Angels Prospect Update: Caden Dana and Sam Aldegheri light up MiLB hitters

The Angels have a lot of stock in their top prospects given that they are a team that promotes them more liberally than any other organization. Caden Dana and Sam Aldegheri both received big league time last year, and Dana this season, and they are showcasing why exactly that is. Dana is with Triple-A Salt Lake and Aldegheri is with Double-A Rocket City, and both 40-man pitchers are completely dominating minor league hitters in 2025.

Angels Prospect Update: Caden Dana and Sam Aldegheri light up MiLB hitters

Dana is just 21-years-old but is showing out in the extremely hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League against grown men and close to MLB-ready prospects. In 16 innings pitched over three starts, Dana has only allowed two earned runs, just one home run, 12 hits, and has a 20:5 K:BB. That's good for a 1.13 ERA, 2.43 FIP, 1.06 WHIP, and an 11.25 K/9.

Dana just turned in his best outing of the season against Sacramento...no, not the A's. Against the Sacramento River Cats, the San Francisco Giants' Triple-A team, Dana pitched a scoreless seven innings with a 7:0 K:BB. Three of his strikeouts came via the changeup, two by way of his 94.1 MPH heater, and two with his slider. He punched out Marco Luciano twice, a priority prospect with immense power.

Baseball America loves them some Sam Aldegheri, and actually had the left-handed Italian graded as a higher Angels' prospect than George Klassen before the minor league season began. In his two starts against Knoxville with the Trash Pandas, Aldegheri has 12 strikeouts (12.46 K/9) and a 3.12 ERA. Aldegheri, like Dana, uses his wits, pitchability, and 4S/CH/SL/CB arsenal to maneuver through lineups. The 23-year-old does not have the velocity or stuff that Dana has, so he relies more on location and throwing any pitch in any count to be effective.

Both pitching prospects struggled at the major league level in their brief stints. In Dana's three innings this season against Cleveland, he allowed a home run, two earned runs, four hits, and a walk before immediately getting sent back down to Salt Lake. Both pitchers are seemingly in between the minors and majors, meaning that they are good against MiLB lineups but not quite good enough yet to consistently compete against MLB hitters.

Will we see either pitching prospect again this season? Definitely if the Angels are eliminated from contention, but they will likely want to slow-play their development if the team is miraculously vying for a playoff spot. The evaluators probably regret promoting Dana in the first place, as it ate up another MiLB option and he could not stick. Either way, the two maintain a bright future with the organization and clearly have value throughout the league.

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