LA Angels: 3 problem areas LAA desperately needs to fix this offseason

No. 1 problem area the LA Angels desperately need to fix this offseason: The starting rotation

The LA Angels’ starting rotation was absolutely horrendous this year.

The numbers were abysmal. They had the ninth-worst ERA in baseball at 4.78, they walked the third-most batters per nine innings (3.5), and were tied for the sixth-highest WHIP in the game at 1.37.

There’s so many great options in free agency for the Angels at starting pitcher it’s not even funny.

There’s the all-time stars in Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander, Clayton Kershaw, and Zack Greinke. There’s the younger big-time players in Robbie Ray, Marcus Stroman, and Kevin Gausman. There’s even some potential bargain options in Wade Miley and Yusei Kikuchi.

We have an Ace in Shohei Ohtani, but need another one if we want to cement ourselves as contenders. Those options are out there, and we also have some other front-end options we can spend on too.

If we can lock up another Ace, sign another solid front-end guy, and re-sign Alex Cobb, our rotation is going to go from horrible to great.

Imagine the rotation looking like this:

1. Max Scherzer/Justin Verlander
2. Shohei Ohtani
3. Marcus Stroman/Kevin Gausman
4. Alex Cobb
5. Patrick Sandoval
6. Jose Suarez

There aren’t going to be many rotations beating that one at all. I’m not saying we’re going to have that exact rotation. That’s the dream, though, and we do have a solid chance to put something similar together.

This team in general has the potential to be really good next year. It all starts with the front office making the right decisions, however. That’s something we haven’t always seen from this organization.