Los Angeles Angels
2024 record: 63-99
Fifth place, AL West
Team ERA: 4.56 (26th in MLB)
Team OPS: .671 (28th in MLB)
What Went Right
Well, expectations weren’t terribly high after Shohei Ohtani departed for greener deferred pastures, and maybe the best news is that Ohtani’s historic season wasn’t wasted on a team this bad. Sorry, I know this is the positive section, but, yeah. In actual positive news, Zach Neto took a big step forward in his first full MLB season with 23 homers, 30 stolen bases and a .761 OPS while also playing strong defense up the middle. Logan O’Hoppe was able to provide 20 homers from behind the plate, and while it was far from the most consistent season you’ll see, there were flashes that suggest he can be a solid fantasy catcher going forward. Jo Adell had easily his most success at the highest level while finishing with 20 homers and 15 steals, and a few other young hitters like Nolan Schanuel and Luis Rengifo showed talent that suggests they can be regulars -- possibly even fantasy-relevant ones -- in the coming years.The pitching will be featured prominently in the section below, but there are a couple of exceptions. Jose Soriano looked the part in his first year of starting before dealing with arm fatigue with a 3.42 ERA in his 113 innings Ben Joyce also impressed before injury with a 2.08 ERA and four saves in his 34 2/3 innings of work.
What Went Wrong
The Angels were able to avoid losing triple digit games by the skin of their teeth -- the only team who has not lost 100 games in a season in baseball -- and were never anywhere close to playoff contention. Mike Trout was limited to 29 games with a torn meniscus in his left knee, and the rest of the Los Angeles lineup, with all due respect to the names above, was as bad as you can get west of Chicago. Anthony Rendon continued his downward trend and was -- again -- limited by injuries. Taylor Ward was the only hitter who showed a semblance of consistency, and anyone who has followed Ward’s career knows how scary that notion is. Mickey Moniak hit just .219 and struck out in 114 of 418 plate appearances, and the team was so desperate for offense it was giving retreads like Keston Hiura, Niko Goodrum and Miguel Sano a chance at times.
Those two pitchers listed in What Went Right and half a season of Tyler Anderson (more on that later) were exceptions to what was one of the worst pitching staffs in baseball. Reid Detmers was a disaster who spent a large portion of the season in the minors and finished with an ERA of 6.70 in his 17 starts. Patrick Sandoval and Griffin Canning both finished with ERAs over 5.00, and Sandoval won’t be back until the middle of July after undergoing surgery to repair the UCL in his left elbow. This was a disaster of a baseball team, and they look years away from being in contention at this point.
Fantasy Slants
- Trout only made 126 plate appearances, and while he wasn’t much of a factor in the average category with a .220 mark, he did hit 10 homers with a .541 slugging percentage in that timeframe. On top of that, the 32-year-old was making an impact on the bases with six steals in seven attempts. That total equaled his last thefts over the previous four seasons, but it seems like a risky hypothesis to believe he would run that much coming off a serious knee injury. There’s already talk of Trout moving to the corner outfield and DH in hopes of keeping him healthy, but there’s a lot of risk that comes with the potential reward in the future Hall of Famers profile.
- Anderson was an All-Star for the Angels in 2024 and his 3.81 ERA is far from an abhorrent figure. It is worth pointing out, however, that after the break that ERA was 5.43 over 12 starts with a 1.51 WHIP; and hitters registered a .777 OPS in the second half compared to a .662 mark prior. The veteran southpaw was able to avoid hard contact at an elite level (33 percent hard-hit percentage, 87.2 average exit velocity), but he was well below-average in avoiding bats (18.6 percent strikeout percentage) with a walk rate near 10 percent (9.6). Anderson makes a solid streaming option against weaker lineups, but shouldn’t be a player targeted high in drafts entering his age-35 season.
- Joyce is one of the hardest throwers in baseball and averaged just a tick under 100 mph with his fastball, but he’s become a much more complete hurler over the past few years. Despite his heater his strikeout rate of 23.2 was just so-so, but his 4.4 percent barrel rate allowed and 59.3 ground ball percentage would have ranked among the best if he qualified. The Angels aren’t going to be good enough to give Joyce a ton of save chances, but his stuff is good enough to make him one of the better closers in 2025 and beyond.
- Adell is not far removed from being considered an upper-echelon prospect in the sport, and it’s worth pointing out that he won’t turn 26 until April. The positives are a player who has some of the best bat speed in the sport and barrelled the baseball a very solid 11.7 percent of the time, and his 44.7 percent hard-hit percentage will play. What won’t work as well is a whiff rate of 29.8 percent and a strikeout percentage not far behind (27.9), and right-handers stymied him to the tune of a .621 OPS compared to .877 vs. lefties. Still, there’s reason for optimism based on the body of work, and Adell just might put it all together someday -- maybe even in 2025.
- Jack Kochanowicz was called upon to finish the year in the Angels’ rotation, and he was able to hold his own. He finished the year with three consecutive seven-inning outings, and his 3.99 ERA as a 23-year-old is nothing to sneeze at. This number seems a bit difficult to repeat considering how much he struggled to miss bats with just 25 strikeouts in 65 1/3 innings -- he was dead last in baseball in whiff and strikeout percentage -- but he pounded the strike zone with a 3.8 percent walk rate, and he had a sensational 56.5 percent ground ball rate. It’s definitely fair to be skeptical of this type of profile, but Kochanowiz is one of the few pitchers on this staff worth paying attention to.
Key Free Agents
Brandon Drury, Kevin Pillar, Hunter Strickland, Matt Moore
Team Needs
Ohtani would help. Sorry. The Angels have the “privilege” that they could really improve anywhere offensively, with catcher, shortstop and first base the positions they should feel the most confident in. The closer position also should be handed to Joyce if he’s healthy and it seems likely that the Angels have the majority of their starters under contract, it’s just a question how many -- if any -- of them are any good. The Angels seem committed to a rebuild that was desperately needed, so don’t expect Los Angeles to be big players in the free-agent market. This is going to take a bit.