LA Angels need to have a tough conversation about their designated hitter

The Angels lineup is showing signs of life after a brutal stretch in late April/early May, and are doing so without their main contributor. Mike Trout is slowly rehabbing his left knee injury, and nobody knows exactly when he is due back. Not only are the Angels missing Trout, but some members of the batting order are just not holding their weight. Of late, the Angels' biggest position player addition from the offseason has been wildly underwhelming.

Ron Washington described to Jeff Fletcher that benching his main DH, Jorge Soler, for their second game against the Athletics as getting him “work on what he’s trying to get done and think a little bit." In the month of May, Soler is slashing .158/.262/.228/.490 with an 18:8 K:BB. When a slugger of Soler's caliber has a lower SLG than OBP for an extended period of time, you know things are not going well. That .490 OPS is the second worst mark on the team in May, barely eclipsing Kyren Paris' .483.

LA Angels need to have a tough conversation about their designated hitter

Soler had the fourth highest OPS and led the Angels in extra base hits through their games on April 30th, which just so happened to be Trout's last game played until he went down with his knee injury. Soler was the cleanup man to Trout's 3-hole, and he just perhaps might be the biggest maleficiary from his absence in the lineup. He has seen 50% non-fastballs in May, which is tied with Luis Rengifo as the most such pitch types to an Angels hitter in that span. Soler's percentage of hitting balls 95 MPH or higher and average exit velocity of 86.7 MPH are the lowest on the team in May. Hitting balls hard is how he made his bones in this league, and this down-turn in production is alarming to say the least.

Here's hoping that Soler will receive the same boost that Taylor Ward did when Washington sat him down and allowed him to work through some kinks. Maybe the Angels will bring in a minor league pitcher for Soler to take live BP off of, too! If Wash's magic does not work with Soler, who knows what they will wind up deciding to do with the DH they owe another $13 million to next year.

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