Key Angels Prospect Recovers From Brief Slump By Setting A Record

Arjun Nimmala has been talking himself up as a player who can produce offensively as an infielder, but the Los Angeles Angels prospect  slumped briefly before having a five-hit game in the Arizona Fall League on Thursday as the Mesa Solar Sox routed the Salt River Rafters by a score of 21-5 in Talking Stick. 

Nimmala went 5-for-7, per Sam Dykstra of MLB.com, and he had  a homer, a double, three runs scored, two RBIs and a stolen base in the rout. His five hits set an AFL record, although offensive records tend to drop quickly in the developmental league. 

The infielder also ended a seven-game slump in which the shortstop went 2-for-24 with ten strikeouts, although Dykstra noted that Nimmala did walk seven times during that stretch. His slump was noteworthy but not surprising, as many prospects produce roller coaster stats during the AFL season. 

Nimmala’s came back to earth after the slump, but his performance raised his OPS back up to .980, and the prospect said that  “Every great player goes through stretches, bad stretches, multiple times within a year.”

He obviously doesn’t lack for confidence, which is one of the keys to Nimmala’s game. So is high exit velocity, as his single in the game sped out to left field at 109.7 mph. His home run featured loud contact as well, and it also traveled 417 feet. According to Dykstra, five of his seven balls in play had exit velocities of at least 94.8. 

Nimmala’s slash line at Double-A was .260/.389/.577 over 27 games with the Rocket City Trash Pandas, and he helped the team win the Southern League championship. It was the first in the team’s history, and Nimmala was a key acquisition for the Angels when they cleaned house at the trade deadline. 

But changes are coming, and no one knows what they’ll mean just yet. Nimmala is exactly the sort of prospect who might have been rushed to the majors under the ownership regime of Arte Moreno, but a new farm director is coming in from outside the organization, along with a new GM and manager. A philosophy shift is coming, but there's no way to even guess as to how this might go. 

Angels fans are hoping this happens quickly enough for the Halos to make some moves at the GM meetings that start on Nov. 9, but that’s tbd as well. There are plenty of MLB teams in limbo right now, but the Halos may have the foggiest situation in baseball at the moment.