LA Angels Weekend News Crash: Pitching Woes

Sam is just reporting the facts…..

The Angels hope they’re just in a slump. These 10 stats show more reason for concern

Sam Blum

After getting swept in Texas on April 17, Los Angeles Angels manager Ron Washington was asked if he could take solace in returning home at 9-9.

After all, they’d started the season with 15 of 18 games on the road, facing some tough teams. A .500 record to show for it wasn’t bad.

“I’m not interested in .500,” Washington said. “I want to be better than .500.”

Right now, .500 would be fantastic. The Angels are 13-20, having lost 16 of 21 games, during which they’ve been outscored by 72 runs. Hitting, pitching and defense — the Angels rank at or near the bottom in each category.

Angels general manager Perry Minasian tried to characterize the deficiencies as a slump, something akin to what all 30 teams deal with throughout the season.

“I think teams go through stretches,” the fifth-year GM said on Friday. “You know, teams go through stretches where they don’t swing the bat well. When you don’t swing the bat, you’re gonna have some numbers that aren’t flashy, right?

“But you can pick a six-game stretch, 10-game stretch, from anybody and point to certain times where, man, they’re really struggling, and offensively they haven’t scored.”

This isn’t a six- or 10-game stretch. It isn’t even a 21-game stretch. It’s been a decade since the Angels last finished with a winning record, 11 years since a postseason appearance, and 16 years since a playoff win.
The Angels’ story is a well-told tale of futility. They haven’t earned the benefit of the doubt.

“We don’t like where we’re at, I think that’s clear,” Angels catcher Logan O’Hoppe said on Sunday. “It’s a challenging time. … We don’t want to get caught up in the negativity, or everything else that’s outside this room. So we’re going to keep staying in it, keep putting our work in. But by no means are we OK with what’s going on.”

O’Hoppe’s approach is a nuanced one. Acknowledging the failures while trying to build on the successes.

Those successes, those bright spots, however, have been few and far between in the early going this season. We took a look at 10 staggering stats (all entering Monday’s slate of games) that demonstrate this team’s plight and explain how the Angels have found themselves back in a familiar spot: last place.

7.02 bullpen ERA

This is the worst bullpen ERA in baseball, by nearly half a run. The Angels hoped their pen would be one of their greatest strengths, with Kenley Jansen and Ben Joyce captaining the back end. Joyce (shoulder) is now out indefinitely. And Jansen’s disastrous outing on Friday (six earned runs in two-thirds of an inning) was concerning.

But more importantly, the front-end bullpen options haven’t been reliable. Fifteen of the 16 relievers the Angels have used have a WAR of 0.0 or lower, with only Ryan Zeferjahn posting a positive in that category.

Reid Detmers, whom the Angels hoped had figured things out in the pen, has allowed nine runs while recording just one out in his last two outings. Rule 5 draft pick Garrett McDaniels has a WHIP just shy of 2.00. The Angels even brought back Touki Toussaint, who made eight appearances for them in 2022. Toussaint allowed two runs in two innings on Sunday.

There’s a world in which the Angels get Joyce, Robert Stephenson and even Sam Bachman back. And maybe then, there will be some stability. But that’s far from assured. And in the meantime, the Angels are left with limited reliable options.

Taylor Ward: .578 OPS

Ward looks lost at the plate. He snapped an 0-for-27 stretch with a double on Sunday. But he’s in a season-long slump. He’s hitting just .176 with a 61 OPS+. He hasn’t posted a multi-hit game since April 12.

The 31-year-old is known as a streaky hitter who can be extremely difficult to get out at times. But that feels far away from the present reality. He is walking just 5.3 percent of the time, down from his career average of 9.2 percent. He’s also hitting just .167 on four-seam fastballs, down from .272 last season.

17 stolen bases

As a team, the Angels have swiped just 17 bags this season, which ranks 27th in baseball. In a terrible 2024, stealing bags was part of their identity, when they ranked 12th in the sport with 133.
Part of the problem is not having enough people on base. But the Angels have been notably less aggressive. Luis Rengifo, who stole 24 bases in 78 games last season, has just one in 32 games this year. Jo Adell stole 15 last year, but has just one so far this year.

Minus-20 defensive runs saved

The Angels’ defense has been bad. The minus-20 DRS ranks 28th in baseball, according to FanGraphs, ahead of only the Philadelphia Phillies and the Athletics.

Behind the plate, O’Hoppe has struggled with minus-5 DRS, and has minus-2 runs above average on his pitch framing alone. Adell also has minus-5 DRS this season, most of which has been spent in center field. Rengifo has minus-7 DRS.

The defensive blunders manifest in more than just errors. Though less easy to manage statistically, defensive decision-making has been an issue.

.269 OBP

There’s no more concerning team-wide stat out there. This OBP ranks last in baseball and is indicative of a team that isn’t putting pressure on the opponents’ pitchers or defense. Even the historically bad Colorado Rockies have a .278 OBP.

The Angels staked their hot start on home runs. In the first two weeks of the season, they hit 30 homers in 15 games, many with runners on base. Now, all their power has come from solo home runs, and that two-home-run-per-day pace has dwindled. After those 30 homers in the first 15 games, the Angels have just 14 long balls in their last 18 games.
The Angels are last in walks, with just 72, 10 below the No. 29 Texas Rangers (who just replaced their hitting coach), and about half as many as the league-leading Seattle Mariners. It’s surprising that a team with a lot of power wouldn’t also be a team that walks a lot. Only two players have more than 10 walks this season.

318 strikeouts

Only two teams have struck out more often than the Angels. But because the Angels have played three fewer games than the Boston Red Sox, who have just 10 more strikeouts, they’re effectively second-worst in this category. It’s an issue throughout the lineup, with Adell, Ward, Mike Trout, Kyren Paris, O’Hoppe and Jorge Soler all striking out at least 27 percent of the time.

Averaging nearly 10 strikeouts a game, while walking just more than twice a game, is an unsustainable offensive trend. And it speaks to why the Angels are averaging just 2.4 runs in the last 21 contests.

50 home runs allowed

A lot has been made of the Angels offense relying on home run power. They’ve hit 44 long balls this season. That, however, has been offset, and then some, by giving up 50 homers on the pitching side. Only the Baltimore Orioles have allowed more (51). The New York Mets have given up just 18 this year.

In the ninth inning on Friday, the Angels allowed four homers. Jack Kochanowicz, a ground-ball pitcher, is the worst offender, yielding seven homers in 37 1/3 innings.

Kyren Paris: 3-for-44 slump with 26 Ks

Paris was hitting .400 through his first 13 games. He hit five homers and essentially won the Angels three games during their road trip to start the season.

In the last 17 games, Paris stopped hitting. His strikeout rate increased dramatically, at nearly 40 percent for the season. It’s clear the league adjusted to him, and he’s yet to adjust back. He misses on 43.8 percent of his swings, nearly double the big league average.

While it might be prudent to send Paris to the minor leagues to get some of his confidence back, the Angels don’t have any better options. So he’s forced to figure things out at the highest level right now.

Mike Trout: 9 home runs, 8 singles

Though home runs are more valuable than singles, this number is part of a concerning trend for Trout. Known as an elite gap-to-gap hitter for both power and average in his prime, Trout’s game is now almost exclusively centered around his power numbers.

In fact, his knee injury came as he was trying to leg out an infield single. He acknowledged he shouldn’t have been busting it down the line as fast as he did. But it’s clear, he doesn’t want to be known as a “three true outcomes hitter” (home runs, strikeouts and walks). Getting that single was important to him.
So much of Trout’s game is now wrapped up in power and strikeouts. It’s not who Trout has always been. But it’s the reason why he’s hitting .179, with some of the best home run numbers in the game.

44-66 combined record in the minor leagues

Records for minor league teams aren’t always a great barometer for how good a farm system actually is. But when affiliates consistently struggle to win year in and year out, and there’s a lack of premier minor league prospects, the win-loss record cannot be considered a fluke.

The only Angels affiliate with a winning record is in High A, where the Tri-City Dust Devils are 14-13. Only two of their top 30 prospects, according to MLB Pipeline, are in Triple A: pitcher Caden Dana and outfielder Matthew Lugo. Most of their top talent is at Double-A Rocket City, but the Trash Pandas have a 9-16 record, and some of their better players have underperformed.

There is plenty of MLB potential in their system. But as it currently stands, there is not enough to paint a rosy portrait of the organization’s future.