LA Angels: Five Biggest Storylines to Watch for the 2019 Season

The LA Angels season is just a few days away from its start, and there are plenty of storylines to watch as our Halos attempt to end their five-year postseason drought this season.

While we can’t cover every LA Angels storyline in one article, here I’ll be bringing you the five narratives that will be most interesting to watch, other than the obvious wins and losses.

Brad Ausmus and the New Staff

While coaching an MLB team is obviously more behind the scenes than being an NFL head coach, there are still a lot of changes that happen when a coaching staff is replaced.

So, as long time Halo manager Mike Scioscia called it a career after last season, Brad Ausmus is now the guy in charge. I think it will be very interesting to see the differences in how he runs his ball club compared to an “old school” type such as Scioscia.

While judging his on field decisions (bullpen, platooning, etc) won’t necessarily be fair given the Angels newfound analytical approach to decision-making, there are other ways a manager effects a team.

For example, while it wasn’t Ausmus’ choice alone, the Halos began using Rapsodo technology in Spring Training, which Tyler Skaggs said he has “learned more in the past month than I have in the past four or five years”.

Apart from Ausmus, new pitching coach Doug White will have a huge impact on this club. After years with the Houston Astros, who have had two Cy Young winners in Justin Verlander and Dallas Kuechel and another ace in Gerrit Cole the past two years, White will now have to prove himself in Anaheim.

While Skaggs and Andrew Heaney are solid southpaws, they’ve yet to reach their full potential, something White will hope to change in 2019. He’ll also work closely with the relief pitchers, hoping to turn what many to be an underwhelming bullpen into an elite one in Anaheim.

The Rotation

As always for the Angels, the starting rotation will be a big, big storyline to watch in 2019. The days of waiting for Garrett Richards to be the ace the Angels drafted are now over, as that role will now fall onto two young pitchers rather than one.

Last season, Tyler Skaggs had a 2.62 through his first 19 starts of the season and was making a claim as one of the best lefty starters in the American League. A weight room incident, followed by Skaggs admittedly rushing back too soon, derailed his season from then on, finishing with an ERA north of four.

Last year, Andrew Heaney started the season injured, made his debut on April 13th, then went on to make 30 starts, leading the team in that category, while posting a 4.05 ERA.

This year, in 2019, these two are going to be counted on. For Skaggs, it’s all about staying healthy, something he took seriously over the offseason. With Heaney, the advanced stats say he should be a better pitcher with his swing and miss rates, and an improvement can be expected.

After them, the two new guys in town are Matt Harvey and Trevor Cahill, the latter of which will be starting on Opening Day. While both veterans have upside, they both come with concerns as well.

For Harvey, the potential is obvious. At his best, he could be an exceptional starting pitcher. Last year, after being traded to Cincinnati, Harvey saw some improvement. This Spring his velocity has seemed to be coming back after a downward trend in years past. He has a knack for going late into games as well, something the Angels will love after overusing their bullpen last year.

Cahill’s numbers last year were solid, especially when he pitched at home. He’ll also get to continue pitching to Jonathan Lucroy, who was his catcher with the Oakland A’s last year. While some doubt Cahill can produce the same for the Halos as he did for the A’s last year, there’s reason to believe his numbers could improve with a better coaching staff and elite defense behind him (though Oakland’s defense is no weak link).

Rounding out the rotation could be two names. First, Jaime Barria, who dazzled last year as a rookie and showed up to camp looking noticeably leaner. He will be competing for the fifth rotation spot with Felix Peña, who was solid for the Angels last season in limited action. The veteran also just struck out nine pitchers in 3.1 innings against the Dodgers in his final Spring Training start.

With Heaney starting the season on the Injured List, it will give the team more time to decide whether Peña or Barria is the better option, or maybe even make the move to use a six man rotation again in 2019.

The aforementioned Lucroy will be huge for the entire rotation and bullpen this year. Last season with the A’s, as their rotation fell apart, Lucroy was able to guide the pitchers to a season that shocked the entire MLB. The Angels’ 2019 rotation is better than the A’s was last year, and Halo fans have reason to be excited about their new catcher.

In comparison to last season, this rotation is improved. Staying healthy will obviously be huge for them, but this could be the season fans see the rotation go from a liability to a strength.

Shohei Ohtani

While we all know Shohei Ohtani won’t be throwing off a mound until 2020, there is still reason to be very excited for his sophomore campaign. On the glass half empty side, he won’t contribute to the best of his abilities as he rehabs from Tommy John.

Glass half full though? We get to see the reigning Rookie of the Year, which he won largely due to his hitting, spend an entire year at the plate hitting alongside Mike Trout, Albert Pujols and Justin Upton.

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While Ohtani will start the season on the IL, the Angels have said he’ll be ready as soon as early May. He has progressed at a solid rate throughout his rehab, and has recently began taking outdoor batting practice as well as throwing from 50 feet.

His progression will be fun to watch as we wait for his return to the mound in 2020, but the real fun will come with him at the plate.

Last season, after it was decided he’d get Tommy John surgery after the season, Ohtani absolutely smashed to end the season. In fact, after the announcement that he’d undergo the operation following the final game of the season, he slashed .320/.395/.653 with 13 home runs in 47 games.

And while some may point at how rehabbing his arm to return to pitching will be a distraction from hitting and hurt his production, that point doesn’t hold much logic. Ohtani was an exceptional hitter last season while pitching, which is a much heavier workload than rehabbing his arm.

While his timing may be off to start the year, that’s normal for any hitter who misses time. Ohtani is always standing in during teammates’ bullpen sessions so that he can keep his timing intact as much as possible.

We saw it at the end of last year but when Ohtani was able to be slotted into the lineup every day rather than stunts of 3-4 days, his production climbed. He got into a rhythm once he was able to hit every day, as all hitters do. Now, we get to see him do that for an entire season once he returns.

Mike Trout

Finally, as always, the best storyline for the Angels for the ninth consecutive year, Michael Nelson Trout. But this year, things will be different.

We all know now Trout is the highest paid athlete in the history of American sports thanks to his $426.5 million deal signed last week.

For the first time ever, Angels fans get to watch a year of Mike Trout both a.) in his prime and b.) without worrying about the best player in the MLB leaving in free agency.

And while we’ll certainly enjoy watching that as Bryce Harper hits .238 through the first three months of the season, perhaps the person who will enjoy it most will be Mike Trout.

Trout made it clear over the past week that he always wanted to be in Anaheim. He wanted this deal done so that he could just focus on playing baseball, and we love him for it. So now, without the pressure of a new deal and the constant rumors, is Mike Trout about to put up his best season yet?

Short answer, all signs lead to yes. Last season, in 140 games, he had 10.2 WAR. His career high is 10.5 in 159 games. Basically, the only thing holding Trout back from putting up a career-high is staying healthy, and the past two years included a freak injury, and spending time with his family following the death of his brother-in-law Aaron Cox.

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The real question, and what I’ll be watching for this year, is whether or not Mike Trout has the best season of all-time. Babe Ruth currently holds the record of 14.1, and Trout was on pace to beat that mark well into 2018. However, the injury and playing exceptionally instead of at an elite level around then derailed his chances.

It may seem like Mike Trout being a storyline could get boring, but watching Trout never gets boring. And for the next 12 seasons, Mike Trout will be one of the top storylines for the LA Angels and their fans.