Is it time for the Angels to be concerned about Yusei Kikuchi's slow start?

The season is young. During the first week of April, players are typically still knocking off the rust from a long winter. Sometimes, even for a veteran, it takes a little while to settle into the groove. For the Angels' big-ticket free-agent acquisition, Yusei Kikuchi, things have not yet gone as the team hoped.

While many of the top free-agent starting pitchers on the market lingered, the Angels wasted no time in targeting Kikuchi, signing him to a three-year $63 million deal back in November. The goal was clear: the Japanese-born lefty was to anchor a rotation that had gone for years without a true ace.

2024 was a tale of two seasons for Kikuchi; pre-trade deadline, he logged 115.2 innings and posted a 4.75 ERA with the Toronto Blue Jays, while post-trade deadline, he posted a 2.70 ERA in 60 innings as a member of the Houston Astros.

A large part of his turnaround in Houston was attributed to him adjusting his pitch mix, and the Angels are banking on that version of Kikuchi being the one that now takes the mound in Anaheim.

While you can see the logic, the move to sign Kikuchi was not without risk. The 33-year-old came into 2025 with a career 4.57 ERA over his six-year career. While a sub-3 ERA finish to the 2024 season was encouraging, it didn't erase the fact that he's had three seasons with an ERA over 5.00 versus just one with an ERA under 4.00.

Through two starts, Kikuchi's kept the same pitch mix that made him successful in Houston, yet the results have not been the same

Kikuchi has never been a pitcher known for his command. His pitches feature a ton of movement, which, when he's on, serve to keep hitters off-balance, and when he's not, can result in walks and mistakes being launched a long way.

Through two starts, it's been more of the latter for the southpaw. His swinging strike rate has dropped from 12.8% last year to 9.9% in 2025. That drop is largely because batters are chasing his pitches outside of the zone less, swinging at such offerings 21.3% of the time versus 28.5% last season.

The veteran has also seen his fastball look a bit more sluggish. Per Statcast, his average fastball velocity in 2024 was 95.5 miles per hour and has now dropped over one mile per hours down to 94.4 miles per hour this year.

As a result, Kikuchi's strikeouts are down, currently sitting at 8.25 K/9 on the year against a 10.55 mark from last season. His walks are up, with his BB% rising from 6% to 10.2%. Perhaps most concerningly, he's surrendering long balls at an alarming rate of 2.25 HR/9 up from last year's mark of 1.28.

With the bullpen running on fumes in the series finale against the Cardinals, the Angels were counting on their ace to give them a dominant performance. Instead, they got six innings of three-run ball that saw Kikuchi walk five batters and consistently work in and out of jams.

Ron Washington ultimately had to call on his depleted pen, and the overworked relievers, coming off back-to-back extra-inning games, turned a slim lead into a lopsided loss. A true ace takes the hill and puts the team on his back in a situation like this, whereas Kikuchi did just enough not to be the prime scapegoat.

It's still early in the season, but while Kikuchi has carried over his new pitch mix, his decreased velocity and inability to generate swings-and-misses are concerning. Perhaps he just needs time to build his arm back up, or perhaps he's not the ace Angels fans were promised.

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