2 players from last year's Angels team that will be missed, and 2 who won't

Look around spring training, and there will be a number of new faces for the Angels. Some arrived recently via trade or free agency, others joined the Halos last year via the draft and deadline deals – but however they got here, the new blood will be ready to go. Rosters have limits, though, so for every new face, there’s an old one who isn’t making the trek to Arizona. Some will be missed, others…not so much. Here are two ex-Angels, one pitcher and one position player each, who fall on either side of that see-saw.  

2 players from last year's Angels team that will be missed

There’s a chance that a core part of the 2025 Angels doesn’t even know he’ll be playing for them yet. That was the case for Hunter Strickland at this time last year. He’d been seriously contemplating retirement when the Angels gave him a minor-league contract on February 16th, invited him to spring training, and assigned him to Triple-A Salt Lake for the grand total of two games before calling him up.

After that, Strickland was the most reliable go-to arm in the bullpen. He pitched in 72 games to a 3.31 ERA, even including rough months in June and August which accounted for 19 of his 27 total earned runs. Strickland is still a free agent, but barring another post-Valentine’s Day phone-call, the Angels are now banking on someone else to shoulder his workload.

Kevin Pillar’s contribution to the 2024 Angels was even more unexpected. DFA’d by the White Sox after a dismal 4 for 27 start to the season, Pillar was signed on April 30th to the unenviable job of covering the absence of Mike Trout. For the month of May, at least, he literally knocked that challenge out of the park, slashing .409/.435/.712, 5 homers, and a 1.147 OPS. Those numbers were never going to be sustainable, but he remained solid through June and July, prompting some speculation about a potential All-Star nod, before falling off significantly for the rest of the season.

His biggest contribution to the team, though, was that he was one of the few Angels who genuinely looked as if he was having fun at the ballpark. He ticked off milestones – 100 career stolen bases on May 15th, 1000 hits just four days later, 10 years of Major League service time on July 6th – providing much-needed moments of celebration in an otherwise grim season. Hopefully, Pillar is the type of guy who the Angels simply won’t need this year, but when he was, he brought a spark of enthusiasm along with him.

2 players from last year's Angels team that won't be missed

For a position player who won’t be missed in 2025, it’s incredibly tempting to go with Anthony Rendon. His latest injury could be his last in an Angels uniform, but even if it isn’t, he won’t be clogging up a roster or lineup spot for the foreseeable future. He’s still getting (handsomely) paid, though, so sticking to the rules of being an ex-Angel, it’s hard to go past Brandon Drury.   

Drury wasn’t just bad last year. He was historically bad. His -2.0 WAR and .169 average speak for themselves, but what made things so agonizing to witness was that just one season earlier, Drury had been the most valuable Angel not named Ohtani or Trout. Everything that could go wrong for Drury, did. Offense or defense, pick your statistic, it was awful. He got hurt, and yet somehow still appeared in 97 games, which was about 97 too many. Drury spent two years with the Angels, but fans should do him the courtesy of only hanging on to the memory of the first one.

Finally, a pitcher who has a real chance of returning from injury and living up to his significant potential, but won’t be doing it in an Angels’ uniform. In 2022 Patrick Sandoval seemed to be on track to becoming a rotation lynchpin. 27 starts, 151 strikeouts over 148.2 innings including one complete game shutout, and a 138 ERA+. He continued to show his mettle in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, giving up a single earned run over two starts for Team Mexico, and making the All-WBC team.

In Anaheim, however, things started to go downhill. In 2023, his ERA, strikeout and walk rates all slid in the wrong direction, and looking up from the stats page, the eye test became even more troubling. Sandoval got visibly frustrated, his command suffered, and he spoke openly about his emotional volatility. Ron Washington appeared to throw down the gauntlet in 2024, naming Sandoval the opening day starter. It didn’t go well. Sandoval gave up 5 runs (3 earned) over 1.2 innings, and the tone for his season was set. He put up 15 wildly erratic starts with a 5.08 ERA before being shut down for UCL surgery in late June.

Sandoval is now with the Red Sox, and if that change of scenery unleashes something, all power to him. But with a budding core of young, impressionable pitchers coming up, the Angels are better without worrying about his next meltdown.

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