Ryan Johnson’s gem highlights Angels’ mistake in how they handled his early career

Ryan Johnson entered his June 23 start against the Orioles with a 12.84 ERA. To say that the Los Angeles Angels right-hander had struggled would be the understatement of the year, and expectations should be low upon his reinsertion to the starting rotation. Then he went out and threw six shutout innings, striking out eight Orioles in the process.

Johnson had actually no-hit the Birds over his first five frames before a Jeremiah Jackson single broke it up in the sixth inning, making his third career start a memorable one. In a way, it was a continuation of what he did on June 18 against the Athletics, who jumped on him for five runs in the first, but then saw him rebound with four scoreless innings to close out his day.

“He picked up where he left off the last four innings in Sacramento when he shut them down,” manager Kurt Suzuki said. “He was kind of the same, he was attacking with the fastball, threw some good cutters, some sweepers, changeups, and I thought he was just executing pitches down in the zone and up when he had to be. So I thought he was great.”

This could be the story of a young arm turning the corner. We've seen this with the Angels before, with Reid Detmers transforming himself from a draft bust who couldn't get anyone out to a starting pitcher who could be one of the league's most in-demand trade chips come the August 3 deadline.

The thing is, though, Johnson's story is much different than Detmers'. Whereas the 27-year-old needed time to work through his own performance issues, Johnson's woes were almost entirely created by the Angels' egregious handling of his development.

Angels might have found another rotation building block in Ryan Johnson, despite their best efforts to ruin him

Johnson was the 74th pick of the 2024 draft, which will always be significant. The reason why is that he was selected with the comp pick the Halos received after losing Shohei Ohtani in free agency to the Dodgers. The 23-year-old will forever be remembered as the return the franchise received for losing the most unique superstar in MLB history. No pressure, kid.

When Los Angeles selected Johnson, there was a lot to like. He was a three-year player at Dallas Baptist University, spending the last two seasons as a full-time starter after splitting his time between the rotation and the bullpen during his first year on campus.

There, he displayed a deep and polished repertoire and finished his collegiate career as both the school's all-time and single-season strikeout leader. He was a high-floor hurler who should have been a fast mover through the Angels' farm system, and given their propensity to rush prospects, that seemed to bode well.

Unfortunately, the Halos can't just operate like a normal team. They opted to carry Johnson on the big league roster to open 2025 despite him never throwing a minor league pitch. Even worse, they decided to try him out as a reliever to start despite the inherent value starters have over relief pitchers.

Predictably, things didn't go well, and he was sent down to Hi-A Tri-City. Since then, Johnson has been yo-yoed throughout the system and been given a variety of different roles, including starter, high-leverage reliever, and mop-up man. He's yet to throw a pitch in Triple-A, despite all of the shuffling.

What should have been a simple process of quickly moving him through the minor league system once he hit certain benchmarks as a starter has turned into a development minefield. But fortunately, Johnson seems resilient.

“I feel great,” Johnson said after his one-hit, one-walk dismantling of the Orioles. “You can't feel anything but great after that. That's exactly what I wanted to do.”

The kid deserves some credit; his confidence hasn't been shaken while navigating a situation that would knock most down.

We'll have to see more than just one good start, but the talent and poise are absolutely there, and if he can bring it out, he could join Walbert Ureña as a rotation building block. The Angels have been trying and failing to develop quality starting pitchers for so long, and they might have finally found one in Johnson despite their best efforts to ruin him.

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