LA Angels Tuesday News Crash: Ch..Ch..Changes

Angels add more rotation help with Yusei Kikuchi
The deal: 3 years, $63 million
Grade: C+

The Angels certainly have a thing for left-handed starters — they lead the majors in most games started by lefties over the past three seasons — so linking up with another southpaw in Yusei Kikuchi hardly qualifies as a surprise. They’ve also been the most active team, adding Kikuchi to a list of offseason acquisitions that already includes Jorge
Soler, Travis d’Arnaud and Kyle Hendricks.

Kikuchi is coming off the two best months of his career following a deadline trade from the Blue Jays to the Astros. In 10 starts with Houston, he went 5-1 with a 2.70 ERA, striking out 76 batters in 60 innings with an impressive 31.8% strikeout rate and holding batters to a .188 average.

There are reasons to believe in the improvement: With the Astros, he threw his slider much more often (from 16.9% of the time while with the Blue Jays to 37.1%) while throwing his four-seam fastball and especially his curveball less often (he also utilizes a changeup against right-handers).

It’s just two months of performance that stands out from the rest of his career. Since signing with Seattle in 2019, Kikuchi has always had a plus fastball — he has averaged 95 mph over the past four seasons, including a career-high 95.5 in 2024 — but he’s also never had a 2-WAR season. While he has been durable — he made 20 starts in 2022 only because he was banished to the bullpen — he has also been homer-prone. His control has improved the past two seasons, including a career-low 6% walk rate in 2024, so in combination with the increased slider usage, maybe this is a new and improved pitcher entering his age-34 season.

Maybe.

It’s also true the Angels have struggled to get the most out of their starting pitchers or to keep them healthy. Oddly enough, despite all their struggles in the pitching department over the past decade, this signing is the second biggest in total dollar amount in franchise history for a free agent pitcher, trailing only the $77.5 million deal given C.J. Wilson in 2012 (Mark Langston in 1990 would be regarded as a bigger signing just in evaluating the player).

After trading Griffin Canning in the Soler deal and non-tendering the injured Patrick Sandoval, the Angels needed to fill their rotation. Kikuchi and Hendricks at least do that. Now they just need to upgrade the infield, the outfield and the bullpen. — Schoenfield