What's next for this talented young Angels hurler following his shocking demotion?

When the season began, Ryan Johnson was set to be the next and most aggressive entry in the lengthy list of prospects the Angels have fast-tracked to the majors. The 2024 draftee who was selected with the comp pick the Halos received after losing Shohei Ohtani in free agency made his big league debut on opening day without ever pitching in a minor league game... until now.

Johnson was demoted on May 9th as the Angels look to jumpstart a bullpen that has been stuck in a season-long malaise, ranking near the bottom or dead last in every key statistic. It isn't exactly surprising that Johnson was demoted after posting a 7.36 ERA in 14.2 innings of work.

What is surprising is where he ended up. One would think that after a relatively impressive spring training that earned the organization's confidence to not only make the opening day roster but get high-leverage opportunities in the wake of setup man Ben Joyce's injury, Johnson would be sent down to Triple-A Salt Lake to work out the kinks. Instead, the Halos have banished him all the way down to Hi-A Tri-City.

The Angels may have a different plan in mind for Ryan Johnson's future

Despite his struggles, there was actually a lot to like about Johnson's performance during his brief MLB tenure. The 6-foot-6 righty ranked in the 68th percentile in whiff rate at 27.7%, the 78th percentile in hard hit rate (35.3%), and the 88th percentile in average exit velocity, sitting at 86.7 miles per hour.

Additionally, he limited walks with just a 6.9% walk rate (71st percentile) and kept the ball on the ground with a well-above average ground ball rate of 49% (75th percentile). All of this coalesced into an expected ERA of 3.60.

Johnson's one bugaboo has been the long ball. When he made mistakes in the zone, they were often crushed over the fence as he allowed 2.45 HR/9, which was the greatest differentiatior between his actual and expected results.

Featuring a five-pitch repertoire that features a cutter, sinker, four-seam fastball, sweeper, and splitter, Johnson has a much deeper arsenal than your average reliever. In fact, Johnson spent most of his college career at Dallas Baptist University as a starter, where he became the school's single-season and all-time strikeouts leader.

Entering last year's draft, scouts noted Johnson's potential was split between a bullpen role and that of a future starting pitcher. An expedited pathway to the majors combined with the Angels' negligence to sufficiently build out a functional bullpen necessitated Johnson's early role; however, being sent all the way down to Hi-A indicates the club may have realized the error of their ways.

Starting pitchers are always more valuable than relievers due to their greater impact on games they appear in and the sheer number of innings they log. If the Halos wanted to keep Johnson as a reliever, logic would dictate that they'd send him to Salt Lake.

Instead, by sending him all the way down to the lower minors, they are presenting him with the opportunity for a complete reset. If they're smart, they'll stretch him out and leverage his deep pitch mix to potentially develop him into a quality rotation arm, which is something else the team sorely lacks.

This is the Angels, so there's no guarantee that this is indeed the plan. However, logic would dictate that stretching him out to start would be the best course of action, and Hi-A Tri-City would be the best place to begin that work. Now we'll have to wait and see if the Angels are actually behaving logically.

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