3 LA Angels prospects who need to be called up before May 1

Jose Fermin (23-years-old)

For those of you who are unfamiliar with him -- here's Eric Longenhagen from FanGraphs on Jose Fermin, who he ranked as the Angels' 22nd best prospect in November, 2024:

"He has a high-effort, open-stride delivery that generates a 94-97 mph fastball with plus vertical break. More effective than his fastball is Fermin’s 84-88 mph gyro slider, which has nasty vertical movement for a pitch as hard as it is. All the effort in Fermin’s delivery makes him very wild, wild enough that he projects to middle relief rather than the late-inning role in which his stuff could conceivably play. If he can curb his walks against upper-level hitters in 2025, he’ll quickly have made a case to be on the big league roster."

Eric Longenhagen

Natera Jr. and Fermin have each thrown the same amount of innings for the Trash Pandas this season. While Natera Jr. has an otherworldly K/9, Fermin has a better strikeout to walk ratio. Natera might have 15 strikeouts to Fermin's 12, but Fermin has a 12:1 K:BB to Natera's 15: 4. He has a staggeringly low FIP of 0.18.

It sure looks like Fermin is cleaning up his walk numbers and turning himself into a big league-ready reliever. Another reliever who can turn up the velo never hurt anybody, especially if he can keep his big-time stuff in the zone.

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