Angels Prospects Update: Caden Dana's mysterious absence, George Klassen's struggles

The Angels' pitching staff feels relatively secure right now -- they love how they have only needed to use five starters here at the halfway point of the season, and their current eight-man bullpen has been a fantastic unit. However, baseball always loves to remind people that the sport is fickle and the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry. The Angels have struggled for a decade now to provide their stars with above average depth pieces, and if anything happens to any of their 13 arms then they will once more be hard-pressed to find an adequate replacement.

On the prospect side, the internal evaluators have shown that they are not afraid to promote their top talent no matter their age. If, for whatever reason, the Angels need to replace a starter or reliever, the top choices on paper would be Caden Dana or George Klassen. However, Dana has not pitched since June 11th and Klassen is playing major catch-up after taking a comebacker to the head in mid-May. If the Angels are pressed for pitching in the near-future, do not expect either of their top two prospects to be brought up.

Where is Caden Dana?

Now that Christian Moore will graduate from prospect status soon, Caden Dana will the Angels' bona fide no. 1 minor league guy. Well, ere is the last update we could find on him:

Dana might just start over the weekend and that will be that, but there has been no word on why he has not pitched for the Bees in over two weeks. Dana pitched three MLB innings on May 24th against Miami, then has made three starts in Triple-A since. Dana lasted just 3.2 innings (89 pitches) after getting touched up for seven runs (five earned) and two home runs in his last outing.

When the Angels optioned Dana down to Double-A last season after his first stint in MLB, it was simply to rest his arm after a long season. Dana is a 21-year-old pitcher who was selected out of high school in 2022, and the team is rightfully monitoring his workload. He is in a little over his head with Salt Lake, and has been throwing a lot of pitches in not a lot of innings.

Perhaps they just want him to take a mini-vacation to reset his physical and mental with the All-Star break looming. There is no reason to believe there is a significant injury surrounding Dana...it's just frustrating that there have been no news on him.

George Klassen is wearing it right now

Like with Dana, Klassen has been laboring through most of his outings. The soon-to-be no. 2 prospect in the Angels' pipeline has made five starts since returning from the injured list, and all have been this month. Klassen threw 53 pitches to get through 2.1 innings in his first outing back on June 1st, then he needed 68 pitches to get through 3.0 in his next. After a stellar start on June 13th against Pensacola, he needed 70 pitches to complete 2.2 innings and 50 to go 1.2 in his last two outings.

This month, Klassen is rocking a 10.34 ERA, 5.91 FIP, a 1.98 WHIP and brutal 16:12 K:BB. The nice thing when an Angels prospect struggles is that fans can be reassured that they will not succumb to the sink-or-swim organizational philosophy. Klassen needed a lot of time to marinate in the minors even before his hospitalization, given the arm injuries he's sustained in the past.

It must wear on Dana and Klassen that they will not make it to the bigs anytime soon, but their struggles right now might end up being the best thing for them. Rushing young pitchers can really cause wear and tear on their psyches. Both pitchers will age nicely, even if their results are not great right now.

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