Angels baseball: Three hitters to watch in 2020

The Los Angeles Angels will be an interesting team to watch, and these three hitters are going to pivotal to their hopes in 2020.

The 2020 MLB season gets underway on Thursday night, but the Los Angeles Angels will need to wait until Friday before they get their Opening Day match-up. Once things get underway, it is going to be an all-out sprint to the finish line.

One of the beautiful things about a shortened season is that anything can happen. While the Angels are not perfect on paper, they do have just as much chance as any other team in the league.

In fact, the Angels may have something that separates them from the rest of the league.

When the Halos meet up with the Oakland Athletics on Opening Day, they will bring with them one of the most formidable lineups in baseball. Sure, most of the pieces were already in place, including the best player in the game in Mike Trout. However, the addition of Anthony Rendon and a fully healthy Shohei Ohtani makes the Angels one of the deepest collection of hitters in the game.

However, while they feature quite a bit of thump in their batting order, there are a few players that fans will want to watch closely outside of the big sticks. These three hitters may be overlooked on most daily columns, but each will have a part to play in the success of the team during the 2020 season.

Let’s take a look at three unsung Angels hitters to watch in 2020.

Angels hitters to watch in 2020: Tommy La Stella

If there is one player on the Angels that opposing teams are unlikely to overlook, it will be the guy projected to hit at the top of the team’s lineup. But how do you sleep on a guy that has already produced one season as an absolute surprise?

For Tommy La Stella, that’s kind of a loaded question.

La Stella spent the first five seasons of his MLB career in role player purgatory. After seeing 360 plate appearances as a rookie, he was unable to garner much playing time over the next for seasons. That was until the Angels gave him an opportunity to be an everyday player in 2019.

La Stella capitalized on the opportunity last season, hitting .295/.346/.486 in 321 plate appearances. However, it was the increased power stroke that caught everyone’s attention. The infielder increased his hard-hit rate by more than 10% over his career average, resulting in a career-best 16 home runs (previous high was five).

The reason teams may sleep on La Stella a bit is the fact that he was out from July 2nd through September 27th after fracturing his right tibia on a foul ball. Without the full season to see if he could sustain his production or a prior track record of that level, there will be doubts about whether he can pick up where he left off.

The Angels have David Fletcher to pop in should La Stella regress, but even his track record of production wouldn’t replace the work of the 2019 La Stella.

Angels hitters to watch in 2020: Brian Goodwin

Sometimes a team finds a player that other teams have simply overlooked. Sometimes a change of scenery is all that player needs to right the ship and really capitalize on their opportunities.

To have it happen with two players in the same season is a stroke of good luck.

Such was the case with Tommy La Stella. However, he was far from the only forgotten player to find a new home with the Angels last season. Brian Goodwin also found his way to Anaheim and it turned into a worthwhile investment for both parties.

Claimed off waivers from the Kansas City Royals at the end of spring training 2019, Goodwin had already run his course through two organizations. However, the Royals perhaps cut their ties a little too early.

After they picked him up in their own trade with the Washington Nationals, Goodwin proceeded to hit .266/.317/.415 in 27 games in KC. That wasn’t enough for Kansas City to find a home for him last season, and they cut him loose at the end of spring training.

That turned into a fortunate decision for the Angels. Goodwin proceeded to appear in 136 games and accumulated 458 plate appearances last season. In that span, he hit .262/.326/.470 with 17 home runs.

While Goodwin took a big step forward in 2020, his 109 wRC+ and 1.9 fWAR were only slightly better than replacement value. He earned his spot in the lineup, but he also left a little room for improvement.

Goodwin has two seasons of arbitration eligibility left, so he has some value to the Angels should he continue to improve. However, his seat will certainly be hot in 2020. The Angels will love to see him repeat or improve in 2020, but they also know that they have uber-prospect Jo Adell waiting in the wings.

Any slip from Goodwin in 2020 and he will be relegated to the bench, and the time of Adell will begin. That makes Brian Goodwin the most-watched player in the Angels’ lineup this season