The Los Angeles Angels will have young starting rotation reinforcements on the way in the coming years and they have impressed in spring training and the WBC.
The World Baseball Classic is over, and spring training is wrapping up as the Major League Baseball regular season begins next week.
So much has happened over the last month between the WBC and spring training that it might have been hard to keep up with both at the same time. Each team is gearing up for the long 162-game season, and every player has had a different experience in preparation for that.
If your team has an All-Star player on its roster, chances are they made it onto a WBC roster. And if they didn’t, they got reps at spring training camp and did their best to make their respective MLB roster.
Several Los Angeles Angels players participated in the WBC, most notably left-handed starter Yusei Kikuchi (Team Japan), third baseman Yoan Moncada (Team Cuba) and prospect left-hander Sam Aldegheri (Team Italy).
Kikuchi made two appearances in the WBC; he started against Team Korea in the second game of pool play, pitching three innings while allowing three runs on six hits to go along with four strikeouts. His second appearance came in relief during the quarterfinal against Team Venezuela, the eventual winner of the tournament. He pitched a clean ninth inning and allowed just one hit with a strikeout, finishing the tournament with a 6.75 ERA.
Moncada played all four of Team Cuba’s pool play games and hit a two-run home run in his second at-bat against Team Panama but only got one hit in his last 11 at-bats. Moncada walked twice and struck out six times, finishing with a .154/.313/.462 slash line.
Aldegheri certainly turned heads with his performance for Team Italy. He started the first pool play game and was incredible: 4.2 innings, one hit, no runs, two walks and eight strikeouts on 63 pitches. His next outing wasn’t as sharp against Team Puerto Rico, but his team still walked away with the win. Aldegheri pitched 1.1 innings and gave up two runs on one hit and two walks while striking out just one hitter, finishing his WBC with a 3.00 ERA.
MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger believes Aldegheri, the Angels’ No. 17 prospect, could impact the starting rotation for the Halos at some point. Aldegheri isn’t the only Halos arm that has impressed this spring, either.
“The Angels have a lot of impressive young arms on the way, as 19 of their Top 30 prospects are pitchers and several of them have turned heads this spring, including No. 1 prospect Tyler Bremner, No. 2 prospect Ryan Johnson and No. 5 prospect George Klassen,” Bollinger wrote Wednesday.
Bremner has only made one appearance this spring due to refining his pitch mix and managing his workload after an elbow issue from last season but pitched a shutout inning while walking two batters and striking out one.
Johnson has appeared in four games and a great 10.8 strikeouts per nine innings (K/9) in 11.2 innings pitched. He has allowed six runs on 11 hits and has a 4.63 ERA, but he has 14 punchouts to just 2 walks.
Klassen has also appeared in four games and pitched 11.2 innings but carries a 3.86 ERA after allowing five runs on nine hits and five walks to go with 10 strikeouts.
Be on the lookout for these guys in the near future, especially if reclamation projects like righty Alek Manoah don’t end up making the team or injuries to the starting rotation occur.