LA Angels: 1 most overpaid, 1 most underwhelming, and 1 most incomprehensible player

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Overpaid, underwhelming, and incomprehensible are three adjectives that do a pretty good job of describing this Los Angeles Angels team. They're not quite the Mets or Padres, but the Halos do have the sixth-highest payroll in baseball. Despite the high payroll, they're a .500 ballclub 90 games into the season which is pretty incomprehensible considering the talent that is on this roster and where they were just a couple of weeks ago.

The Halos are losers of eight of their last nine which dropped them from eight games over .500 and right outside of a postseason spot to .500 and four games out of a playoff spot. They're now sitting in fourth place in the AL West, a spot they really shouldn't be.

Injuries and underperforming players are the main causes for this team falling apart as we approach the all-star break. Times are tough right now, and fans have lost virtually all hope for 2023. As we continue to be negative about this team, let's talk about those three adjectives when looking at certain players on the Angels.

LA Angels roster: 1 most overpaid player, Anthony Rendon

You knew this was coming, and it's an obvious answer. The highest-paid player is not Shohei Ohtani who is the best player in baseball. It's not Mike Trout who is the best Angel in franchise history and an easy first-ballot Hall of Famer. It's Anthony Rendon, a player who's been an absolute shell of himself since signing his monster deal.

Rendon makes $38.5 million annually, which is not only the most on the Angels, but is the fourth-highest in terms of AAV in all of baseball. He's behind just Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, and Aaron Judge. Impossible to believe based on what they've gotten.

Rendon was one of the best players in all of baseball at the time he signed his deal, and was the best player on a World Series-winning Nationals team. Since signing with the Angels things haven't been the same.

Anthony Rendon has played in 200 of a possible 474 games. He's played in under half of the games he could've played in. He's already made three trips to the IL this season, and it feels likely that he's about to make a fourth as he hasn't played in each of the last two games.

When Rendon has actually played, he's been a shell of himself. He's slashed .249/.359/.399 with 22 home runs and 111 RBI as an Angel. He hit 34 home runs and drove in 126 runs in his final season with Washington in 2019 in 54 fewer games.

When Rendon signed the deal it felt like one that might not age poorly, but we did expect some prime years from him. The Angels got a pretty good year in the shortened 2020 season, but have gotten virtually nothing since. It's been a disaster of a contract, one of the worst in franchise history.

LA Angels roster: 1 most underwhelming player, Tyler Anderson

Tyler Anderson signed a three-year deal to join the Angels this past offseason following a career year with the Dodgers. While nobody expected him to match or top the season he had in 2022, Angels fans expected more than this.

Through his first 15 starts of the season, Anderson had an ERA of 5.20. His strikeouts were down, walks were up, home runs were up. Even before the breakout season he was a decent innings eater, but he had just 79.2 innings pitched through those 15 starts.

Last night, Anderson made his first appearance out of the bullpen for the Angels. Now I get that it's because of the all-star break, but it's telling that they chose him as the guy who'd come out of the bullpen.

Griffin Canning started last night and Reid Detmers is the starting pitcher for tonight's game against the Dodgers. Anderson was slotted ahead of both of them on the Opening Day rotation, but has been convincingly outpitched by both Canning and Detmers.

Anderson didn't pitch well out of the bullpen either, allowing three runs in 4.1 innings of work. His ERA is at 5.25 at the all-star break.

With Anderson already 33 years old with another two years on his deal, this is shaping up to be one of the worst signings Perry Minasian has made. He's been one of, if not the most disappointing Angel in what's been a disappointing season 90 games in.

Again, we didn't expect an all-star season. Neither did the Angels, that's why he only got $13 million annually. We just didn't expect him to be among the worst starting pitchers in all of baseball which with his 5.25 ERA, he undoubtedly has been.

LA Angels roster: 1 most incomprehensible player, Patrick Sandoval

Patrick Sandoval is a pitcher I still can't quite understand. The talent is there, we've all seen it. We've even seen it this season. Yet, he still has failed to make the jump everyone expected him to.

When watching Reid Detmers this season, it's easy to see the improvements he's made. He went from a guy who would be dominant early in games but struggle in the middle and end of his starts to a guy who has learned to give his team six or seven strong each and every time out. He's gone at least six innings in each of his last four starts and has allowed two runs or fewer in each of his last five. That fifth start he was one out shy of completing six.

We've seen Detmers blossom, but Sandoval has failed to take that step. He remains as inconsistent as ever, constantly plagued by the big inning and failing to go deep in most of his starts. Even when he pitches pretty well like his last time out against the Padres, he went just five innings and threw 91 pitches.

The stuff is good, but there always seems to be something that gets in the way for Sandoval. Whether it's a poorly located pitch or a defensive miscue behind him, he unravels whenever anything goes wrong. Last season even with his inability to go deep consistently, he had an ERA below 3.00. This season it's at 4.41 and it feels like he's regressed. At 26 years old that's not supposed to happen.

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