LA Angels: Which players will excel in a shortened season?

A shortened MLB season could greatly benefit these five Los Angeles Angels.

Baseball could be coming back soon, for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the rest of Major League Baseball. However, it will be drastically different from anything we’ve seen in nearly forty years.

As the representatives from the owners and the MLBPA continue to discuss the groundwork for a potential 2020 season, there is at least one thing that is evident. The format for the season will be severely shortened, with the latest proposal coming in with an estimated 82 game regular season. That would be a 24 game reduction from the shortest season in MLB history when the neighboring Dodgers took home the World Series after a 106 game regular season in 1981.

The length of such a season will undoubtedly put a ton of pressure on teams to not only be deep but be ready to go when the starting gun is sounded. There will be no room for error, no time to overcome a slow start, no late-season runs to a pennant. Teams will either get out of the gates fast and ride that momentum into a postseason berth or they will quickly fall out of contention.

Make no mistake about it, the typical marathon of an MLB season will be a sprint. Those teams that can realize their potential early stand to benefit the most.

For the Los Angeles Angels, they have a unique opportunity to get out of the gate and take advantage of the shortened season. To do so, they’ll need to rely on these players with a history of hot starts.

Angels who would excel in a shortened season: Julio Teheran

As a team that has struggled over the years to get consistent innings out of their starting pitchers, the Angels made a concerted effort to try and bolster their rotation over the winter. One such acquisition was Julio Teheran, whom Anaheim signed to a one-year, $9 million deal.

Teheran is stranger to taking the ball every fifth day, having made 30+ starts each of the last seven seasons for the Atlanta Braves. While he hasn’t been extremely consistent during that time period, the 29-year-old has been a serviceable middle-of-the-rotation arm, posting a 77-73 record with a 3.67 ERA, a 4.23 FIP, and a 7.8 K/9 ratio.

Like most pitchers, Teheran tends to trend upward as the summer rolls on and the arm loosens up a bit. However, things have also been pretty consistent for his first-half performances as well.

In 133 career starts in the first half of the season, Teheran has thrown 799.1 innings with a 3.72 ERA, a 4.41 FIP, and a 7.59 K/9 ratio. Opposing hitters have hit him to the tune of .237/.307/.399 and have just a 33.6% hard-hit rate against the right-hander in the season’s opening months.

If there is one area of concern for Teheran, it would be his walk rates. In the first half of the season, he averaged an 11.6% walk rate over each of the last two seasons, both well above his 7.9% career mark. However, he’s managed to work around that as well by limiting hard contact and inducing ground balls, to the rate of 39.3 and 40.6% in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

In terms of consistency, that is about what you would want to ask of a guy that doesn’t have a whole lot of time to get ready for the season.

Angels who would excel in a shortened season: Hansel Robles

Wouldn’t it just be appropriate if the fate of the 2020 season for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim fell on a former waiver claim?

Picked up after wearing out his welcome with the New York Mets, Hansel Robles was somewhat of an enigma when he came to the Angels. He was known for having an electric arm, but his struggles with control had limited his potential and ultimately cost him his job in New York.

After taking some baby steps forward upon being picked up by Anaheim, Robles posted a 2.97 ERA, a 3.22 FIP, and an 8.9 K/9 mark over his final 37 appearances for the Angels in 2018. That including a slight improvement in his walk rates, going down from a 4.6 BB/9 with the Mets to 3.7 with the Angels.

Whatever he did to fix things in 2018, ultimately made him the team’s closer in 2019. In 71 appearances, Robles saved 23 games with a 2.48 ERA, a 2.88 FIP, and a 9.3 K/9. His walk rate also continued to shrink, going to a career-best 2.0 per nine innings of work.

With his previous struggles in mind, and in context with this conversation, it is important to look at Robles’ first-half performances, not from a career standpoint, but from what he brought to the club a season ago.

In the opening months of 2019, Robles held opposing hitters to .229/.278/.338 batting line. His on-base against was down nearly 60 points from the year prior and down 40+ from his career norms. In that time, he worked to a 2.32 ERA, a 2.93 FIP, a 3.82 K/BB ratio, and stranded 79.4% of baserunners against him.

Angels: The best Opening Day lineups in Halos history

If there is one role that could become increasingly important during a short-season run, it could very well come down the closer. Luckily, the Angels have found a good one.