Luis Rengifo's fall from grace is becoming a problem Angels can't ignore

On Sunday, the Angels and Astros were battling each other for the chance to win the three-game series, with the Astros eventually besting their division rivals 8-7 in a back-and-forth contest. After the game, Angels fans were looking back at their team's in-game gaffes that cost them the series win. Luis Rengifo has been an easy punching bag for fans this season, and he continued to make losing plays that day like he has all season. Suffice to say, he drew more ire of Angels fans online.

With 2 outs and a man on second base in the fifth inning of a 2-2 game, Houston's Cam Smith hit a sharp ground ball a couple steps to Rengifo's left. The third baseman kicked it into left field. That error caused a run to score from second base, which gave the Astros a 3-2 lead, plus it allowed Christian Walker to come to the plate. Guess what? The first baseman clubbed in another run to put the Astros up 4-2.

While that error obviously did not singlehandedly lose the Angels the game, Rengifo assuredly did not help get fans off his back by booting a should-be inning ending 5-3 putout.

Luis Rengifo's fall from grace is becoming a problem Angels can't ignore

Remember when Ron Washington said Luis Rengifo's best position was at the hot corner? While Rengifo has actually been an above average defensive second baseman, his defense at third base has been brutal.

Of the 407 players this season with at least 120 innings at one position in the field, Rengifo's .925 3B fielding percentage ranks 404th. Only KCR's Jonathan India at 3B, WSN's Amed Rosario at 3B and ATH's Max Muncy at 3B have a worse fielding percentage than Rengifo.

Only 9 players have more errors at one position than Rengifo's 8 at third base. Of the 12 MLB players who have 8 or more errors at one position, Rengifo has the worst fielding percentage. He is making errors in bulk and in a shorter sample size than most.

Rengifo is probably having his best offensive month here in June. However, it's still just brutal production. The bar is set so low for Rengifo and he's just barely clearing it right now. Technically, Rengifo is raising his season-long slash-line with his .284 OBP and .353 SLG so far this month (both are his highest marks in a month this year), as overall he has a .259 OBP and .293 SLG. For context, that .284 OBP ranks 8th of Angels players in June and his .353 SLG ranks 9th. Rengifo's OBP and SLG are both below the Angels' averages this month.

So, technically Rengifo is turning his season around. However, the bat and glove during this "resurgence" are still well-below average. Luckily for Rengifo, the Angels' pipeline is so bad that they do not really have an adequate replacement for their Yoán Moncada replacement.

Yes, they could bring up a guy like Chad Stevens or Carter Kieboom or give more run to Kevin Newman or Scott Kingery. None of those seem like super enticing options, but at this point it might be worth a shot just to get Rengifo out of there. He's simply cost the Angels too much and is more than just a liability at this point.

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