LA Angels: Backend Starters need to show improvement

The recent addition in Julio Teheran certainly adds depth to the LA Angels struggling starting rotation from last year, with the names of Jaime Barria, Patrick Sandoval, Dillon Peters, Griffin Canning,  and Felix Pena.

Anything can happen during the regular season as LA Angels manager Joe Maddon may mix up the rotation depending on injuries and performance, but all these starters will be competing for rotation spots.

All of the starters mentioned have shown success at some point in their careers, especially in the minor leagues as there are young starters in Canning, Barria, and Sandoval are all 23 years old. Having a young rotation like that could call for the term, growing pains, where they try to discover themselves as pitchers and making the necessary adjustments in each of their starts.

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While some of these starters may seem time in the bullpen one that needs to be consistently in the rotation is Barria. He had posted some decent numbers in the past, however, his best year was 2017 where he went 141.2  innings and posted a 2.80 ERA.

With Mickey Callaway being their new pitching coach, Barria could certainly improve over his bad season in 2019 where he only went 82.2 innings and posting a high 6.42 ERA and be able to make the next step in being a consistently good starter.

Another player that should really compete for a spot in that rotation is Dillon Peters, who has also shown he is capable of starting based on his minor league numbers. His best year came in 2016 where he went 128.2 innings while posting a 2.38 ERA, of course things definitely change and the competition is more fierce at the Major League level.

But Peters has shown some small cases at the big league level that he belongs there. He is another pitcher that will benefit from Callaway as his job seems like a big task in trying to get all these starters to improve and take the next step.

The last pitcher that the Angels should strongly consider for the starting rotation is Patrick Sandoval, who was acquired from the Astros for Martin Maldonado. While his past numbers have shown he is probably not the source for length in games, as he only has one season where he went over 100 innings pitched back in 2018. His ERA was also the lowest coming in at 2.06 which shows he can become a quality starter if he recalls what worked for him during that season.

The Angels certainly have questions to still answer in the rotation as the offseason isn’t finished yet. But until they acquire more starting pitching, the young pitchers they currently have still can find success at the Major League level and be successful in Anaheim.