Alek Manoah's Struggles Prove the Angels Need Another Arm

Heading into camp the Angels rotation depth was thinner than scotch tape. Angels GM Perry Minasian is hoping multiple lottery tickets hit. That Reid Detmers can move back into the rotation. That Grayson Rodriguez can finally stay healthy. That Alek Manoah can return to being an MLB caliber starter.

As any gambler who plays a three leg parlay knows there's usually one leg that bites you by not coming through. In Perry's case, that leg is Alek Manoah.

Manoah is simply not close to MLB ready. Take a look at his pitch ratings from the shellacking he took by the A's yesterday.

Alek Manoah continues to struggle this spring both in terms of stuff and command. He has seemingly made no changes to his arsenal since joining the Angels and his struggles finding the zone persist

This is not an MLB-quality pitcher pic.twitter.com/xMAiNjxsA0
— Thomas Nestico (@TJStats) March 5, 2026

All that blue is bad and some is quite alarming.

Plenty of pitchers have overcome a lack of elite velocity with elite command and control. At this point in time Manoah simply is not one of them.

Stuff+ is a metric that combines velocity, spin, and command. 100 is a league average pitch. Currently Manoah's 4 seam fastball is his only MLB caliber pitch per Stuff+; and with a grade of 102 it is really average. Every other offering is 6% to 13% below league average.

The zone percentage is alarming as well. Not a single pitch landed in the strike zone 44.5% of the time. As a result, hitters did not chase many pitches either. Falling behind in counts leads to getting hit hard, which is exactly what happened yesterday.

The Angels have no reliable fifth starter.

Last year Kyle Hendricks was not great but he was reliable. He started 31 games and pitched 164.2 innings. Yes, he was about 10% worse than MLB average but that's actually pretty good for a fifth starter in a rotation.

As of now, a Kyle Hendricks would be a godsend. As would a Tyler Anderson, who was only 6% below league average in 26 starts.

George Klassen is likely the leader for the fifth starter's job at the moment. Klassen is young and has ample upside but he's also not worked late into games on a consistent basis and only has one start at the AAA level.

Behind Klassen on the depth chart are Jack Kochanowicz and Mitch Farris, neither of whom have done well at the top level. Kochanowicz began the 2025 season in the Angels rotation but was later optioned to the minor leagues. Farris averaged fewer than 5 innings in 5 starts for the Angels last year and had an ERA over 6.5.

Manoah's situation maked the need for another arm dire.

The Angels best case scenario right now is that Klassen seizes the fifth starter's job in camp. He's been impressive in spurts but also gave up two home runs to the A's in his most recent start.

But even if Klassen is able to make the team out of camp, they are one injury away from reverting to Kochanowicz or Farris. Former top Angels prospect Caden Dana has yet to pitch in the Cactus League.

Hendricks is retired but Tyler Anderson is sitting at home. So is Zach Littell, who is consistent if not spectular.

It wasn't hard to see the Angels lacking enough arms to make it through the season. It appears they might not even have enough to start the season. They need to bring in another pitcher immediately.