Sooner or later, the Los Angeles Angels will sign or trade for a player who’s healthy and productive, right? Right?? Anyone???
Sorry, not this week. This week the Angels traded for a Josh Lowe, an outfielder who does make them better defensively, but Lowe’s slash line of .220/.283/.366 is just too depressing. And as Keith Law of The Athletic noted, Lowe’s line of .165/.224/.235 against lefties “hurt me just to type.”
The defensive aspect of this deal isn’t much more encouraging, at least not in terms of the recent history. According to Law, Lowe has underperformed on both sides of the ball for the last two years, probably as a function of conditioning.
He should be an above average to plus runner and at least an average corner outfielder, but it remains to be seen if the reports that Lowe has gotten himself in excellent shape this season are actually true.
A deeper dive into Lowe’s offensive struggles are even more discouraging. His overall approach at the plate has gone to pieces, according to Lowe, with a 25 percent whiff rate on pitches in the zone and a chase rate that ranked in the bottom 10 percent of all MLB hitters, which would have made Lowe a great fit with last year’s Angels.
Law also notes that Lowe isn’t hitting the ball all that hard, either. Both his exit velocity and hard-hit ball rate are below average, and the best he’s been able to do in the last couple of years is make himself a viable option as the strong side of a platoon.
Can the Angels get him back to the point? That remains to be seen, but it’s hard to think of anything other than a reluctance to spend money as the reason why the Angels would trade for this kind of player to be part of their outfield rotation.
The good news is they didn’t give up much, at least when it comes to Chris Clark. The right-handers was godawful at High-A Try city in 2024, posting an ERA of 6.09, and right now he projects as an emergency middle reliever. As Law points out, though, he did go to Harvard, so perhaps a front-office job awaits. Then again, maybe not.
Burke, on the other hand, was more than serviceable. He’s a sinker/slider lefty who had a 53.3 percent ground ball rate, and his ERA of 3.36 last year was more than serviceable, although his walk rate was a little high. But this is the Angels, and they value pitchers coming off injuries more than pitchers who can actually take the mound and pitch, so he’ll do exactly that for the Cincinnati Reds while helping their bullpen.