2 Angels prospects who will make the Opening Day roster and 1 who won't

With each passing day spring training is rapidly approaching. The Angels will have some fierce competitions for open roles on the big-league roster, with the youth battling other youth while also taking on veterans with the hopes of earning jobs on the 2025 club.

This seems to be the Halos' plan. Let the youngsters prove their worth as the team looks to improve upon a dreadful 2024 campaign. Two of those youngsters stand out as players who will rise to the challenge, and one once-promising player will find himself on the outside looking in at a big league job.

Caden Dana will win the no. 5 starter job

The Angels clearly want the fifth starter role to be an open competition in spring training given the moves they've made this offseason. Even the fourth starter spot may be up for grabs given the minimal investment they've made in Kyle Hendricks, though one would imagine that they'd give a player with his track record a chance into the regular season before replacing him if he struggles.

A litany of young arms will be battling it out for the last rotation spot – with Reid Detmers, Jack Kochanowicz, José Suarez, Sam Bachman, Sam Aldegheri, George Klassen, Chase Silseth, and Caden Dana in the running.

Detmers is likely the favorite as of now and a candidate to beat his projections this season, however his struggles last season in both the majors and AAA (6.70 ERA in the bigs, 5.54 ERA in AAA) last season can't be ignored.

The pitcher most likely to jump out and grab the fifth starter spot is the youngest of the group, 21-year-old Caden Dana. Dana made his debut in September last year, indicating the Angels' confidence in the young right-hander. He only made three starts and struggled with walks, but it was a valuable experience for a pitcher who skipped from AA to the Show.

The Angels don't coddle their prospects, preferring to fast-track them through the system and take their lumps at the big-league level. That's yielded impressive results so far, mostly on the position player front. Dana got his toes wet at the end of last year after dominating AA to the tune of 2.52 ERA over 135.2 innings while averaging 9.75 K/9. He's the Angels' top prospect for a reason and certainly has the talent to make an impact.

Moreover, he's also the best fit stylistically in the rotation given the other parts the Angels have. The Halos already have two lefties penciled in with Yusei Kikuchi and Tyler Anderson filling those spots. Furthermore, the unit as a whole lacks power and strikeout prowess. Anderson and Hendricks are soft-tossers who won't crack 90 miles per hour with their fastballs. Jose Soriano has a ton of velocity, but not much swing-and-miss averaging just 7.73 K/9 last season working as a starter for the first time. Kikuchi is the only starter that has a track record of generating strikeouts, so adding a righty like Dana to the mix who has mid-90's velocity on his fastball, a sharp and devastating slider, and the ability to generate whiffs would make the rotation greater than the sum of its parts.

Don't be surprised if Caden Dana is the opening-day fifth starter, despite his youth and relative lack of experience, and if he is it would be the right choice.

Christian Moore will claim the opening-day second base job

The most glaring hole remaining on the roster resides in the infield. Depending on where you slot Luis Rengifo, it's either at second or third base. Given the in-house options to fill that hole, it makes the most sense to play Rengifo at third, meaning the second base job is up for grabs. Despite the recent signing of former All-Star Tim Anderson to a minor league deal the remaining starting spot in the infield is still wide open. Anderson, after all, was worth -1.4 fWAR in just 65 games for the Miami Marlins last season.

Enter top prospect, Christian Moore. Last year's first-round pick doesn't have much experience in pro ball, but in his 25 career pro games he's torn the cover off the ball to the tune of a .347/.400/.584 line. He's fresh off a distinguished career at the University of Tennessee, where he became both the school's single-season and career home run record holder.

Moore now stands poised to follow in the footsteps of the Halos' first-round picks from 2022 and 2023, Zach Neto and Nolan Schanuel, both of whom arrived in the big leagues shortly after being drafted. Neto played in 48 minor league games, only 4 of which came at AAA, before making his way to the majors while Schanuel's ascension was even more rapid with just 22 games of minor league experience and not a single one coming in AAA.

Both Neto and Schanuel had shorter big-league stints before being anointed starters, but given the level of Moore's competition for the second base job – Scott Kingery whose last taste of big-league action came in one game back in 2022, and the aforementioned Anderson – it becomes clear that the 22-year-old is the best option to be the opening-day starter at second. The only other potential fit at second would be Kevin Newman who has value as a utility man, but will be called upon to cover for Neto while the star shortstop recovers from surgery. As a result, he's not really in the running for the opening-day second base job.

At this point in the offseason, the free-agent pool has also dried up so it's highly unlikely any more competition is brought in leading to the eventuality that Moore will be the starting second baseman once the regular season kicks off.

Reid Detmers won't make the cut for opening day

Despite many believing Detmers will be the fifth starter to begin the year he'll really need to show out to make the team out of spring training.

The issue for Detmers is how last year played out. In March and April, he posted a 3.12 ERA over 34.2 innings, creating a buzz that he had arrived as a top-of-the-rotation starter. Then May happened and the wheels fell off as he posted a 9.49 ERA that month. In June he recorded an even worse 12.27 ERA over just 3.2 innings earning a demotion to AAA.

When he resurfaced in September the results weren't much better as he logged 24.1 innings and pitched to the tune of an 8.14 ERA. Between big league stints, he also struggled mightily in AAA.

Most concerning is that Detmers himself didn't seem to have any answers regarding what went wrong. He was reportedly surprised by his demotion and could offer up nothing more than disappointment in the decision. The most concerning part is that he didn't seem to come up with any answers while toiling in AAA, and while there were a couple of flashes of potential upon his return the results were largely ugly.

Detmers will have an uphill battle in spring training. While one can hope he's been able to take stock in the offseason to identify exactly what went wrong and has been working to rectify it, he's going to have to prove it once the season's warm-up period begins.

He'll be on a short leash and if he struggles at all, especially given the fierce competition he'll face for a role, he likely won't get the benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately for Detmers, Caden Dana likely locking down the fifth-starter role to open the season could mean another minor-league stint.

The book isn't closed on the talented lefty, and even if he begins the season in the minors, he certainly could eventually usurp one of the rotation's greybeards like Tyler Anderson or Kyle Hendricks, but he'll have to prove he's reliable first.

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