OC Register: Angels optimistic about core of young starting pitchers

[AngelsWin.com]

ANAHEIM — Back before this Angels season went so horribly wrong, Patrick Sandoval stood in the Angels clubhouse in spring training and forcefully said he was fed up with one particular narrative.

“We’re tired of hearing about the Angels’ starting pitching,” the Angels lefty said. “Wasting (Mike) Trout. Wasting (Shohei) Ohtani. We don’t want it to be on us. We’re taking responsibility. I think this year is different. It’s a different tone. Everyone wants to get better, to help each other. Everyone just wants to win, bottom line.”

He was half right.

The Angels haven’t won, but starting pitching finally isn’t the primary problem.

“I think it’s the first time in a long time we have some basically homegrown guys that are young,” pitching coach Matt Wise said. “It’s kind of the dream scenario.”

Obviously, Ohtani is the Angels best starter. The 28-year-old right-hander has pitched like an ace, posting a 2.47 ERA. Ohtani, however, is signed for just one more year, so he may or may not be a part of the team’s future.

After Ohtani, though, the Angels have a trio of lefties who are younger and have also performed well. Sandoval, 25, has a 3.01 ERA in 137-1/3 innings. Reid Detmers, 23, has a 3.88 ERA in 123 innings. José Suarez, 24, has a 4.06 ERA in 102 innings.

It’s the first time since 1986 that the Angels have had three starters 25 or younger each pitch over 100 innings.

ERA+ normalizes ERA based on the run environment, setting 100 as as average. Sandoval (133) and Detmers (104) form one of two duos in the majors of pitchers 25 or younger who pitched at least 100 innings with an ERA+ of 100 or better. Logan Gilbert (113) and George Kirby (113) of the Seattle Mariners form the other pair.

If Suarez (99) pitches a little better in his final start of the season, the Angels can be the only team with three. The Angels haven’t had three pitchers meet that criteria in a season since 1969.

Sandoval, who had a 3.62 ERA in 87 innings last season, and Suarez, who had a 3.75 ERA in 98-1/3 innings, have now proved to be solid two years in a row. Detmers struggled for much of his first taste of the big leagues in 2021.

The core of young starters — and, of course, Ohtani — has helped the Angels to a 3.88 ERA, which is 12th best in the majors. It’s the first time since 2017 their ERA has been better than the major league average, and the first time since 2015 it was better than 4.00.

The best hope for sustaining this pitching is that so many of the innings have come from three young starters, each of them under team control through at least 2026.

“I feel really good about it,” Sandoval said last week of the trio of young lefty starters. “We’ve grown really close. Me and Suarez have been together since ’19. We’ve developed a really good relationship. We brought Reid along with us too.”

Manager Phil Nevin said he’s enjoyed watching the three lefties push each other and help each other. When one of them is throwing a bullpen session, the others watch.

“There’s internal competition between each other,” Nevin said. “They keep getting better start after start, whether they have their best stuff or not. They’ve understood how to pitch at this level. And I know going into spring training next year their confidence will be high.”

It’s also helped that all three have been healthy all season, which has meant each has reached a new high in innings pitched.

“They’re in an innings spots we don’t have to look forward and say we’ve got to be careful with them,” Nevin said. “They’re at the point in their career, starting next year, where we can ride them a little bit.”

Obviously, each still has some work to do to take the next step toward getting the Angels where they want to go.

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Sandoval still has trouble at times with his fastball command, which limits the use of his secondary pitches and cranks up his pitch count. That knocks him out of games early.

Suarez has been hit hard when going through the lineup for the third time. He’s still experimenting with two different changeups and two different sliders, extra weapons that could make him more difficult for hitters as they see him more.

Detmers, the least experienced of the trio, may simply have gotten fatigued toward the end of the season, resulting in a few more games in which he simply didn’t have the sharpness he needs on his pitches.

Sandoval said they all understand what they need to do to get better, and there’s a commitment to do it.

“I’m proud of the way that all these guys are putting in work, always trying to get better,” Sandoval said. “After every start, they’re working on something. It’s always a work in progress. Pitching is a work in progress at all times. I like the culture. We’ve been able to get better every start.”

UP NEXT

Angels (LHP Patrick Sandoval, 6-9, 3.01) vs. A’s (RHP James Kaprielian, 4-9, 4.43), Tuesday, 6:38 p.m., Bally Sports West, 830 AM

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[Angel Oracle]

The previous season with 4 starters pitching at least 100 innings and having solid stats was 2015.

But as mentioned, this quartet is younger, three guys age 23-25 and Ohtani age 28 with somewhat limited innings pitched since 2017 (around 350 ?).

[BTH]

They’ve been the biggest bright spot of this season, and it’s not even close.

(Ohtani’s been unfathomable, but the development of Sandoval/Detmers/Suarez has more long-term impact for the Angels)

[Warfarin]