Los Angeles Angels starting pitcher Patrick Sandoval was expected to take a major leap in 2023. After a 2022 campaign thaw him solidify himself as a promising cornerstone of the Halos rotation, he struggled to replicate that success when the calendar turned. His ERA jumped to 4.11 from 2.91, his WHIP went to 1.514 from 1.339, his strikeouts per nine innings dropped a full point and his walks per nine innings rose a full point.
Coming off of that difficult campaign, the Angels have doubled down on Sandoval. Shohei Ohtani’s departure makes Sandoval perhaps the top option to be the de facto ace in the Angels rotation. They have yet to name an Opening Day starter, but Sandoval seems the most likely given the other options of Tyler Anderson and Reid Detmers.
As Sandoval prepares for 2024 at Spring Training, he took a look back at 2023 and what specifically disappointed him about his performance, according to Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com:
“I’m not happy at all with the results of just my season personally and obviously how we ended up last year,” Sandoval said. “But I think consistency is key for me and being able to stay level-headed and not letting innings get too big. Just damage control, I guess.
“At times, in the longer innings my mechanics would get away from me,” Sandoval said. “Then I’d kind of zone back in. So the mental thing is one big cycle, I would say. So right now, I’m hammering down the mechanical stuff and the tempo of my delivery, and it’s really helping a lot.”
It seems he and the Angels have pinpointed the issues that plagued him in 2023, and that revolves around the “big inning.” Sandoval routinely found himself susceptible to innings getting away from him. He also had a 7.16 ERA in third innings, which is typically when the top of the order gets their second look at a pitcher.
Sandoval is still only 27 years old, meaning one less-than-ideal season shouldn’t define him moving forward. Sandoval’s 2022 and 2021 campaigns show the level of pitcher he can be, even if it wasn’t the pitcher he was last season.
Mike Trout pushing Angels to sign top free agents
Perhaps the only way Sandoval isn’t viewed as the ace in the Angels rotation is if Arte Moreno bucks his usual trends and forks over significant money for Blake Snell, who still remains on the free agent market. Mike Trout, for one, would be in favor of that move, as he has been pushing the Angels to land top free agents all offseason.