Injuries have begun to ramp up for the Los Angeles Angels starting rotation in recent weeks. Only Griffin Canning and Tyler Anderson remain from the original five-man rotation that began the 2024 season, forcing the Angels to turn to 27-year-old Davis Daniel for his first MLB start against the Detroit Tigers on Thursday.
Daniel made three relief appearances in 2023 and had never started a game in the big leagues. But with Reid Detmers in Triple-A, Chase Silseth still working back from injury, and Jose Soriano and Patrick Sandoval out, the Angels were left with little options. Daniel was solid in his three outings last season, but this would be a whole new challenge.
The young pitcher was completely unfazed. Daniel tossed eight shutout innings against the Tigers, striking out eight batters with no walks and allowing four hits. Only one runner reached scoring position for the Tigers in his eight innings. It gave the Angels an easy 5-0 victory in the series opener, the team’s fourth consecutive win.
He became the fourth pitcher in Angels history — Bill Kelso (1964), Andy Messersmith (1968) and Steve Kealey (1969) — to throw eight-plus scoreless innings in his first career start. And manager Ron Washington nearly allowed him to go for more in the career night, according to Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com:
“It was a historic night for Daniel,” manager Ron Washington said. “He was 21 in 26 first-pitch strikes. He changed speeds. He moved the ball around. He told me after the eighth he had more left but he might’ve needed to get to 115 pitches. And I wanted him to feel good about what he did.”
Daniel pointed to the few appearances he had last season as a confidence boost for when he was called upon to start on Thursday.
“The short stints I had last year gave me some confidence and helped me feel comfortable up here and know that I can get guys out at the highest level,” Daniel said. “And obviously, the more you do it, the more confidence you get, the better you feel.”
While Daniel can’t be expected to throw eight innings every time out, his first outing is certain to make the Angels feel better about their rotation moving forward despite all the injuries. If Silseth and Soriano can return soon to sit alongside Canning, Anderson and now Daniel, L.A. may have something interesting as they move closer to the trade deadline.
MLB executives think Taylor Ward is likely to be traded
The Angels have the fifth-worst record in Major League Baseball, but have a surprising amount of sought after talent. They have Ward, Jo Adell and Kevin Pillar in the outfield, Luis Rengifo in the infield and pitchers such as Anderson, Matt Moore, Carlos Estévez and more.
But of all their pieces, anonymous MLB executives believe Taylor Ward is the most likely to be traded. In fact, those same polled executives by Jim Bowden of The Athletic call Ward the third-most likely position player to be dealt at the deadline.