Caden Dana injury setback leaves Angels searching for answers all over again

If one day Caden Dana becomes a frontline starter for the Los Angeles Angels, epic ballads may be written about his journey. The first miracle would be him being drafted and developed by the Angels and reaching those sorts of heights, something that has been few and far between over the last several years.

In many ways, Dana is an unconventional Angels' pitching prospect. The club typically prefers college pitchers that it can fast-track, but Dana was a prep arm out of Don Bosco Prep High School in New Jersey. Los Angeles typically prefers underslot bonuses, but took a gamble by going overslot with Dana, giving him a $1,497,500 bonus to secure his commitment when he was selected in the 11th round back in 2022.

Of course, the Angels, being the Angels, couldn't resist calling Dana up quickly, reaching down to Double-A to bring him up for a September cup of coffee back in 2024. Predictably, the 20-year-old was overwhelmed and posted a 9.58 ERA in three starts and 10 1/3 innings.

Despite this, Dana opened 2025 firmly within MLB Pipeline's Top-100 list, ranking 78th overall. There were several reasons to support the ranking, including a mid 90s fastball with riding action, a wipeout whiff-inducing slider, a developing changeup, and a change of pace curveball. The impressive arsenal, combined with surprisingly advanced command for his age.

But last season, the Angels did their best to ruin Dana (and Sam Aldegheri) by calling him up to serve as a sacrificial lamb out of the bullpen, eating innings and taking a beating to save a beleaguered relief corps before promptly being banished back to Salt Lake until the very end of the season, when they called him up to actually start.

The right-hander is still only 22, but it almost feels like 2026 is a make-or-break year for him. Of course, because nothing can ever be easy for the Halos, Dana's spring training was derailed by a bout with mono before the action ever kicked off.

Caden Dana's latest IL stint has Angels fans wondering if luck will ever be on his side

After the bout with mono, it looked like Dana was back on track with a couple of strong performances down at Salt Lake. With the big league rotation mostly struggling, it was an encouraging sign and one that led folks to believe that he could potentially help sooner rather than later.

Quickly, though, he started getting hit hard. His ERA ballooned as balls started flying out of the ballpark. Then he hit another bump in the road.

Dana was pulled after just 2 1/3 innings from his May 14 start. The reason given was fatigue related to his preseason bout with mono. For someone so young, he's had more than his fair share of challenges.

The Angels will monitor him and may skip his next start. What happens beyond that depends on what they find through their evaluations. This could ultimately be nothing, but it's hard to argue that it isn't ideal.

Most teams that snag an 11th-round teenage gem would lay out a careful plan plotting each step of the way to nurture them to the big leagues. Not the Angels. Through four years, they've done everything they can to disrupt Dana's progress, and while you can't fault them for an illness like this, against the backdrop of their past malfeasance, it's hard to trust them to take the right next steps, and it calls into question their entire process with him from the moment they picked him.

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