Only two months ago, the Los Angeles Angels were in the middle of the race for the playoffs. They risked everything at the trade deadline in an attempt to make the playoffs for the first time since 2014, but ultimately failed.

The Angels will now try to improve on their 73-89 record from the previous season. They need to win all three games this weekend against the Athletics to avoid losing 90 games. On July 31st, this squad was five games above.500.

There are a number of factors that contributed to the Angels’ drаmаtic decline. Many people were hurt. The management was terrible. The deadline-day additions they made did not help much. Any of these could be correct.

Some key players, who were counted on to take positive strides forward this season, instead took negаtive ones. All for Hunter Renfroe and Tyler Anderson, these five guys were on the team in 2022 and showed promise before taking a step back the following year.

1) Los Angeles Angels pitcher Patrick Sandoval’s decline in 2023

Last year, Patrick Sandoval had his breakout season, when he went 27-2 with a 2.91 ERA in 148 2/3 innings of work. He was reliable and effective over the entire season, giving the Angels hope for their future rotation.

The World Baseball Classic saw Sandoval continue his impressive play. In the World Baseball Classic, he pitched 7.1 scoreless innings while exuding tremendous confidence and passion. It appeared that he was going to have another great season, possibly even trying to make the all-star team.

Sandoval actually had a terrible year in 2023, thus this prediction was completely off. Although his 4.11 ERA wasn’t terrible, he gave up 23 unearned runs that mostly accounted for the rest of the team’s scoring.

Sandoval frequently squandered games right after an error was made by the Angels’ terrible defense. At T-Mobile Park, he got the start in which he surrendered eight runs, only one of which was legitimate. Although the Angels committed a few crucial errors in support of Sandoval, he still managed to allow Һit after Һit that ultimately proved fatal.

The ability is present. His goods are top-notch. That’s why it’s so disheartening to witness Sandoval’s growth slow to a crawl for an entire year. In 28 starts, he was only able to go five full innings eight times. Nine times out of ten, he only lasted six innings. Because he strives for perfection by painting corners rather than trusting the stuff he has, he frequently leaves games in the fifth or sixth inning with astronomical pitch totals.

The 26-year-old is too talented for me to give up on at this point. He needs to demonstrate that he can be more reliable as a pitcher. We’ve seen him in both good and bad light. We need more than just Sandoval’s usual high level of performance.

Los Angeles Angels pitcher Jaime Barria had a setback in 2023.

Many supporters predicted as much. In 2022, Jaime Barria was fantastic, with a 2.61 ERA in 35 appearances, albeit much of his success seemed to be the result of luck. Despite the impressive ERA, his FIP and xERA were both 4.39 and 4.11. He wasn’t even close to becoming a top-tier long man.

Barria was once again outstanding in his long relief role this season. To the point where when Jose Suarez went down with an ιnjury, the Angels rushed him into the starting lineup. Barria did okay as a starter, but not well enough to stay there permanently. Not since the Angels signed Lucas Giolito, anyway.

Barria’s second half has been terrible since he switched back to being a full-time reliever. In 16 outings across 28 innings, his ERA is 10.29. His ERA has skyrocketed from 3.31 in the first half to 5.68 as we enter the last weekend of the season after he blew the Sunday night ESPN game against the Astros in the Angels’ first series after the break.

Barria’s 5.68 ERA is accompanied by an even worse 6.07 FIP. He has been on fire for the duration of the second half and just can’t seem to get a break. Tendering him a contract for the 2024 season by the Angels would surprise me.

Third, Taylor Ward, an outfielder with the Los Angeles Angels, made a disappointing regression in 2023.

Taylor Ward, another Angel, had his breakout season in 2022 and was hoping to repeat that success with an all-star 2023 campaign. The unfortunate trutҺ is that it never materialized.

Ward’s OPS and OPS+ for the Halos dropped from.833 and 134, respectively, to.756 and 104 in the current season. His performance dropped from near-star status to merely above-average in 2023.

Due in large part to Ward’s poor performance, the Angels’ offense sputtered in the first half. He was swinging harder than he ever had before, and he was getting nowhere. The 80-point decline in his OPS can be partially explained by his shift away from the patient strategy that served him so well in 2022.

I believed the Angels outfielder looked strong defensively in left field after making the switch, but his bat was wildly unreliable even when he was fully healthy throughout the season. Once a sure thing at the top of the lineup, Ward is now a player whose status with the Halos is unknown. Let’s just hope everything is going well with his rehabilitation from getting smacked in the face in Toronto for now.

4) In 2023, Jose Suarez, a pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels, made a regrettable setback.

Most Angels fans have never really warmed up to Jose Suarez, the team’s starting pitcher. His 2022 season as a starter ended on a high note, but much of his success came against weaker opponents. He had never really demonstrated this over the course of an entire season or against top-tier competition.

Suarez was assured of a regular role in the rotation right away, despite his lack of experience. We can assume he did not take full advantage of the situation.

In his first six starts, the southpaw posted a 9.62 earned run average. Battles with the Mariners, Rangers, and Athletics all ended in brawls. There are 3 teams in this division who are competitors. True, in the first three innings he gave up seven runs to the Oakland Athletics, who are at 49-110.

Before landing on the IL and missing most of the season, Suarez was just uncompetitive as a starter. Since his September return, he has made four appearances and given up three runs in 6.1 innings. He’s improved a little bit in appearance, but not dramatically.

He has gone from being a sure thing to start on Opening Day in 2023 to a possible DFA candidate this summer. Unless it’s part of a trade, it seems unlikely that the Angels would let the 25-year-old leave.

5) In 2023, Reid Detmers, a pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels, made a regrettable setback.

Another Angels player that showed great promise in the second part of 2022 was Reid Detmers, who was anticipated to take a significant step forward this season. The now 24-year-old showed promise as a future ace starter for the Angels, especially after his no-hitter last season. Since the end of his 2023 season, he has become increasingly cryptic.

This stuff tastes great. Detmers had a 26.1 K%, striking out 168 batters in 148.2 innings of work. This is an improvement from his previous score of 22.6% in 2022. Unfortunately, his home run and walk rates both increased as well.

The southpaw finished strong, with a 4.48 ERA after a 2.20 ERA in his final five starts. As we entered September, his ERA was already over 5.00. That’s not even close to good enough for a man who was supposed to play a major role in the rotation.

Detmers had a decent season overall, as evidenced by the fact that he took a no-Һit bid into the eighth inning in Texas back in August. When he gave up seven runs in two innings in Houston a week before, we saw a lot of awful, too. The floor is rather low for Detmers, despite his high ceiling. The worst part about starting with him is that you never know what you’re going to get.

Unfortunately for the Angels, Detmers also had a 4.13 FIP, but at least it was better than the 3.79 he posted in 2017. He was able to avoid ιnjury and take the ball on the ground when the team needed him to, which is great to see, but I didn’t notice much development from the previous year.

Like Sandoval, we’re hoping he’ll be able to establish himself as a consistent starter in the starting lineup in 2024.