The next LA Angels pitching prospect to make their MLB debut will be...

#3 LA Angels pitching prospect who may debut in 2022: Sam Bachman

Next up is 22-year-old Sam Bachman, AKA the pitcher many LA Angels fans have been anxiously waiting to see pitch in the majors since he was taken ninth overall in last year’s draft.

A standout in three seasons at Miami University of Ohio, it’s long been speculated that the Angels would have Bachman speed through the minors as quickly as possible and get him major league ready within a year of his drafting. Though there is still a decent chance he makes it to the majors this season, an early season IL stint (back spasms) that sidelined him until May 6 has most definitely slowed plans a bit.

Nonetheless, there’s a reason Bachman is the Angels #1 prospect despite his inexperience. Boasting a career 3.06 ERA along with 11.3 K/9 at college, Bachman saved the best for last as he was nearly unstoppable as a junior, putting up a 1.81 ERA with 14.0 K/9 in 12 starts.

Bachman proved just how developed he is as a pitcher when, less than a month after the draft, he made his Single-A debut with the Tri-City Dust Devils, firing two shutout innings and allowing only one hit. He would close out his first professional season with a 3.77 ERA, 1.186 WHIP and 9.4 K/9 in five starts.

Jump ahead to this year and through his first two starts back from the IL with the Trash Pandas, Bachman hasn’t missed a beat. In seven innings, Bachman is yet to allow a run and has only given up one hit.

Obviously, the Angels are going to take things a bit slower with their prize possession after missing the first month of the season, but these early numbers are incredibly promising. Once his fastball begins touching 100 mph and his slider returns to unhittable form, Bachman will make it known to the whole league why he was arguably the best pitcher of the 2021 draft class.

#2 LA Angels pitching prospect who may debut in 2022: Ky Bush

Now for the lone lefty on this list, 22-year-old Ky Bush was drafted by the LA Angels one round after Bachman last year, but unlike his first-round counterpart he has remained healthy all season and might actually be closer to reaching the majors now.

Standing at an imposing 6-foot-6, the Angels’ fourth ranked prospect made quite an impression on the team after recording a 2.99 ERA and 12.9 K/9 in his sophomore season at Saint Mary’s College of California.

Bush got a small taste of professional ball last year when he made five starts for Tri-City, producing a middling 4.50 ERA, but also flashing some serious swing-and-miss stuff with 20 strikeouts in 12 innings.

Headed up by a mid-90s sinking fastball and a wipeout slider that sits in the low-80s, Bush’s arsenal is perfectly engineered to generate a lot of whiffs. That said, he’s off to a somewhat slow start in that regard with Rocket City this season.

With only 26 strikeouts in 28 innings, Bush is sporting a decent but unspectacular 8.4 K/9. Fortunately, he does seem to be rediscovering his old form as the season progresses, striking out 18 in his last three starts vs. just eight in his first three.

Despite his lower than usual strikeout numbers, Bush has remained incredibly effective in Double-A this season, currently boasting a 3.54 ERA and 1.179 WHIP while holding batters to a .234 batting average and only surrendering eight walks.

Across all of Double-A, Bush ranks in the top-31 in ERA, WHIP, walk rate (6.9%) and FIP (4.01).

If he can get his strikeout numbers back to at least 10.0 K/9, Bush’s chances of seeing the majors this year will increase dramatically.

#1 LA Angels pitching prospect who may debut in 2022: Brett Kerry

Rounding out this list is 23-year-old Brett Kerry, who you may recall as the other pitcher besides Silseth I promoted in my breakout LA Angels prospects article.

In case you need a refresher, Kerry has absolutely dominated Double-A this year. Even after his May 17 blowup (five ER) he still has a 3.41 ERA (was 2.48 before), 1.02 WHIP, 48 strikeouts, 12.58 K/9, 1.57 BB/9, and a whopping 87.8% left on base percentage in 34.1 innings (seven starts). For context, those last four stats all rank in the top-15 in Double-A, with his ERA and WHIP still slotting into the top 25.

With Silseth now in the majors for at least another week, Kerry is by default the best remaining pitcher in the entire Angels farm system. Like Silseth, he’s also the only Angels pitching prospect this year to win Pitcher of the Week honors at any level after striking out 20 batters and allowing only one run in his first two starts of the season. 

No one could have expected this from the USC product after he was drafted in the fifth round last year and just barely cracked the Angels’ top prospect list at #29. After all, the biggest knock against him by scouts was his middling pitching repertoire that lacked a true out pitch.

However, by utilizing near perfect command over all his pitches, Kerry is able to efficiently paint the zone and place every pitch exactly where it needs to be.

At this point, there really isn’t anything left for Kerry to prove. Like Silseth, there’s not much reason to send him to Triple-A, especially since the hitter-friendly PCL wouldn’t do much for his overall development.

While there are still a few pitchers ahead of him on the depth chart, Angels fans should know better than most just how much havoc injuries can wreak on a starting rotation over the course of a season. For Kerry, it may no longer be a matter of if he pitches in the majors this year, but when.