Yusei Kikuchi is ready to take over as the Angels' next big star

The Angels' ace is experimenting with a new pitch, and it could easily springboard his already great arsenal to next-level elite. Yusei Kikuchi, the team's Opening Day starter, has only made one start in an Angels uniform, but what he showed against the Los Angeles Dodgers on February 28th could be the driving force behind a massive 2025 campaign for the 33-year-old. Spring training is a time to test out things major league pitchers might not use in the regular season, but one experiment Kikuchi dabbled in that outing will more than likely stick and could easily cause him to dominate hitters all season long. The experiment? Kikuchi will be utilizing a sweeper in the 2025 season.

Kikuchi's game results against the Dodgers were not necessarily spectacular -- he allowed a home run to Shohei Ohtani (who hasn't?), plus another run in the first inning before being pulled for Camden Minacci. However, he was reinserted into the game (which is allowed in spring training) and went up 6-up, 6-down the next couple of innings. He racked up 3 strikeouts, and the most tantalizing punch out came on a back-door sweeper against the right-handed hitting Will Smith. He also generated a whiff with the sweeper against the left-handed hitting Ohtani. This is a massive development.

Per MLB.com's David Adler: "Compare Kikuchi's slider to his sweeper this spring: the slider is averaging 87 mph with only two inches of break, while the sweeper is averaging 81 mph with 16 inches of break." Kikuchi now has three breaking balls -- the Astros re-modeled his slider to great effect, he still has his trusty curveball, and now he has this new sweeper -- to go with his fastball that averages 95.5mph and an underrated changeup with solid arm-side run. His ability to now tunnel his bullet slider with this wipeout sweeper will completely unlock his already top-notch K%.

Many fans pointed to Kikuchi's bloated career ERA as an argument for why the Angels overpaid for him in the offseason -- that does not matter. ERA doesn't matter. Using that stat as an evaluation method is outdated, and pretty close to non-sensical with all these more objective metrics at our disposal. Does he allow a semi-concerning amount of hard hit balls? Yes. Will his refined arsenal help him mitigate those moving forward with the Angels? Undoubtedly.

When the Angels signed Kikuchi to be their bona fide ace, others pointed to Kikuchi being overly reliant on his fastball and slider combination as a reason why he should not necessarily be a team's no. 1 starter. Top starters often use 3-5 pitches with confidence in any count. Now, with his sweeper, he can truly be both a North-South and East-West pitcher that can constantly change up what a hitter sees throughout the course an outing. He will likely get 30" of horizontal separation with his changeup and sweeper AND 30" of vertical separation with his fastball and curveball...and that does not even include the slider, which is his best pitch.

Could Yusei Kikuchi get to heights that were once reached by Ohtani and Jered Weaver? Sure, why not? Kikuchi could easily pitch his way into Cy Young contention if he continues to master the sweeper and the fastball and slider remain elite. Kikuchi is a stud, and he's only getting better with age.

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