Bay after getting through an extended bullpen session without any issues. Jerome Sinclair Liverpool Jersey . Numbers Game examines the deal that sees Martin St. Louis and Ryan Callahan swapping places. The Rangers Get: RW Martin St. MINNEAPOLIS -- For the third straight off-season, Adrian Peterson will be recovering from surgery. The Minnesota Vikings said their star running back had an operation Thursday to repair his adductor muscle, which is part of the groin. The team said Peterson was expected to be fully recovered in about six weeks, giving him plenty of time to heal before off-season workouts get going. The procedure was performed by Dr. William Meyers at the Vincera Institute in Philadelphia. Peterson rushed for 1,266 yards in 14 games, missing two in December due to a sprained right foot. The groin problem was lingering long before that, though, sapping him of some of his explosiveness. He acknowledged after a loss at Seattle Nov. 17 that the injury was bothering him "a lot." Peterson gained only 65 yards on 21 carries that afternoon, albeit against the leagues best defence. He still managed, two weeks later, to rush for 211 yards against Chicago, the fourth-highest total of his career. But then came the sprained foot in the snow Dec. 8 at Baltimore, and he played only once more, and not at full speed. He tallied 45 yards on 11 attempts at Cincinnati on Dec. 22 and said afterward he felt uncomfortable, a rare admissiion for one of the sports most confident and determined players. Jack Dunn Shirts. Keeping him off the field is always hard. "Thats just not my mentality, leaving these guys out to dry, just because, what the heck, my passion for the game," Peterson said last month. "I love the game too much to sit out just because. If Im out, youre going to know that he cant go." Peterson is 27th on the all-time rushing list, second only behind Steven Jackson among active players, and he has often stated his goal of someday passing Emmitt Smith for first place in history. Peterson will be 29 before the 2014 season starts, though, which means he is already in the later part of his prime. His punishing running style and the nature of playing such a taxing position will make it difficult, even for him, to keep the pace. This was Petersons third, though least invasive, surgery in the last 25 months. He had anterior cruciate and medial collateral ligament reconstruction in his left knee in December 2011. Then, after rushing for 2,097 yards and winning the NFL MVP award, Peterson had a procedure done in February 2013 to repair a sports hernia in his abdomen. Meyers performed that surgery, too. cheap jerseys wholesale jerseys ' ' '