The Angels have operated with a six-man rotation for the past several years, though that could change in 2024, as noted by Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. GM Perry Minasian told reporters recently that the size of next year’s rotation is something they’ve “discussed at length” and that they’re comfortable with a five-man rotation next season, saying that the club feels “the arms we have in-house can handle it.”
Minasian’s comments would seem to imply that the club doesn’t expect to make any external additions in terms of starting pitchers this offseason. Of course, a five-man rotation is made possible by the absence of two-way star Shohei Ohtani, though as Fletcher notes the comments aren’t necessarily indicative of the Angels’ opinion on his likelihood to re-sign in Anaheim. After all, Ohtani isn’t expected to pitch until the 2025 season after undergoing elbow surgery.
If the Angels indeed rely on their current group of starters next year, the rotation figures to be fronted by lefties Patrick Sandoval and Reid Detmers, while righty Griffin Canning and veteran southpaw Tyler Anderson look to occupy the middle of the club’s rotation. The fifth (and, potentially, sixth) starter spots seem more unclear, with Chase Silseth, Jose Suarez, Jaime Barria, and Kenny Rosenberg among those to draw starts for the club this season who could get a look next year.
More from around MLB’s West Divisions…
- The Rockies have a bit of a logjam between first base, right field, and DH headed into next year, as noted by Luke Zahlmann of the Denver Gazette, as he listed each of Kris Bryant, Charlie Blackmon, Elehuris Montero, Sean Bouchard, and Michael Toglia as each vying for playing time at the three positions. Bryant and Blackmon figure to be regular players, though that would leave just one spot for the other three, a situation that Zahlmann ties to the club’s desire to add additional starting pitching depth this offseason. Dangling a player from that mix in trade talks could allow the Rockies to complement a rotation that currently figures to enter 2024 with plenty of question marks, and Zahlmann even notes that top prospects like Zac Veen and Jordan Beck could be dangled “in the right deal.” Of course, the 103-loss Rockies would surely require a quality starter with multiple years of control if they were to part with any of their top-100 prospects in a trade for pitching this offseason.
- Astros right-hander Hector Neris was fined by MLB for his role in a benches-clearing altercation between Houston and Seattle in late September, per GM Dana Brown (as relayed by The Athletic’s Chandler Rome), though Brown added that he does not believe Neris will be suspended for the incident. Neris shouted at and charged toward Rodriguez after striking him out during last week’s 8-3 win over the Mariners, causing both benches to clear. That Neris figures to avoid a suspension is great news for the Astros, as he’s been nothing short of dominant this year. The 34-year-old righty sports a 1.71 ERA and a 3.83 FIP across 71 appearances with the club this year. Neris figures to hold a $8.5MM player option for the 2024 campaign, so long as he passes a physical after the end of the season.
“the arms we have in-house can handle it.”
I’m sure that gives Angels fans lots of comfort.
Haha My thoughts exactly. There’s no way they stick with what they have. Weirdly enough the only guy I’m kinda stoked on is Silseth. Detmers is still coming into his own. But Sandoval / canning / Suarez give me PTSD
I like Sandoval but I don’t trust his 5.1 IP 4K 3 BB 3 ER stat lines,
im just asking for one free agent starter. silseth is #5, but suarez and whomever of barria, rosenberg, jhonathan diaz are still in the org will pick up starts too. if one buy low reclamation/ cheaper veteran, maybe vince velasquez or rich hill
dave – I quoted the same sentence below before I read your comment. If they truly believe that after 2023, then it’s going to be a long 2024 watching the same result.
You’re right Mickey, there’s no way they stick to what they have, they’ll add some more. Vtadave I assume was just trying to be sarcastic. Something that we’re used to with these boards.
That said, who says the Angels aren’t relevant, even without some playoffs in the last 9 years. They all want to come and talk Angels baseball, good or bad. Hahaha
“GM Perry Minasian told reporters recently that the size of next year’s rotation is something they’ve “discussed at length” and that they’re comfortable with a five-man rotation next season, saying that the club feels “the arms we have in-house can handle it.”
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They fired the manager.
Who’d Minasian discuss it with?
“the arms we have in-house can handle it.”
Two days ago I predicted the Angels would use that very talking point. Nothing will change until the team is sold to an owner who cares about winning. It begins and ends with pitching and this staff won’t get us there.
The rotation is not this teams biggest problem.
It’s one of the few places on this team where players have actually done it recently.
Can’t say that about any other position on this team.
I agree Halo that the rotation is not as bad as other aspects of the team. But I don’t think it’s a rotation that can get us to October and beyond.
Rockies have a logjam of incompetent front office staff who refuse to adapt to the modern baseball landscape
At his news conference, Perry said signing Ohtani is the teams #1 priority and that the Angels are looking to compete next year. Ohtani signing aside, if the Angels expect to compete, I believe the pitching staff will need to add two SPs and three dependable RPs. Suarez, Barria and Rosenberg need to be long relief/depth options, not viable SP5 candidates out of Spring Training. I doubt the Angels have a prospect package to pry away a high upside controllable arm via trade, so they will be looking at SP4/SP5 types in free agency – probably with some age or injury history.
I like Detmers and Canning. Silseth and Sandoval are serviceable.
Barria will not be tendered. I wouldn’t tender Suarez either.
They need a new pitching coach. I’ve never seen a team grove so many 0-2 pitches.
The ideal (realistic) situation is Montero at first, Bryant in right and Blackmon at DH and Toglia and Bouchard traded for pitching. I prefer that because I don’t ever want to see Kris Bryant at first base again. Montero adapted defensively to the position very well after looking lost at third base. Bryant did the opposite, he looked good in right, but looks awful defensively at first.
I added realistic mainly because I think the real ideal situation would have Montero at first, Bouchard in right, and Blackmon at DH with Toglia and Bryant traded for pitching. But there is absolutely no way “Warning Track” Bryant will get traded for anything other than salary relief and since I don’t write the checks, I don’t care about salary relief.
the arms we have in-house can handle it.” sounds an awful lot like “We like where we’re currently at.” which is what he said when O’Hoppe went down. That started well but ended miserably.
Truth is that the Angels have an overload of pitchers in the minors, some that will be up for spells in 2024. In fact, they may have more quality pitching prospects than any team in MLB.
They’re not going to spend big money or trade quality position players to get a few more pitcher that may well get injured and are very probably overpaid.
the curse for the angels is the sport writers always picking them to be in the playoffs getting their fans hopes up. Every year they don’t even come close. So the best thing for angels fans is for the sport writers picking them as a bottom team so they can do the opposite and win.
I hope they have some guys in the minors that they are planning on bringing up. Sandoval is over rated, Anderson is spotty, and except for Detmers and Silseth, they others are kind of weak.
angelscamp;
Yes, they do.
They already tried a 5 man rotation this year. It lasted until May.
Or they threw Ohtani every 5th start
Skipjutz, they threw Ohtani a minimum of every 6th day. They only used a 6th SP when they didn’t have a day off in between his starts.
First of all when you reply you don’t have to use the user name at the beginning. I think we all know it’s implied you’re addressing the initial poster. So there’s no need to start this reply w Plugnplay.
Secondly the Angels and every major league team gets a day off a week. So to say they pitch him “every 6th day” as some sort of special treatment is disingenuous. Every 5 man rotation in baseball pitches about every 6 days so the Angels accomplished nothing
Skip, I wasn’t referring it to u, but anyway, you’re not right on Ohtani, and comparing it to what other teams do with a 5 man.
The Angels had a 6 man rotation up until this year. This year it was a, let’s call it a 5 and a half man rotation. They only needed a 6th SP about 15/16 times. Half of the time they had a day off in between his starts. This meaning they didn’t need a 6th SP. You got it?
Other teams with a 5 man rotation, they could pitch every 5th day sometimes, with no days off. Ohtani was straight 6, no matter what.
Really, when you look at the ages and 2022 performances of Sandoval and Detmers it was logical to assume they’d step up this year. Both got worse, especially Sandoval..
Anderson fell off an absolute cliff. I figured he’d regress to a 3/4 but he pitched like number 2.
Barria in a long relief role is fine. Coming into 2023 he’d pitched a combined 168 innings of ERA+ 123 ball. Then he also fell off a cliff this year.
The coaching here has to be atrocious. Until that’s fixed we’ll just keep having the same thing happen.
Halo, there was an article, I believe by Jeff Fletcher in the OC Register a little while back, where he mentions that the Angels changed their pitching philosophy this year to focus more on spin rate & high velocity, throw for strike outs instead of contact, due to the elimination of the shift. I believe they brought in a new bullpen coach who came from Driveline.
There was a disconnect between analytics and coaching staff.
It’s hard for me to blame the analytics people for doing what every other team does.
They did bring a driveline guy. I forget his name.
Why Neris is not being suspended is beyond my level of comprehension. He single handedly caused the whole kerfuffle. What he did has no place on the baseball field. If I wanted to watch “professional wrestling” aka “clown show”, well, I wouldn’t. Any actions that create an unsafe environment should always be punished by loss of games not a “slap on the wrist” aka “a fine”. Once again MLB coughs up the easy grounder and throws it away.
Agreed.
Seems like a certain organization is immune to suspensions, though. The last I can remember is when Marisnick trucked Lucroy and basically ended his career. And that was a whopping 2 games.
The irony about Hector Neris is that people praised Joe Kelly for basically doing the same thing.
I love the irony that Dodgers fans love Kelly for beaning a cheater yet Kelly was on the 2018 Roid Sox who also beat the Dodgers in a Series and were also caught cheating (just not to the same degree).
I guess people are fickle.
Tribalism at its best. They also loved Manny Ramirez who was a blatant cheater.
Most teams have a player or three that are less than desirable somewhere on their roster or in their past
Except my teams, of course, ha ha.
Oh, I definitely remember Manny carrying the Dodgers for a hot minute. I’m sure they loved it.
Kelly wasn’t throwing at Correa because he was cheating. He was throwing at him because the Astros admitted to the league what was going through the league.
To think Marisnick intended for that play to unfold that way is ridiculous. The Angels then proceeded to throw at his head.
And to say one is trying to hit a batter in the head is ridiculous too. 😉
Jake was outside the chalk. Lucroy was inside the chalk.
Jake changed direction, crossed over the line, and dropped his shoulder.
Lucroy stayed on his side of the line, got blasted, and was never the same again.
No punches were thrown. Nobody got hurt. Nobody got beaned. How many times do benches clear during the season? How many of those times did you feel the sanctity of the game was harmed? Yeah, it was obnoxious by Neris, but I’m sure if he played for any other team nobody would even care. Fine him, move on.
+5 points for using the word kerfuffle.
What? Kerfuffle! Some might call you a cheater, and toss the board and chips in your face if u used that word in Scrabble 😉
Even if he feels that way, why say that? Nola? Maeda? Snell? Wood?
Not saying they are the BEST options, but this makes it seem like the Angels aren’t even considering the help. Seems weird. I like Perry, but this is an odd comment to make.
They’ll sign another SP almost for certain, and have competition for the 5 spots. Some are just reading to much into each and every word.
Because it’s rebuilding time for the Angels. Time to tear it down and hope for 2026/2027 to compete again.
Fj, wrong and wrong. There’s no rebuild in Arte’s tenure or future, not happening. He’ll spend and sign just enough players to keep the interest, and put butts in the seats.
That said, if u don’t resign Ohtani.They should do a 1 year remodel, not a rebuild , and let the kids play on both sides of the ball. Then assess what u have before diving into the free agent market hard after next year, that is if your current young players turn out like they look like.
Hints, there 3 young studs all I believe with still rookie status.
Hints, why there minor League status ranks last.
Except for a slightly above average BB rate, Barria sucks at everything. Except for a slightly above average hard contact rate, Canning excels at everything.
Yeah, I to think Barria is toast. Even in his decent 2022 year his peripherals stunk. They might give Suarez 1 more shot next year at maybe a swing man, just depends on if they think his terrible year was more injury related. We’ll see.
Suarez has a high swinging strike rate. Everything else stunk.
He’s likely going to make half what Barria makes, so maybe.
Man. It’s been a while, but thinking back to the days of John Lackey, Joe Saunders, Ervin Santana, Jered Weaver… the angels had pitching. Ever since Scioscia departed, the angels have been a laughing stock. (Not to say Scioscia wasn’t part of the problem). Good times.
There is no reason to have two commas in the parenthetical ‘and, potentially, sixth.’ Not even one is needed.
If Scioscia had a Lackey/Escobar/Weaver/Santana/Saunders type rotation after 2009, the Angels would’ve easily continued their run. If they had that now, we’d be comparing Trout and Ohtani’s career postseason numbers. That’s what they’ve needed this entire time. They finally have a young rotation with potential, but it’s still not the same as those rotations from 15 years ago. They need a few veterans.
I’ve said it for a while that the six man rotation may be one of their biggest problems. Who has a solid 6? Most teams don’t even have a solid 4. I’ve wondered for a while how many games they might have won over the last 2 seasons if they didn’t expose their extra starters and long relievers to starting because of the supposed need for a 6 man rotation. Joel Sherman pointed this out on MLB Network. Having Ohtani and a 6 man leaves you with one less reliever. If you have that sixth starter in the bullpen, he’s likely more effective because he can worry about an inning or two instead of 5-7. Kinda like when Mike Scioscia used Kelvim Escobar out of the bullpen when he returned from an injury in 2005.