Angels' 2024 season could end up being viewed as a success with AL West falling apart

Trying to find the silver lining in a season that sure to end in disappointment is difficult sometimes, especially if you're a Los Angeles Angels fan. Things in Anaheim have been tough in 2024, but there are some bright spots as well.

It would seem that, for the first time in a long time, the Angels have some skilled young players to build around. Nolan Schanuel, Zach Neto, and Logan O'Hoppe have all taken a step forward in 2024 and look to be key parts of the team's future. Some of the Halos' young pitchers like Jose Soriano and Ben Joyce have shown flashes too.

While it's hard to excited about the future when the season has been all but lost, the rest of the AL West hasn't done much this year either. Looking at the division as a whole should give the Angels fanbase a little hope.

Angels' 2024 season could actually be deemed success as AL West slowly falls apart

Look no further than the defending World Series champions. The Texas Rangers have fallen on their face this season. LA only trails Texas by three games in the loss column, and there's a strong possibility Anaheim could finish the year in third place ahead of their rivals. Texas returned nearly all of their championship roster from a year ago and could somehow finish below .500 this season.

The Seattle Mariners were the talk of Major League Baseball earlier this season. And while the Mariners have an outstanding starting staff and a chance to make the postseason, Seattle has failed to capitalize on their position. If the M's miss the playoffs this year, it has to be deemed a failure. Seattle knew what their weakness was heading into 2024, and did little to nothing to address it prior to the start of the season. Trading for Randy Arozarena brought some measure of offense to table at the trade deadline, but Seattle is still hitting just .214 since the All-Star break.

Everyone knows about the sorry state of the Oakland (soon-to-be Sacramento, and eventually Las Vegas) Athletics, but the Houston Astros are not in great shape either. Houston started out the 2024 campaign ice cold, and while the usual suspects (Jose Altuve and Yordan Alvarez) are having predictably good seasons, Justin Verlander and Alex Bregman will be a free agents this offseason. The Astros have already cut ties with their big free agent acquisition from 2022 (Jose Abreu) and unloaded the farm system in order to acquire Yusei Kikuchi.

So while things are far from rosy in Los Angeles, it's not as if any of the teams in the AL West are primed for a decade of dominance. Not only that, at 52-67, for everything they've gone through, isn't bad. And if this young group can carry some momentum the rest of the way, it might not all end up looking too terrible.

If the Angels can make some necessary changes in the offseason, pull off a few shrewd trades, and continue to build up the team's farm system, the Halos might not be as far away from contention as many assume. (And that means a lot coming from a very critical perspective.)

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