The Angels might have a serious problem concerning a crucial member of their rotation

The Angels have only needed to use the minimum amount of starting pitchers this season, but there have been mixed results despite the continuity. Given the state of the bullpen (although the unit is showing vast improvements as of late), Ron Washington has challenged his starters to give the team some much-needed length. In fact, all five starters average exactly 5.1 innings per game and their 330.1 innings pitched ranks ninth in MLB.

Yusei Kikuchi has done an admirable job as the team's no. one, although he is far from one of the best aces in baseball. Tyler Anderson has done his usual thing -- he is up-and-down, but for the most part he has done a fine job of avoiding hard contact and is a stabilizing force . Kyle Hendricks and Jack Kochanowicz have been frustrating, but it's relatively unfair to expect them to shove every time they are handed the baseball given that they are the fourth and fifth starters on the team. The key member of this group is José Soriano, and his past six starts have included some problematic tendencies.

The Angels have a José Soriano problem right now

In fairness, three of Soriano's last six starts (he has six starts in the last calendar month) have been deemed as quality -- his back-to-back starts against San Diego and Miami, and his second to last outing versus Cleveland. Soriano makes a living on his sinker, and induces ground balls at a higher rate than any other starting pitcher in baseball. The last month, his groundball rate has gone up, his hard hit rates have gone down and he has not issued a home run...so what's the problem?

In his first seven starts of the season, the 26-year-old posted a 3.83 ERA, 3.79 FIP, 3.38 xFIP, 1.43 WHIP, a 18.5 K% and a 9.5% BB%. Opposing hitters were slashing .272/.339/.364/.704. In his last six (spoiler alert: everything's gotten worse), Soriano posted a 4.45 ERA, 4.00 FIP, 4.77 xFIP, 1.79 WHIP and a dead-even 14.1% K% and BB%. In that span, opposing hitters slashed .301/.408/.333/.741.

Soriano completely unraveled in his start against Boston, and it felt like he was due to have a blow-up outing. After being spotted a four-run lead before he even toed the Fenway Park rubber, this is how he fared in the bottom half of the inning: single, walk, single, single, walk, single, strikeout, double, groundout, groundout. Soriano allowed five runs to score that inning, and left after 3.2 innings.

The Angels' biggest issue all season has been their pitchers' and hitters' inability to post even league average K:BB numbers, and Soriano is the epitome of that. The starter's latest collapse feels indicative of the team's, as if neither can prove that they can dominate the strike zone then they will falter.

There was hope that Soriano's uptick in strikeouts would persist, but he is regressing in that category. The fireballer has long had control issues that are creeping back up. Plus, when he is in the zone he has a tendency to leave balls out over the middle of the plate. Soriano is a converted relief pitcher, and he wound up needing to end his 2024 season early due to arm fatigue. Hopefully his arm is fine right now, and he just needs to dial in his mechanics and mindset. Either way, the Angels need him to step his game up or else they are in major trouble.

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