Ben Rowen will be effective in new role with LA Angels

It was recently discovered that former LA Angels relief pitcher, Ben Rowen, would get a front office role upon retiring in 2021.

The Athletic's Sam Blum had caught up with Rowen in an article about his position.

There seems to be optimism surrounding the role as this is clearly a move to better relate statistical data with the players. While Rowen didn't put up the best numbers with the club, he seemed to be an effective relief pitcher just based on his stuff and incorporating statistical analysis with his pitches.

Ben Rowen should be working in translation with the LA Angels.

"I think it's smart as long as the role is defined," said Blum when discussing the role that Ben Rowen would have with the LA Angels. "And I think it's smart considering Ben's background and ability to communicate with pitchers."

It's clear that Angels general manager Perry Minasian is making more of an active effort to incorporate statistics meaningfully, and being able to communicate them with players is an important aspect of that. Blum mentioned that it wasn't known if anyone had filled that role previously, but having someone Rowen's caliber of understanding statistics will certainly have an effect on the pitching staff.

In addition to his understanding of statistics, Rowen was also recently featured in a YouTube video from Jolly Olive, who broke down the best pitchers based on expected run value.

Ben Rowen was a diamond in the rough for the LA Angels.

Based on the video, one of the main reasons why Ben Rowen was one of the highest-valued pitchers based on expected run value was due to the fact that his pitches generated a lot of movement for the LA Angels. Figuring out why his pitches generated so much movement could be a key factor in development with other pitchers in the big leagues. This could be a reason why Perry Minasian made an effort to improve the defense in the middle infield as Rowen was mostly a ground ball pitcher.

The Angels could be hopeful that Rowen is able to get other pitchers in the system to create similar movement to his pitches, but with more velocity.

They also still have a glaring hole to fill at shortstop that could definitely benefit pitchers should they acquire the right defensive player. One player that could fill up that spot just based on defensive metrics could be Carlos Correa, who led the league in DWAR with 2.9 at that position. Either way, only time will tell if Rowen's hiring is actually effective for the team.