Los Angeles Angels saw best laid plans go awry once again in 2018
By David Hill
The Los Angeles Angels and a sense of deja vu
One could forgive the Los Angeles Angels if they had a sense of deja vu last season.
In what has become an annual tradition, the Angels starting rotation broke down, with 16 different pitchers making a start for Los Angeles. Things got to the point where John Lamb managed to get three starts, and relievers Noe Ramirez and Jim Johnson got a start out of necessity. Andrew Heaney was the only pitcher to get 30 starts and/or pitch over 130 innings last year, a reflection of how battered the Angels rotation had been.
Despite those problems, the Angels 4.15 ERA was eighth in the AL, not great, but exactly in the middle of the pack. Had the offense been able to do their part, Los Angeles may still have been able to contend. The problem was, aside from Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, the Angels offense was generally mediocre. Even Ohtani was not able to be in the lineup every day, first as part of his designed cycle of rest as a two way star, then due to injuries that led to Tommy John surgery and will keep him off the mound in 2019.
To compound those issues, the Angels had few parts they could really sell as the season continued to slip away. Ian Kinsler was traded to the eventual champion Red Sox, and Martin Maldonado was sent to the Astros, but those were the only moves the Angels could make. Any other players that could have been on the block were either hurt, or essentially unmovable due to their contracts and lack of production.
In most cases, a team like the Los Angeles Angels should be looking at a rebuild. There is, however, one very large problem with such a strategy…