Have the Angels finally got a competitive team around Mike Trout?
The Los Angeles Angels have not been to the playoffs since 2014. Mike Trout has been the best player in the sport since then, and one of the greatest in the history of the league, yet Los Angeles has not won a postseason game with him on the roster.
Baseball odds show how the Angels’ stock has soared since the start of the season. Los Angeles is now a real threat in the American League West and stands a legitimate chance of going on a postseason run.
On May 26th, the Angels have won 60% of their games. They are just two back in the division. They haven’t finished a season within 10 games of first place since 2015, when they were three back. It’s still a small sample, with over 100 left to play, but this has the makings of the best Angels team in almost a decade.
Trout, of course, is having a spectacular year. He leads the Majors in OPS+. Anthony Rendon has found his swing, sitting well above average by OPS and wRC+. Shohei Ohtani is flourishing on both sides of the ball again, while Patrick Sandoval and Noah Syndergaard support the two-way phenom in one of MLB’s best rotations.
Los Angeles can do star power. In previous years, they haven’t been able to surround Trout and Ohtani with enough serviceable Major Leaguers. In 2022, they look to have gone a step or two further with Jared Walsh and Brandon Marsh playing well. Then there’s Taylor Ward, enjoying the breakout of all breakouts after taking a step forward in 2021.
The Angels are 12th in xwOBA given up by their pitchers. By the same metric, their offense is sixth. This isn’t some early-season fluke. The defense is living up to those same standards, with only three teams putting up better outs above average numbers so far.
Relief pitching is the only clear weak spot to date, with the Angels ranking in the bottom five in wins above average in that category. Even so, there’s reason to expect improvement considering the contact allowed and some solid strikeout numbers. The middle infield isn’t producing at the same level as other positions, but Luis Rengifo has provided a notable boost over the last couple of weeks.
This Angels team certainly looks like it’s for real. This isn’t a franchise benefiting from a cakewalk schedule, nor is there a lot of batted ball luck in their favor. Still, it will take an impressive campaign to topple the Astros, who are once again looking formidable at the top of the American League West.
Los Angeles has a decisive few weeks coming up. They face the Blue Jays, Yankees, Phillies, Red Sox, Mets and Dodgers before June 16th. There is no respite, just a string of contending teams before meeting the Mariners, Royals and Mariners again. How this run goes will tell us a lot about how seriously we should take the 2022 Angels.
We could again be looking at a .500 team by mid-June. Just as feasibly, though, they could have leapfrogged the Astros and got the hardest part of their schedule out of the way.
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