Opening Day rotation prediction for the Angels is an absolute horror show

Make no mistake, the Los Angeles Angels' current pitching quagmire is a problem of their own making. For too long, they ignored their pitching development pipeline, and even when they did take drastic steps to add more arm talent, they screwed that up, too. There is still hope that top draft pick Tyler Bremner could help very soon, but the Angels' rotation in particular looks to be in a rough spot unless they start spending real money.

If the Angels were inclined, they could do just that before the start of spring training. While most of the good rotation arms have already signed elsewhere, Framber Valdez and Zac Gallen are still available (as of the morning of February 4), along with veteran stopgaps Chris Bassitt and old friend Lucas Giolito.

You can go ahead and put Bleacher Report's Joel Reuter down as being somewhat pessimistic that that is going to come to pass. In B/R's recent predictions for every team's Opening Day rotation, he laid out an Angels rotation that doesn't include any of the remaining free agents, and it looks rough.

Angels fans need to hope that this predicted 2026 Opening Day rotation doesn't come to pass

In Reuter's piece, he has LA beginning the 2026 season with Yusei Kikuchi, Jose Soriano, Grayson Rodriguez, Reid Detmers, and Alek Manoah. Kikuchi at the top was a given, and one hopes that Soriano can take that next step and not settle for being a decent backend rotation arm. However, this rotation gets really sketchy after that.

You have Grayson Rodriguez, whom the Angels struck a very savvy trade to acquire, but who also hasn't been completely healthy in years. Detmers showed promise in 2022 and 2023, but then cratered and had to resort to pitching out of the bullpen last season with some success. Then you have Alek Manoah, who is a similar story to Rodriguez as a talent arm that can't stay healthy, but who has fewer believers than Rodriguez at this point.

If EVERYTHING goes right, the Angels' rotation will be fine. Rodriguez and Manoah being healthy and as productive as they were would be massive. However, the odds of the stars lining up for LA with this rotation are extremely slim, and it is far more likely that the Angels' starting pitching looks like a horror show yet again.