Angels News: Taylor Ward, Patrick Sandoval Qualify for Super-2 Classification
Taylor Ward and Patrick Sandoval enjoyed breakout seasons for the Angels in 2022. This offseason, they'll be rewarded.
Ward and Sandoval were among the players to qualify for the Super-2 classification in arbitration, meaning they were among the top 22 percent of players, in terms of service time, who have amassed between two and three years in the Majors.
Ward had a career-year in just about every sense of the word in 2022, setting career-highs in games played (135), home runs (23), RBIs (65), doubles (22) and walks (60). He also slashed career-highs in batting average (.281), on-base percentage (.360) and slugging percentage (.473), and reached base safely in 24 of the team's final 28 games, hitting .369 during that span. He's a nominee for his first career Silver Slugger Award.
As for Sandoval, he and Shohei Ohtani made up one of the best one-two punches in the league, as Sandoval was one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball during the second half of the season.
Sandoval's career year saw him go 6-9 with a 2.91 ERA and 151 strikeouts in 148.2 innings pitched. In the second half, Sandoval had a 2.53 ERA and 1.21 WHIP in 67.2 innings. He was also one of 16 pitchers in the league to throw a complete game shutout in 2022.
Ward and Sandoval join Jaime Barria, Griffin Canning, Luis Rengifo, Chad Walach and Jared Walsh as the team's arbitration-eligible players.
Andrew Velazquez just missed the cut for arbitration by two days.
Ward and Sandoval will receive some well-deserved raises for the 2023 season.
