Which Angels received passing or failing grades in 2020?

With the Angels missing the postseason for the 6th  straight season, we will look at how each individual player did at their respected position.

The Los Angeles Angels finished off another disappointing season in which they failed to reach the postseason. Despite a high profile addition during the offseason and a 50/50 chance of making the playoffs, a slow start and consistent issues on the mound send the Halos home in October once again.

In Angels manager Joe Maddon’s first season, the Angels offense finished 13th in batting average, 9th in OBP, and 12th in OPS among the rest of the American League, right in the middle of the pack. Pitching wise, the Angels finished towards the bottom in mostly all categories, they finished 25th in ERA, 3rd in runs given up, and 17th in opponents batting average against. The clear problem was in the pitching department as the stats have shown and the grades will most certainly reflect that.

This season saw the Angels become sellers and ship off what value they had in players on one-year deals and Angels former general manager, Billy Eppler, reloaded the Angels for the future. It was a season that saw the best player in baseball do continue to do what he does best and a rookie that had an incredible bounce-back month in September. It is also a season that saw woes for the team that already had pitching concerns and poorly addressed them this season.

With that in mind, let’s hand out some player grades for 2020:

Angels: 2020 Season Grades – Designated Hitter

Shohei Ohtani: D-

Part of me wanted to leave Shohei Ohtani with an incomplete grade. His struggles on the mound were troubling to behold and his long-term future on the bump is in question. Over two starts, he recorded just five total outs out of the 16 batters faced. While he was returning to the mound for the first time since 2018, his inability to locate pitches in the strike-zone ultimately hurt him, first figuratively and then literally.

While the pitching was an adventure,  Ohtani’s two-way status gives the Angels some flexibility and hope to get something out of him on the offensive side of the ball as well. Unfortunately, the struggles extended to his bat as well, as he looked lost at times and ultimately sat during a five-day stretch against lefties. Ultimately, he hit just .190/.291/.366 with seven home runs and 24 RBI on the season.

One way or the other, Ohtani was a big disappointment for the Angels this season.

Angels: 2020 Season Grades – Infielders

Jared Walsh: B+

Walsh started off the 2020 season struggling as he had to be sent down to the alternative site to try and work on some things and get his bat right. Then, during the month of September, he found his way back into the Angels lineup and started producing huge numbers for the team. He batted a slash line of .337/.368/.744 in the month of September as well as a tOPS+ of 129 which is 29 points higher than league average. He’ll look to carry that kind of success into next season and continue to compete alongside Albert Pujols for first base and try to prove that the short month of September wasn’t a fluke.

David Fletcher: A

Fan-favorite David Fletcher carried his great success from last season as he produced even greater numbers this season than in 2019 even if it was a short season. He had a line of .319/.376/.425 with an OPS+ of 121, while these impressive numbers could be seen as a small sample size, everything from this season is a small sample size given the 60 game schedule. There is no doubt that David Fletcher is one of the best hitters for the Angels and doesn’t seem to give up an at-bat as he took the count full in 25 plate appearances this season. His versatility is another reason why he is so special because he can play multiple positions at an average or above-average defense, that kind of production at the plate and adequate fielding percentage at multiple positions made him a key player in the Angels roster.

Anthony Rendon: A-

The first season of one of the biggest acquisitions in Angels franchise history in Anthony Rendon had a slow start to the season but started picking it up later into the season. He started horribly in the month of July getting used to his new team, Rendon hit .167/.474/.417 with an OPS+ of 97 and didn’t contribute too much. However, something changed for him within a short time as in August he ended up hitting .306/.429/.510 with an OPS+ of 105 and he seemed to be his old self again. Despite where the Angels finished, Rendon did all he could and proved why he is one of the top third basemen in the game and made his first year as an Angel a must-watch. He’ll get a proper welcome to Anaheim once fans are allowed back in stadiums and they can cheer on their All-Star third basemen.

Albert Pujols: D+

This year was another disappointing year in terms of production from one of the greatest hitters of all time, and fans are just wondering how much longer will they have to see Pujols in the lineup. The Angels will take any production from Pujols as just a bonus as he’s shown that age has caught up to him physically and that he has no show of what he had when he was with the Cardinals. He produced a slash line of .224/.270/.395 with six home runs and 25 RBI’s in this short 2020 season. The only reason why Pujols didn’t fail is because of his knowledge of the game itself which is irreplaceable. No matter what his future looks like as a player, he’s still one of the most respected players in the game and can teach valuable lessons to younger generations in the game.

Tommy La Stella: B+

La Stella was a great hitter at the plate for the Angels and a fan favorite among many due to his consistency at the plate and grit. With the Angels he hit for a .273 batting average with 4 home runs and 14 RBIs before he was eventually traded to the Oakland Athletics for Franklin Barreto. He will be a free agent during the offseason, however, the Angels might not bring him back due to the fact that they traded him and should be focusing their resources on pitching. For two season he with the Angels, he became a surprising power hitter and an All-Star back in 2019. Whoever he ends up signing with, they are getting a consistent hitter and if the power comes back in a full season, he’ll be dangerous at the plate.

Andrelton Simmons: A

Simmons proves once again that he’s still one of the best shortstops in the game, flashing amazing plays at the position and makes it look easy while doing it. In his free-agent year with the Angels, he bounced back in terms of production at the plate with a slash line of .297/.346/.356 which was a significant improvement from what he did last season. No matter how his bat plays, his skills are mostly with the glove as he makes almost impossible plays look like he does it with a flick of the wrist and teams should be aggressive in wanting him. He skipped the last series with the Angels as he opted out of the season which led to speculation about him returning with the Angels. His asking price is expected to be high and the Angels may not have met up to his terms and decided to tell him that he won’t be coming back, again this is purely speculation and his career with the Angels will be up in the air until he makes a decision.

Angels: 2020 Season Grades – Outfielders

Justin Upton: C-

Upton was traded to the Angels in the hopes of him becoming their everyday starting left fielder, he has done that, however, not to the performance that the Angels should be getting. He’s also been injury prone since coming to the Angels, he’s been placed on the injured list multiple times since coming to Anaheim, dealing with something called Turf toe back in 2018 which caused him to miss the start of the season, and also dealt with patellar tendinitis in 2019 which forced him to miss the latter part of the season. With that, his numbers haven’t been too impressive the last couple of seasons, and 2020 wasn’t too spectacular either as his slash line was .204/.289/.422 with an OPS+ of 93 in the shortened season. He still has two more years on his contract, but with the Angels having Brandon Marsh still in their system and other outfielders that are still developing, it will be interesting on what the Angels do after his two years are up.

Mike Trout: A+

Even in a shortened year and a child within that same season, Trout continued to dominate and showed why his name still needs to be there in terms of greatest of all time. His slash line was an impressive .281/.390/.603 with an outstanding OPS+ of 168. He’s definitely molded into one of the leaders in the clubhouse and a mentor to some of the younger players that are on the team. The term “dad strength” definitely applied to him in the month of August as when he returned from witnessing the birth of his child, he hit 11 home runs with 28 RBIs within 99 at-bats. If there’s one weakness, it’s not even on his skill level, it’s on marketing and getting his name more known, which can only happen when the Angels eventually get to the postseason again.

Brian Goodwin: C+

Goodwin was a sneaky pickup by former Angels general manager Billy Eppler, as he was mostly a filler in the Angels outfield until one of the Angels top prospects was ready for a call-up. But in his time with the Angels this season, he hit to a .242 batting average with four home runs and 17 RBIs until he was traded to the Cincinnati Reds for their minor league pitcher of the year. He was a player that consistently wanted to help the team in any way possible. Unfortunately, the Angels turned into sellers and he was used to getting some pitching help for the team in the future.

Jo Adell: D-

Adell came into this year as the Angels’ best prospect and had high expectations from the team and fans once he got called up. Unfortunately, his first season in an Angels uniform didn’t impress too much and he also had a couple of embarrassing plays that involved balls bouncing out of his glove that resulted in home runs. His slash line was .161/.212/.266 and while that wasn’t good, this was his first season in the big leagues, and on top of that, there were no fans there that could appreciate his long-awaited call-up. There are a lot of people that remember that Trout struggled when he first got to the big leagues and was able to make the adjustments needed to be the player he is today. Expect Adell to do the same thing, especially if we get a full season of play for him to get a chance to make adjustments during the season.

Angels: 2020 Season Grades – Starting Pitchers

Andrew Heaney: C+

Heaney came into the 2020 season being the front end starter for the Angels once again and pitched to a mediocre performance. He had an ERA of 4.46 in 66.2 innings pitched with 70 strikeouts, which isn’t too good considering he is supposed to be looked at as the ace of the rotation. This is Heaney’s sixth season with the team, and he hasn’t really taken that next step that the Angels have been hoping for. He’s performed more like a 3 or 4th spot in the rotation type starter, which says something about the Angels starting staff. Even with the addition of pitching coach Mickey Callaway, Heaney still performed to average performance over the 2020 season which should make fans wonder if a new pitching coach did anything for him.

Dylan Bundy: A

Bundy was a nice surprise pickup for the Angels as they traded for him with the Baltimore Orioles. He pitched to a superb 3.29 ERA in 65.2 innings pitched with 72 strikeouts which would put him in talks for the AL Cy Young award if it wasn’t for even more impressive pitching coming from other players like Shane Bieber of the Indians and Gerrit Cole of the Yankees. Angels general manager Billy Eppler was known for taking low-risk high reward players and seeing if one of these types of moves will someday pay off, well it looks like Bundy did. He quickly turned into the true ace of the staff for not only his performance but the competitiveness he shows on the mound. Something clicked with Bundy since he came to the Angels, even in Spring Training before it shut down, Bundy was looking impressive and fans were wondering if he could keep it up when the season restarted. The Angels are looking for that continued success from Bundy next season as he still has one more year left and the team didn’t pull the trigger on trading him, even though rumors were high on him.

Griffin Canning: C+

Canning was entering his sophomore season with the Angels, looking to prove he is the real deal after a lackluster performance in 2019. His numbers were definitely better than last year as he had an ERA  of 3.99 with 56 strikeouts in 56.1 innings pitched. Angels fans are still hoping that he can start adjusting to pitching in the Major Leagues as he was the top pitching prospect for the Angels when he was called up in 2019. He’s shown flashes of success in certain games this season, however, he hasn’t been able to fully put things together in order to help his cause overall. One thing to notice is that he starts to struggle when he falls behind in the count to batters as in 2020 batters were hitting to a .471 batting average, .471 OBP, and 1.000 SLG when behind to hitters 1-0. Those numbers are even worse when he’s behind 3-1 in the count, which suggests that he needs to come up with some different type of approach when it comes to falling behind to a hitter in the count.

Patrick Sandoval: D

This was also Sandoval’s second year in the big leagues and it didn’t fair too kindly to him as well. He pitched to a 5.65 ERA with only 33 strikeouts in 36.2 innings pitched, his stuff looks good when he’s on the mound as he as a smooth and clean delivery, however, for whatever reason it doesn’t translate to success. One thing to keep in mind is his age. He’s only 23 with only two partial seasons under his belt. He still has plenty of time to figure things out on his own, however, it will be up to the Angels if they can afford to sit on their hands and wait for him to develop. Unless he shows improvement next season, the Angels probably won’t waste too much time and either uses him more in a bullpen role (which is something I don’t suggest) or send him down to work on getting things until he gets it right.

Jaime Barria: B-

Barria is in his third season with the Angels and has shown flashes of quality pitching just like Griffin Canning, however, just like him, it’s still not enough to trust in him consistently. In the 2020 season, Barria had a 3.62 ERA with 27 strikeouts in 7 games with a total of 32.1 innings pitched. He started in 5 games and came on in relief in 2 which is something that the Angels need to figure out with him next season, whether they want him to stay as a starter or go to the bullpen. Same as Sandoval, he won’t be getting enough work in the bullpen and what’s worse for Barria is that he keeps switching roles that don’t allow him to focus on one area. He might say different about starting and relieving, but having that pitcher not fully know their role on the team may hurt his confidence and won’t give him the time to fully develop.

Julio Teheran: F

Teheran didn’t pitch too much in an Angels uniform, one of the reasons why is because he was battling his positive case with COVID-19, and while that isn’t to blame for his performance, it did get him a late start to the season. He was only able to start 9 games for the Angels in which he had a horrible 10.05 ERA in only 31.1 innings pitched, for whatever reason Teheran couldn’t figure it out with the Angels and didn’t help his cause as he was only on a one year contract. This opportunity with the Angels was to help him get back to form and help him on the free-agent market in the offseason, instead, he will now look to see if another team wants to take another shot on him.

Angels: 2020 Season Grades – Relievers

Hansel Robles: F

Robles came into the 2020 season as the number one option for the closer role in the Angels bullpen, however, this season was a completely different Hansel Robles than what fans were used to seeing. His ERA skyrocketed to a 10.26 with only 16.2 innings of work and was eventually removed from the closer role by Angels manager Joe Maddon. It was reported that a reduction in velocity was one of the reasons for his struggles due to the lack of there being no fans in the ballpark. He wasn’t able to be himself coming into the 9th inning with a bunch of screaming fans watching his undertaker entrance and helping him get pumped to close out the game. With Robles being arbitration-eligible in the offseason, the Angels will have to determine his worth and see if he can get back to form next season.

Noe Ramirez: B

Ramirez came into a few stressful situations out of the Angels bullpen in the 2020 season, he accomplished his job to the best of his abilities. He finished with an ERA of exactly 3.00 in 21 innings pitched and only gave up 15 hits. He could be seen as a bright spot for the Angels next season with hopefully a full schedule and more opportunities for him to prove himself. He was definitely a small bright spot in the Angels 2020 season based on his stats, even if fans saw him coming into stressful situations with runners on base.

Felix Pena: B+

Pena was another bright spot for the Angels in the 2020 season, as he started becoming the go-to guy for Joe Maddon later on in the season. He finished with a 4.05 ERA  in 26.2 innings pitched, although that doesn’t do him justice as he looked really strong in the month of August with a 2.63 ERA  in that month with 15 strikeouts and held opposing batters to a .216 batting average. If Pena could repeat that type of success as he did in August, then he’ll be another key piece in the Angels bullpen and play a huge role for Joe Maddon.

Mike Mayers: A

The man that pronounces his name like the iconic Halloween character, pitches like he kills the opponents bats and that happened in 2020. He finished with an ERA of 2.10 and was a nice pickup for the Angels as Maddon went to him consistently this season as he was used in nearly half the season. He won’t be a free agent until 2024, so the Angels could definitely use him as another key piece in the surprisingly strong bullpen they had this season. Fans could see him being used as a strong setup man to get the team to either the 8th inning or even the 9th to help get to the closer.

Ty Buttrey: C

Buttrey was named the closer after the struggles of Hansel Robles, however, Buttrey also struggled this season and his lack of success should be questioned next season if he remains the closer. He finished with a high 5.81 ERA in 26.1 innings, giving up 28 hits and had 18 strikeouts. He did have a strong month in August which is the reason why his grade didn’t drop any lower than it did. In August, he had an ERA of 1.84 in 14.2 innings pitched with 8 strikeouts, but then something changed in the months of September/October in which his ERA was an 11.88, giving up 12 hits with 9 strikeouts.

Review

The Angels were a team that failed to catch fire on all cylinders in this short 60 game season and with a slow start to the season, it made them sellers at the trade deadline. The team had six As, five Bs, seven Cs, four Ds, and two Fs, with one of those As being a free agent.

It’s understandable to think they should’ve had more success based on the grades of their players, but nobody got hot at the same time and clearly hurt the team. The least appealing grades came from their starting rotation which will need improvement if the Angels want to succeed going forward.

Should the Angels get the necessary pitching help they desperately need, then look for the Angels to be contenders in a full 2021 season. Alas, that will always be the question and we’ll have to see what a new general manager can do with the rotation.