2021 MLB Team Preview: Los Angeles Angels

2020 wasn’t very kind to the Los Angeles Angels, it was a disappointing year that saw the team struggle mightily at the pitcher’s mound. Now with a new general manager and some key additions during the offseason, they are primed to make another run at the postseason and this time hope to get more success. Will they be able to do it, or will they burn out?

What Happened Last Year

The Angles missed the postseason for the fifth straight year, a trend that the organization hopes to put an end to as soon as possible. They finished with a 26-34 record and were fourth place in the AL West division. The team still got fantastic play out of Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon as well as David Fletcher improving quite a bit. However, their starting pitchers threw a 5.52 ERA which went down as the second worst in the MLB. It also didn’t help them that they started the year off 2-8 before falling even further to 10-22 and by that point they were already out of contention despite a solid run to end the year. It is also worth mentioning that Julio Teheran was by far the worst pitcher in the league, starting nine games and 31 innings but never got any type of production out of him. He only had eight more strikeouts that home runs allowed.

Offseason Changes

The Angels decided to change a few things up by making some quality moves during the offseason. The team picked up Jose Quintana and Alex Cobb as they desperately tried to improve their pitching rotation that is without a key player. Then they decided to bring in a new closer in Raisel Iglesias who should be able to stabilize the bullpen. But the Angels weren’t done just yet, bringing in both Jose Iglesias and Dexter Fowler to replace some holes left behind by other players while also staying solid defensively. It seems like they made a flurry of nice moves, but it is yet to be known if they did enough to improve this season.

2021 Outlook

This Angels team definitely has talent and is always going to be solid with Trout and Rendon still on the roster, but they just don’t have enough to compete for the top spot in the AL West. It has been five years since they finished with a record above .500 and a lot of that falls on their pitching woes. The team is hoping that their new free agent acquisitions can put a stop to those issues and help them improve enough to come back into contention but that is yet to be seen. While they aren’t going to be the bottom feeders of the division, they aren’t going to be the top dogs either. You can expect them to finish in the middle of their below average division and most likely in third place. However, they do have a higher ceiling than some of those other teams and could possibly inch their way into second if things go their way.

Pick: 3^rd In Atlantic League West