Angels' sad season set to get worse with reminder of Ohtani's departure vs Dodgers

Aside from small glimpses here and there and a lot of confident posturing from Ron Washington, the Los Angeles Angels are having themselves yet another disappointing season. The team sits at 29-45 as of Friday and they can't win at home. LA sports an offense that ranks in the bottom third of the league, and has one of the worst pitching staffs in all of baseball in 2024. The Angels have also lost three of their last four series. In short, Angels fans are not having a good time.

Unfortunately, they are about to be greeted by a reminder of one of the greatest disappointments in franchise history not named Anthony Rendon. Yes, that means that Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers will be facing off against the Angels for a two game set.

Shohei Ohtani is set to play against Angels for the first time on Friday

Aside from the fact that the series is happening on the road where the Angels have actually been decent this season, this is going to be absolutely brutal. Not only will fans have to watch Ohtani's generational talent that the Angels let walk without much of a fight last offseason, but he is probably going to do some damage in this series.

In his first 74 games as a Dodger, Ohtani is slashing .318/.391/.615 with 21 homers and 16 stolen bases. His 184 wRC+ in June isn't exactly what Angels fans are wanting to see coming out of the opposing dugout especially when he was dishing out the punishment for them just last year.

There is a reasonable argument that Ohtani was destined to leave the Angels as the absolutely obscene $700 million deal he signed with the Dodgers is far from a lock to age well. However, the fact remains that Ohtani's time with the Angels is going to be seen for years to come as a time when the team had two of the best players on planet Earth in Ohtani and Mike Trout and did basically nothing with them.

Now, fans are going to be face-to-face with both the lost opportunity of Ohtani's tenure as well as the team's weak attempt to keep him around. Unless the Angels start playing better immediately, the series itself could get ugly, too.

More LA Angels News from Halo Hangout