The page has turned on the 2022 season for the Los Angeles Angels and general manager Perry Minasian as he and the organization have sights locked in on a slightly revamped & healthy offense mixed with an underrated pitching staff.
But the missed opportunity and collapse that occurred rather early this past season isn’t out of the mind of the fourth-year GM.
Through 44 games in 2022, the Angels appeared as if they found the spark they had missed, a high-powered offense, solid pitching, and most importantly— a direction. Prior to May 24, they possessed the second-best offense in the American League with a team wRC+ of 111, just one point behind the New York Yankees. Taylor Ward had his breakout, Shohei Ohtani was hitting, Mike Trout was who he is, and all was right.
But May 25 marked the second half of the season for the Angels, and Minasian watched his offense plunge to second-worst in all of baseball for the remainder of the year. They sported a wRC+ of 86, one point lower than the Oakland Athletics team that lost 102 games.
The performance was collectively abysmal outside of individual highlights from Trout, Ohtani, and the occasional random heroics from an unknown source, a season that Minasian is understandably using for his motivation to bolster his club for a better run, via Sam Blum of The Athletic:
A reporter stated to him, “Obviously offense was kind of an issue for your guys.”
Minasian’s retort: “You can take the ‘kind of’ out.”
It takes quite some time to rebuild an organization, but with two of the premier players in all of baseball, and perhaps the game’s history, that timeline is even shorter. Minasian is tiptoeing a potential sale of the team and a razor-thin farm system while trying to dial-up a hail mary to avoid a swansong for Ohtani in Angel red.
Minasian has already been busy this offseason, acquiring Hunter Renfroe and Gio Urshela to boost the offense, and he added to their pitching staff by signing All-Star Tyler Anderson. It remains to be seen if it was enough to put the Angels back in contention, but the GM has at least acknowledged one of the team’s shortcomings.
Perry Minasian and Angels only willing to move Shohei Ohtani at deadline
The signing of starting pitcher Tyler Anderson via free agency and a few new additions to the starting lineup does provide a bit of buzz with the Angels, but the question of Ohtani’s future will undoubtedly be on the top of everyone’s mind in the upcoming season.
What isn’t certain is the team’s ability to keep him long-term. There are multiple factors that’ll go into that decision, including how competitive the team forecasts to be, where the roster stands, and frankly if Ohtani wants to stay with the Angels.
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