Angels: What Starting Pitcher Can the Halos Sign Now That Michael Wacha is in San Diego?
The Los Angeles Angels enter Spring Training with a major need in the rotation. The Halos have five really good starting pitchers, but are one short of filling out their six-man rotation.
Former All-Star RHP Michael Wacha made perfect sense to fill that role, however, after a long offseason of waiting, he finally agreed to a deal with the San Diego Padres.
So, now what?
The MLB free agent market was silent for the last few weeks, but finally picked up over the weekend. Clearly, teams are starting to look into their rosters ahead of Spring Training, and trying to patch up whatever holes are left.
Angels general manager Perry Minasian has already said he's continuing to look for upgrades, and one of those has to be in the rotation. So who could the Halos target?
Here are some names that are currently available, and how old they are:
Mike Minor (35)
Michael Pineda (34)
Dylan Bundy (30)
Chris Archer (34)
Carlos Martinez (31)
Dallas Keuchel (35)
Chase Anderson (35)
Mike Foltynewicz (31)
There's also Trevor Bauer, but the Angels are not going to get involved in him and his off the field issues. Clearly, no one in the MLB is interested at this point.
So that's it. Those are the "best" available starting pitching candidates.
So who could the Angels sign?
Let's start by crossing off all the left-handed pitchers from that list, because the Halos already have a lefty-heavy rotation. That leaves us with Pineda, Bundy, Archer, Martinez, Anderson and Foltynewicz.
Now, let's cross off the people the Angels should not sign because, you know, they're not very good anymore (or at all).
I could technically cross everyone off from that list, but for the sake of trying to find the Angels a sixth starter, I'm left with Pineda and Martinez. However, Martinez was suspended at the end of last season and I don't see the Angels adding him, so I'm basically left with Pineda.
Pineda had a bad and short year last year with the Detroit Tigers, but with the Minnesota Twins in 2021, he made 21 starts, and had a pretty solid 3.62 ERA in 109.1 innings. He was an All-Star all the way back in 2011 as a rookie, and has a career 4.06 ERA and 1.20 WHIP in 1008.2 innings pitched.
Would he be a star for the Angels? No. Would he be good enough to be the No. 5 starter and give them a ton of experience and some length in the back of the rotation? Yes.
There's a reason I was pushing so hard for the Angels to sign Wacha, but finally, that ship has sailed. So if the Angels decide that Pineda is better than their internal options, they can add him for cheap. However, it's starting to become increasingly more likely that the Angels go internally to fill that role.
