Los Angeles Angels should take a flier on former AL ERA leader

The Los Angeles Angels’ biggest flaw heading into 2020 is starting pitching, which could be improved with a former American League ERA leader.

The Los Angeles Angels entered the offseason needing to bolster the starting rotation after being one of the worst two in the league last season alongside the Colorado Rockies, who at least have an excuse for why the pitching numbers are so bad.

The Angels missed out on Gerrit Cole, who took the highest bidder in the New York Yankees and only added two arms to the starting rotation: Julio Teheran and Dylan Bundy. Teheran is a solid innings eater and Bundy can be decent, but it is safe to say that the additions this winter were not that exciting.

The most exciting thing around the pitching staff is Shohei Ohtani, who has not pitched since 2018. He won’t start the year on the mound but once he is in full swing there is hope that he can become a consistent starter, although there are still more questions than answers about his health.

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The Los Angeles Angels had the chance to add former All-Star pitcher Ross Stripling, but owner Arte Moreno pulled out of the deal for undisclosed reasons once the Mookie Betts side of the trade had to be re-worked. Moreno claimed that the team is still hopeful that they can land a top tier starting pitcher this season.

That is hard to do, though, when the team does not have a plentiful farm to trade from and the options that will be potentially available this year are not tremendous. Thus, the Angels might be forced to take fliers on some guys and hope it works out, with one of those guys being former American League ERA leader, Aaron Sanchez.

Sanchez is still without a job and it is not that long ago that the Southern California native led the junior circuit in earned run average. Sanchez was an all-star in 2016, when he finished the season with a 3.00 ERA, while also finishing seventh in Cy Young voting.

This was also after two impressive short stints with the Blue Jays in the years prior. Through his first 91 games, which accounted for 41 starts, Sanchez had a 2.86 ERA and 1.150 WHIP.

The problem is that injuries caught up with Sanchez. He battled blisters in 2017 and had a hand contusion end his season in 2018. He started 27 games in 2019, but was not all that great, finishing the year with a 5.89 ERA. Overall, Sanchez has a combined 5.29 ERA the last three seasons.

That might not seem like a pitcher worth adding but Sanchez is still 27 years old and has shown that he has the stuff to at least be an above-average MLB pitcher. The most exciting thing about Sanchez is his spin rate, as he ranked in the 91st percentile in curveball spin rate last season and has ranked as high as the 97th percentile in a season.

His great numbers from 2016 can seem a bit misleading as his Field Independent Pitching (FIP) was 3.55, indicating that he benefitted from good fielding and some luck in that season. Plus, even in his best year, Sanchez was in the bottom 10 percent of the league in both average exit velocity and hard-hit percentage.

But still, he has that wipeout curveball and in four starts with the Houston Astros last season Sanchez was able to turn in two starts where he went at least five innings with one or fewer runs allowed.

He does not need to be the Angels’ only hope for the starting rotation and could even start the year at Salt Lake City to work on his stuff and be ready if anyone gets hurt. Even if he does not find the starting rotation, he could be a decent long-relief reliever, like Stripling is with the Dodgers.

Sanchez theoretically would be really good in that role as his stuff would play really well the first time through the order, not allowing batters a second time at the plate to pick up on his filthy curveball.

It would be signing with absolutely no risk that would give the Angels the kind of pitching depth they need. If the team is willing to spend $20 million on Matt Harvey and Trevor Cahill for one season, there is no reason why they shouldn’t be willing to spend $1-2 million on Sanchez for a season and hope that he regains form.

Potential trade market for top starting pitchers. dark. Next

The question for the Los Angeles Angels simply becomes: why not?

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