Angels fans are praying that Hall of Fame pitcher fixes young starter's fatal flaw

Angels owner Arte Moreno did the unthinkable during the offseason -- he did not terminate a single member of the 2024 coaching staff and actually increased the player payroll for 2025. Angels general manager Perry Minasian somehow convinced both Moreno and team president John Carpino to provide the players continuity with the MLB player development department, and show them that they are willing to spend money on winning balllplayers.

Well, much like the 2024 iteration, the 2025 Angels have holes in the roster. There is a glaring, super-massive leak in the starting rotation, in fact. 40% of the starters have large sample sizes of being completely useless (Tyler Anderson and Jack Kochanowicz), 40% are definitely dependable (Yusei Kikuchi and Kyle Hendricks, oddly) and the remaining 20% has been a complete wild card (José Soriano). The Angels have used five starting pitchers this year, and just two bullpen games.

Since the beginning of June, José Soriano either gets shelled or dominates. Soriano has five occurrences of allowing five or more runs in a start (typically lasting four or fewer innings), seven of allowing between zero-and-two runs (typically going at least seven innings), and no occurrences of allowing between three-and-four runs in a start. Basically, he is an erratic pitcher who has fantastic stuff that he can not quite hone in.

Per Jeff Fletcher of The OC Register, Angels pitching coach Barry Enright is quoted as to saying this with regards to José Soriano: “I talked to Pedro [Martinez] and said 'Hey, I want you teach him how to have a little bit more bulldog.' He’s gotten that piece. The piece now is to how to peel back when you need to.”

Angels fans are praying that Hall of Fame pitcher fixes young starter's fatal flaw

It's never a great sign when a pitching coach goes outside the organization for insight on how to develop his guy, right? Especially for the Angels, who have consistently failed at bringing pitchers along for a long, long time.

Angels fans are not engaging with myriad material regarding exactly how Enright is developing his pitchers. For one reason or another, it appears not much ground is being gained at the major league level concerning the growth of young pitchers. Soriano, Reid Detmers and Brock Burke are his only real examples of tangible growth with the organization's young arms, given Jack Kochanowicz's nightmare season, Ryan Zeferjahn's brutal stretch and both José Fermin and Sam Bachman's recent demise and subsequent demotions. Hunter Strickland could perhaps be a win for Enright, he was certainly dependable while he was healthy.

One could not reasonably claim that Enright is either helping or hurting quasi-future Hall of Famer in Kenley Jansen, fellow veteran Kyle Hendricks, or the team's big-ticket free agency addition in the rather independent Yusei Kikuchi. Those three have been huge for the Angels in their first season with the ballclub.

It's not fair to criticize Enright for Ben Joyce's arm injuries, unless you want to claim he could not save him from himself -- which, in a way, is what Enright wants Martinez to do with Soriano. It's also quite unfortunate what's occurred with the $33 million man in Robert Stephenson, who makes Perry Minasian look worse-and-worse with every game he misses (hopefully he can return soon and stay available the rest of the season). Should Stephenson have stayed healthy this year, fans would not have had to watch Connor Brogdon get shelled for months.

The stats are the stats, and they show that this Angels rotation is brutal and the bullpen is not much better. Enright and fans can only close their eyes and rely on the chance that Pedro Martinez can fix José Soriano. Without the rotation's no. 2 performing at his absolute best in each and every one of his starts the rest of the season, Enright and the Angels will be sent packing.

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