Angels roster projections 2.0: Who makes the Opening Day roster?

The Los Angeles Angels have played a full week of games. It's so nice to have baseball back, and Opening Day really can't come soon enough. With a week of games under our belt, it's time to revisit our Opening Day roster projections.

A lot has happened since our first predictions were released. The Angels have made a signing, and we've seen how players have performed early on in the spring.

There will definitely be some surprises on the actual Opening Day roster, and injuries (fingers crossed) are impossible to predict. Let's see what our latest Los Angeles Angels Opening Day roster predictions look like.

Angels 2023 Opening Day roster predictions: Two-way players (1)

Shohei Ohtani

Shohei Ohtani is headed to the WBC. It'll be fun to watch him on the big stage. He swung the bat well and showed that the pitch clock will be no bother in the regular season. He looks ready to capture his second AL MVP award.

Angels 2023 Opening Day roster predictions: Starting pitchers (5+Ohtani)

Tyler Anderson, Patrick Sandoval, Reid Detmers, Jose Suarez, Tucker Davidson

Nothing has changed for the top five in this rotation, and nothing will change barring injury (again, fingers crossed). Shohei Ohtani is the ace, Tyler Anderson looked good in his debut, Sandoval and Detmers are both coming on strong, and Suarez will hopefully get off to a good start in 2023.

The sixth spot is where things change from the first edition of the predictions. I have Tucker Davidson making the roster over Griffin Canning.

Canning hasn't pitched yet, but is scheduled to go on Monday. It'll be his first start since July of 2021, and a huge start for him to show the Angels where he is physically.

I believe Canning will have a long way to go to build up to a starter's workload, and the Angels (should) build him up slowly. With that in mind, Canning being ready in a little bit over three weeks doesn't seem possible.

If Canning isn't ready, I believe the sixth starter spot is a competition between three different pitchers: Jaime Barria, Chase Silseth, and Tucker Davidson. As you can see, the answer I came up with was Davidson.

Neither of the three pitchers listed have excelled in their outings. Silseth allowed two runs in two innings, Barria allowed four runs in two innings, and Davidson, after a good first start, allowed two runs in two innings in his second start.

The reason I went with Davidson is strictly because he's looked the best of the three, and he's out of options. Unless someone sticks out, it's hard to pick any of the others for this spot over Davidson for that reason alone. Silseth wasn't effective in his brief stints with the Angels last season. Barria excelled as a reliever. It's what makes sense unless Canning comes back strong or someone else excells.