Another tough start in LA.
Life is never easy for a Los Angeles Angels fan. Every year comes with different expectations, yet the result somehow always seems to be a letdown. When the team is expected to contend, they fall apart. Yet when a rebuild seems in order, the organization tries desperately to set itself up to win now instead.
This season, it looked like those yearly expectations were fully reset. Having lost Shohei Ohtani to a well-deserved payday on a contending team, the Angels were going to retool, if not fully reload, for a brighter future. Yet when a Major League Baseball season starts and Mike Trout is hammering homer after homer on a losing team, it becomes a lot harder to stomach that the team he plays for might be destined for the cellar.
In a manner of speaking, then, even though we all pretty much knew the Angels would be bad this season, it’s still massively disappointing that they’re losing in spite of historic greatness on their side. There are even other Angels besides having strong starts that are going by the wayside. And that’s because these three players are simply not pulling their weight.
Patrick Sandoval
It may be hard to remember now given the way things are unfolding, but Patrick Sandoval was really, really good for most of the 2022 season. He finished his age-25 campaign with a 2.91 ERA over 148.2 innings pitched and seemed to be on an upward trajectory, perhaps even a worthy secondary ace behind Ohtani. Since then, the bottom has fallen out.
Sandoval’s ERA jumped to 4.11 in 2023, which still made him a slightly above average starter, but 29% less effective by ERA+. This season, he’s been well below league average, with a 1-4 record and 6.33 ERA in his six starts.
What’s worse, it isn’t like one bad start has blown up that small sample size or he’s been bitten by the home run ball. He’s giving up a career-high 10.5 hits per nine innings, his Baseball Savant data shows a correspondingly high expected batting average allowed and his walk rate has also jumped over 4% since 2022. It’s almost as though he’s aging out of his prime, but he’s at the exact age at which he should be entering his prime instead.
And the Angels, notorious for their bad pitching development, both at the minor and major league levels, seem to have messed with Sandoval’s’ pitch mix for no reason. In 2022, his slider was his best pitch and he threw it 29% of the time, to a .201 batting average allowed. Inexplicably in 2024, he’s only deploying it 18% of the time, though the batting average has actually shrunk to .174. He’s simultaneously upped his fastball usage by 7% the past two years and right now, it’s getting hammered.
Mickey MoniakÂ
There was a stretch of the 2023 summer where Mickey Moniak looked like he was finally living up to his potential as a former first overall MLB Draft selection. From May 13, when he was recalled from AAA, through the Angels’ doubleheader on July 27 against the Detroit Tigers, Moniak had a .335 batting average and a .982 OPS in 50 games. The Angels also went 27-23 over that time period, the key stretch of time in which they were deciding whether or not to deal Ohtani.
Baseball fans know what came next. The Angels kept Ohtani, their season went in the tank and their two-way superstar ended up needing a second Tommy John surgery at the end of the season after pitching his heart out for a team falling to pieces. Moniak was a huge piece of that collapse, piecing together just a .638 OPS in the remaining 44 games he played. This season, it looks like his confidence is totally shot.
Moniak is hitting .127 with a measly .386 OPS, both worst on the team among hitters with any number of at-bats. He’s lost his grip on a starting spot and was part of a messy platoon with Aaron Hicks before Jo Adell came along and started hitting more than either. But the Angels seem to have no confidence any of the three can solidify right field for them, which was a huge piece to the puzzle this season.
All of baseball is rooting for Moniak, still just shy of 26 years old, to figure it out. But he just might be running out of time. He’s struggling both with hard contact and swing decisions and when that’s the case, sometimes it’s just a sign a hitter isn’t cut out for the big leagues. No one has ever needed a hot stretch more than Mickey Moniak right now.
Jose Suarez
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It’s a cliché that the Angels are cursed in the starting rotation at this point, but perhaps, some hoped, they could build a lockdown bullpen. Bullpens, after all, are a much more fickle thing than rotations–anyone could easily be called up from relative anonymity and dominate with triple-digit stuff.
Jose Suarez was a converted starter who was supposed to stabilize the Angels’ bullpen, perhaps even filling a swingman role like Javier Assad is right now for the banged-up Chicago Cubs. But instead, he’s floundered in a multi-inning relief role, walking far too many batters and costing the Angels a shot at staying in ballgames.
Wednesday’s series-deciding loss against the Baltimore Orioles was a perfect example. Suarez entered the game in the top of the sixth, his team trailing 2-0. Not an ideal situation, but a spot where you desperately need to put up a zero and give your team a fighting chance to come back. Instead, Suarez instantly let up four runs, ultimately sealing the team’s fate in a 6-5 loss, despite a valiant rally.
Similarly to Sandoval, Suarez was at one point a sign of hope for this pitching staff. In 2021-22, he mostly started and was an above-average pitcher at an age where he could still develop into more. Now, he’s 26 and looks like a DFA candidate. It’s a sign of the times for these Angels: everyone they have high hopes for to develop into a member of Mike Trout’s supporting cast of heroes ultimately can’t live up to the hype.
