Los Angeles Angels: biggest needs and rotation upgrade options
By Ben Fadden
The Los Angeles Angels are setting their sights on contention in 2020, but what area is the most important to improve on in order to contend?
The Los Angeles Angels are going to be one of the most interesting teams this winter. They have a lot of holes on the major league club that include the rotation, the bullpen, and the lineup but they have brought in Joe Maddon to be the team’s new manager, which signals to the fan base that they will spend this winter and be in contention next season.
As I said, the Angels do need help in their starting lineup. Other than Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, Justin Upton, and Tommy La Stella, there isn’t a lot of depth there.
Albert Pujols is nearly 40 and you can’t count on him producing at a high enough level to be an impact offensive player for the entirety of the season, and the team lost Kole Calhoun to free agency.
But the Angels are not going to get into contention without a stable starting rotation. If you look at teams that were in the postseason this year regardless of what league they all have a rotation that could win them a couple of games in a series.
The Washington Nationals had Stephen Strasburg, Max Scherzer, and Patrick Corbin. Houston had Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander. The Cardinals had Jack Flaherty and Miles Mikolas.
I could go on and on, but the point is the Los Angeles Angels just don’t have that right now, so the rotation is the biggest need for Billy Eppler to fill this offseason.
Last season there were no starting pitchers who had an ERA better than 4.29 and that was Tyler Skaggs‘ and he is sadly not with us any longer.
Eppler has expressed confidence in guys like Andrew Heaney and Griffin Canning, but the rotation needs at least one and probably two frontline type starters to lead a young rotation in 2020.