LA Angels Opening Day roster projection 2.0: Angels stand pat ahead of 2024 season

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The start of the regular season is around three weeks away and the Los Angeles Angels have some work to do to get their roster set heading into the season. Some of the indecision is being dictated by injuries, as both Michael Stefanic and Anthony Rendon (of course Rendon is) are dinged up at the moment, but there are some fundamental decisions outside of those guys that have to be made.

Will the Angels make a late splash for a starting pitcher? How many outfielders will the Angels carry and which ones will they be? All of these questions have yet to be determined, but that hasn't stopped anyone from trying to project the Angels' Opening Day roster before and it isn't going to stop us now.

Here is our latest projection of the Angels' 2024 Opening Day roster.

LA Angels 2024 Opening Day roster projection 2.0:

Angels Opening Day Projected Starting Rotation

Patrick Sandoval
Tyler Anderson
Reid Detmers
Griffin Canning
Chase Silseth

Our first pass at projecting the Angels' rotation had LA snagging Michael Lorenzen off the free agent market. However, with a number of quality arms available late in free agency this year and LA not biting AT ALL despite the obvious need, the safer bet now seems to be that the Angels will stick with their internal candidates.

That means Griffin Canning, who has looked pretty good this spring, moves back into our rotation and out of the bullpen. As one can plainly see, this is a very mediocre group unless guys like Detmers and Silseth can take some big steps forward in 2024. Now that we have drawn the line in the sand that the Angels won't add a free agent pitcher, you can fully expect them to do just that out of spite. You are welcome.

Angels Opening Day Projected Bullpen

Carlos Estevez
Robert Stephenson
Jose Suarez
Ben Joyce
Jose Soriano
Matt Moore
Jose Cisnero
Adam Cimber

With Griffin Canning's move to the rotation, we needed another arm to fill out the bullpen. Adam Cimber gets the nod for now, as he has looked very decent in spring training thus far and is at least familiar to the Angels. However, he was pretty bad last year and Guillermo Zuniga has had a strong camp, so that is definitely a name to keep an eye on over the next week or two.

The rest of our projected bullpen remains the same, with Ben Joyce probably being the most surprising name. He still can get in big trouble with his command, but the Angels are putting a lot of time this spring into helping him slow the game down and execute his tremendous stuff. We are betting that investment is happening because they want him around from the jump in 2024.

Angels Opening Day Projected Infield

Logan O'Hoppe, Matt Thaiss - C
Nolan Schanuel - 1B
Luis Rengifo - 2B
Zach Neto - SS
Brandon Drury - 3B
Anthony Rendon - DH

No real changes here beyond the fact that Anthony Rendon found a way to hurt himself again. So far it doesn't sound like Rendon's injury is considered serious, and even if he has to start the season on the injured list, the Angels are used to that at this point and have the infield depth to cover his absence if need be.

One note here is that Nolan Schanuel has had kind of a crummy spring training with a .615 OPS in 10 games. That small of a sample of early spring games isn't worth hitting the panic button over, but given his lack of experience and struggles this spring, it will be curious how LA handles him in the early going in 2024.

Angels Opening Day Projected Outfield

Mike Trout
Taylor Ward
Mickey Moniak
Aaron Hicks
Jo Adell

No changes here for now, as the same reasons to carry five outfielders still exist now. Jo Adell normally would have been the odd man out, but without the current need to be limited to four outfielders and the fact that Adell is out of minor league options, he should stick around for now.

If there is an argument to go ahead and move on from Adell, it is that Hicks looked really good once he got to Baltimore last year and he is having a tremendous spring training. In eight games so far, he has posted a 1.300 OPS and has shown both power and patience at the plate. If Hicks keeps this up, LA may begin to wonder when they would ever play Adell over Hicks, and that could be the beginning of the end of Adell's time with the Angels.

Angels Opening Day Projected Bench

Most of the bench slots are pretty well explained above, with the Angels obviously needing one spot for the second catcher and two spots for the backup outfielders projected above. The backup infield spot is an interesting one, as Michael Stefanic should be the runaway favorite here, but he is still trying to work his way back from a quad strain suffered earlier in camp and he is running out of time.

Ehire Adrianza is a veteran switch-hitter who has played a lot this spring, so he may still be the favorite if Stefanic isn't ready. However, Adrianza has stunk it up recently this spring and is now only hitting .188 in nine games, so there may be an opportunity for Kyren Paris to swoop in and steal the spot if he can pick things up over the next week or so.

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