2024 MLB Season Preview: Los Angeles Angels

When the 2024 Los Angeles Angels head north from Cactus League action and return to southern California, they will do so without one of the baseball’s biggest stars, having lost the iconic Shohei Ohtani to free agency this past offseason.

Although seeing the global superstar suit up for the crosstown Los Angeles Dodgers is sure create a range of negative emotions for the Angels fanbase, the on-the-field product may see minimal change despite losing the pitcher/designated hitter whose performance — when healthy — had been unmatched in the history of the game.

Despite employing both the reigning 2023 AL MVP Ohtani and future first ballot Hall of Famer, outfielder Mike Trout, the Angels haven’t finished with a winning record since 2015, and that’s a trend that doesn’t seem all too likely to end this season.

Where were they in 2023?

The Angels finished the 2023 season in an all-to-familiar place in the standings, finishing fourth in the American League West with a 73-89 record — an exact facsimile, in the end, of their 2022 campaign. The team last had 80 wins in 2018, last had a .500 or better season in 2015, and last made the playoffs in 2014. It’s a mess, considering it’s been a top-11 payroll team every year going back to 2003.

Injuries waylaid their star players — Trout played in 82 games but missed the second half of the season except for a single game in late August; Anthony Rendon — one of the worst free agent signings in team history -- logged only 43 games (and has yet to play more than 58 games in a single year in any of the past four seasons since signing with the team). While Ohtani did manage to play in 135 games as the team’s Designated Hitter and start 23 games in the rotation. But, he made his last start on the mound in late August and took his last at-bat in early September as an injury to his elbow ended his season prematurely.

Long-rumored to trade Ohtani if the team fell out of contention, given his pending free agency, the Angels opted to retain him at the Trade Deadline and instead added to both their pitchers (Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez) and batters (C.J. Cron, Randal Grichuk).

But, in true Angels fashion, those moves backfired and the Angels not only swooned down the stretch but lost Ohtani with nothing more but a future draft pick as a return. The reality here was pretty grisly: on July 31, the Angels were 45-41, 4.5 games back in the AL West, with a puncher’s playoff odds of a little below 20 percent. They then went 17-38 to end the year. In fact, they actually lost seven straight games to begin August (two in Atlanta to start the skid), and never even came close to recovering. Oof.

There wasn’t much to be excited about, other than Ohtani’s superhuman heroics, over the course of the season, either. Brandon Drury had a nice season splitting time between second and first, and there were some decent pitching performances from Reid Detmers and Patrick Sandoval. Griffin Canning’s nice xFIP seems promising for the future. But this was a pretty barren club, performance-wise, overall.

What did they do this offseason?

After firing manager Phil Nevin, the Angels looked to Atlanta for a new direction, hiring third base coach Ron Washington as their new manager. Washington — who managed the Texas Rangers to back-to-back World Series appearances last decade — will look to reinvigorate the organization from the dugout.

To help him, Washington hired Braves first base coach Eric Young, Sr. to add more leadership and ties to the Atlanta organization that had already provided the Angels with current general manager Perry Minasian.

On the field, the Angels allowed most of their free agents to leave the organization. Thus far in the offseason the organization has done little in terms of impactful additions from outside their system.

The team’s most notable signing to date has been relief pitcher Robert Stephenson. The Angels added veteran outfielder Aaron Hicks and pitcher Matt Moore before the end of January and signed batters like Willie Calhoun, Hunter Dozier and Jake Marisnick and pitchers Zach Plesac and Adam Cimber to possibly compete for an Opening Day roster spot. Honestly, though, the Angels keep having the same problem. This offseason, their five biggest signings have all been relievers. Yes, the bullpen was the weakest part of the team last year, but they are heading into 2024 with serious holes offensively and in the rotation, but have ignored those to just sign more relievers. That’s not an awful strategy for a team that’s planning to tank and trade their effective relief pieces at the 2024 Trade Deadline, but they’re probably going to have a top ten payroll again and little but relievers to show for it.

The team’s top prospect, first baseman Nolan Schanuel, got time with the big-league club down-the-stretch in 2023 and the organization is hopeful that he can become an impact bat this season.

Where are they hoping to go?

That’s the question Angels fans are asking - and maybe the organization itself. The team has been connected to free agent infielder/outfielder Cody Bellinger and 2023 NL Cy Young winner Blake Snell, but the team’s track record with free agents in the last 15 years leaves much to be desired, with past splashes C.J. Wilson, Josh Hamilton and Rendon not providing the Halos with the impact they desired.

The easiest change was the one they made — bringing in baseball lifer Washington to run the team on-the-field. He will be the team’s fourth manager since Los Angeles ended Mike Scioscia’s 19-year run as manager after the 2018 campaign. Can “Wash” do something that Nevin, Joe Maddon and Brad Ausmus couldn’t do, that is, lead the team to a winning record and a possible playoff berth?

Never underestimate Washington’s ability to motivate, but that seems like a tall task on the surface. Playing in a division with the 2023 World Series Champion Texas Rangers, 2023 AL West Champion Houston Astros and an 88-win Seattle Mariners team, another fourth-place finish seems likely for a team that is, at this point, likely just trying to stay ahead of the Oakland-Las Vegas-Salt Lake City Athletics in the basement of the division.

Los Angeles is locked-in long-term to Trout — who has played in only three postseason games since debuting in 2011 — but could have looked to rebuild last season. Unless there is a change in ownership — something that has been flirted with and derailed in the past — the Angels appear to be mired in the no-man’s-land of slightly-below-mediocrity.

Braves 2023 head-to-head

Thanks to MLB’s new schedule where every team plays at least one series against each other, the Angels and Braves had a showdown right at the Trade Deadline in 2023.

The Angels entered game one of the series against Atlanta with a 55-51 record and closed out the month of July with a 4-1 victory over the Braves, moving them to five games above .500.

Then, the wheels fell off.

The Angels lost Game Two of the three-game series, 5-1, and then managed find themselves shut down by Braves starter Yonny Chirinos while newly acquired Angels starter Lucas Giolito gave up nine earned runs in 3 ⁄₃ inning in a 12-5 drubbing to drop the series to the eventual NL East winners.

The Angels then lost their next five games — with the seven-game losing streak dropping them out of playoff hunt — and never got above the .500 mark for the rest of the 2023 season.

The Angels will host the Braves from August 16-18 for a weekend series in 2024.