The Angels took an unfamiliar path to a familiar destination last year.
They finished with a losing record, and out of the playoffs for the eighth consecutive season.
Instead of crumbling because of poor pitching, as had been their pattern, the 2022 Angels fell apart because of an anemic offense.
As they open the 2023 season desperate to end their postseason drought, they are hanging their hopes on a deeper lineup, one with the usual star power at the top but newly added reliable major leaguers surrounding them.
“It’s a lot of what we categorize as professional hitters,” General Manager Perry Minasian said. “They are going to give quality at-bats, night in and night out. You aren’t always going to get results. Nobody hits 1.000. But they are professional hitters. You have a lineup that understands the scoreboard, the counts, fouls off tough pitches, moves runners, hits the ball over the fence. All those things.”
Last season the Angels started off with a productive offense. Through May 24 – when they were 27-17 – the Angels ranked second in the majors in OPS.
Right around that time, though, two of the key hitters on either side of Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani began to crack.
Leadoff man Taylor Ward, who had been one of baseball’s best stories, crashed into the fence on May 20 and suffered a shoulder injury that sapped his power for three months.
Third baseman Anthony Rendon suffered a wrist injury on May 8, tried to play through it for a couple of weeks, tried to rest it on the injured list for another couple of weeks, and finally succumbed to surgery.
Infielders David Fletcher and Jared Walsh also saw their production shrivel because of injuries that required surgery.
The replacements the Angels tried were a cast of misfits, many of whom simply were not major league-caliber hitters. The Angels had 11 players last season who produced an OPS below .600 while getting at least 50 plate appearances. Only the 102-loss Oakland A’s had more, with 12.
By the time it was over, the Angels ranked 25th in the majors in runs.
Over the winter, Minasian knew he still had the core of a good offensive team – led by Trout, Ohtani, Ward, Rendon and Walsh – but he needed better complementary players.
The Angels added infielders Gio Urshela and Brandon Drury and outfielder Hunter Renfroe. While those names aren’t as sexy as some of the stars on the free agent market, they combined for a .794 OPS over 1,638 plate appearances last season. The major league average OPS was .706, and the Angels ranked 23rd with a .687 OPS.
Even more promising, there will be days when all three of those above-average hitters will be in the bottom half of the Angels’ lineup.
“That puts pressure on pitchers,” Renfroe said. “We’re going to have our struggles. Everybody does, but when you have a group like this and the pitcher somehow has to navigate all the guys we have, it’s going to be tough.”
Ward recalled the start of last season and thinks this team is deep enough to keep doing that all year.
“It’s really fun being a part of this, continually flipping that lineup,” Ward said. “It’s awesome to be a part of.”
Ward said he’s not just excited because of the hitters, but because of the new hitting coaches. The Angels fired Jeremy Reed and John Mallee and replaced them with Marcus Thames and Phil Plantier.
“Marcus and Phil are great,” Ward said. “They are perfect for our club and what we need. They are more approach-based, and I think at this level, that’s what we need. Everyone got here for a reason. Now it’s just getting between-the-ears right.”
One of the issues with the Angels’ approach last season was apparently that players too often weren’t ready for fastballs.
The Angels hit .242 against fastballs last season, which was the worst in the majors. Their .393 slugging percentage against fastballs was 26th. The Angels also whiffed on 10.9% of their swings at fastballs, tied for the second-worst rate in the majors. That contributed to a major league-worst 1,539 strikeouts.
In spring training, Manager Phil Nevin said he could already see a difference.
“Marcus and Phil really stressed hunting the fastball, not getting off the fastball,” Nevin said. “We’ve certainly been aggressive early in counts. … It’s a mindset that’s bleeding into everybody.”
If the Angels can have a more robust offense, it could also help the other problem area from last year’s team. The bullpen struggled, at least in part because they had to rely on the same pitchers too often to protect too many narrow leads.
“Part of having a deep offense is you have the ability to score every inning, no matter who is up,” Minasian said. “Those add-on runs might not be something that’s magnified over the course of a game, but it changes the next day and the day after that. … Good teams are good at the add-on runs, so you don’t have to use the high-leverage relievers night in and night out. That’s something we hope to accomplish this year.”
If the Angels can stay even remotely healthy and their hitters produce at a level in line with their recent seasons, they should produce enough offense to support a pitching staff that ranked ninth in the majors in ERA last season.
“This lineup is just so deep,” Walsh said. “Wardo and (Luis) Rengifo had great years last year. Renfroe seems like he hits 30 (homers) every year. Shohei’s a stud. Drury had a great year last year. I think it’s going to be a tough lineup, one through nine.”
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