Anaheim, CA

HOUSTON — Consider the plight of the poor Houston Astros. The reigning champions have gone 18-10 since the All-Star break. With José Altuve and Yordan Álvarez both back from injury, they’re averaging an AL-leading six runs scored. With Justin Verlander reacquired at the trade deadline, the rotation has been reinforced.

Yet they’ve been unable to gain ground in the American League West. They came out of the break two games behind the Texas Rangers and four games ahead of a Seattle Mariners team clamoring to unseat them in the wild-card standings. A month later, they’re two-and-a-half back of the Rangers, and the Mariners, still four back of the Astros, have climbed within a game-and-a-half game of the final wild-card berth. The Astros, after six straight seasons of steamrollering to at least an ALCS appearance, now find themselves in a division rife with contenders in a league that also encompasses the heavy-hitting AL East, in which even the last-place team has a winning record.

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It was in this ecosystem that the Los Angeles Angels — owners of an AL West fourth-place 45-46 record through the first half— decided to push all their chips in this year.

They’ve gone 14-14 since the break. Nine of those losses have come after the team opted to add at the deadline. Indeed, between the All-Star break and the end of July, the Angels’ odds of making the playoffs, according to FanGraphs, nearly doubled from 10.8% to 19.5%. Two weeks later, in the middle of a road trip that takes them through the two Texas teams atop the standings, they’re down to 1.6%.

The Angels are a special case. Their goal is the same as that of every other team — to play meaningful baseball down the stretch, to make the playoffs, to do something memorable once they get there — but underneath that is a cause for desperation matched only by an apparent inability to do anything about it. For nine years, they’ve been the team that needs to get Mike Trout back to the postseason. Six years ago, when Shohei Ohtani picked the Angels above, to some degree or another, 29 other suitors, that imperative was heightened.

The Angels’ maddening run of mediocrity is not merely a disappointment; it’s almost an industry crisis. Baseball is not a star-driven sport, but sports is a star-driven business. During Trout's and Ohtani’s tenure as teammates, they’ve made a combined eight All-Star appearances and won five Silver Sluggers, one Rookie of the Year award and soon-to-be three MVPs. They’ve also never played on a team that finished the season with a winning record.

This year arrived with extra urgency. After the season, Ohtani will become a free agent. The expectation is that, because the Angels can’t win, he will leave. They need to contend this year because it could be their last best chance for a while to do so and because it is their only chance to retain baseball’s most enigmatic unicorn.

The Angels never seriously considered trading Ohtani. You could argue that the chance to watch him finish out the regular season with the team was enough of a justification, and their hot start to the second half made it easy to not just stay the course but also sacrifice some future value in service of Going For It with gusto. The plan was always to contend. A crowded wild-card field and public hand-wringing about the possibility of losing Ohtani for “nothing” couldn’t convince the Angels otherwise when they were so close in the standings with so much season left to play.

The chances of it backfiring were high even before the hindsight kicked in. Not because the Angels are cursed or incompetent or because cynicism is inherently smarter. The point of sports is to try to win — and sometimes that means even when the odds are stacked against you. Yet each loss stacked up since the deadline has made the hope look a little more far-fetched, and the possibility of wasting Ohtani’s best season yet seems a little starker.

And so the Angels embarked on a six-game road trip against the Astros and Rangers at an even .500 with 46 games remaining in the season.

“There’s a lot of baseball, a lot of baseball to be played,” Angels general manager Perry Minasian told reporters before the first game in Houston. “We’re going to put our best foot forward. I still believe in this team. There are a lot of good players here.”

Less than 48 hours later, the Angels had given up 22 runs and scored just six in two games. Ohtani’s homer-less streak had swelled to a season-high eight games. The team's playoff odds had plummeted to just about 1%. And Ohtani, who has been the Angels’ best starting pitcher in a season in which his offensive production has generally outpaced his pitching, told the team that he needed to give his arm a break.

In addition to everything else, Ohtani has been remarkably reliable and resilient this year. He has appeared in more games than any other Angels player as a designated hitter and made the most starts on the mound. (Sometimes, of course, doing both on the same day.) He has earned the team’s trust and the right to some rest. On Sunday, the Angels announced that they would skip his next start.

Before the final game of the series, Minasian told Yahoo Sports that he still believed the Angels had time to turn it around.

When, though, would that time run out?

“I don’t know,” Minasian said. “We need to play better. Playing how we played out of the trade deadline is not going to get us to where we want to go, that’s for sure. Hopefully it starts today.”

The Angels beat the Astros 2-1 on Sunday, forestalling the death knell of a sweep. Ohtani hit the decisive home run — 110 mph, 448 feet, his AL-leading 41st of the season — so there could be no doubt. But the problem remains that he cannot always be the deciding factor. The Angels head to Arlington 6.5 games back of the final AL wild-card spot.

And with just 43 games to go, even the wins represent a waning of the season. Odds are, it’s already too late.

The jaw of Patrick Sandoval appeared clenched tightly after walking in a run with two outs in the third. He knew his night would be done if he could not retire Marcus Semien. But he also could not throw a strike.

Sandoval always wears his emotions on his sleeve. And he looked to be doing everything in his power to hold them in as he walked off the mound.

Then he watched alone from the dugout bench as a run was added to his ledger on a Griffin Canning wild pitch. The Los Angeles Angels lost 12-0 to the Texas Rangers. Manager Phil Nevin called out the team’s focus. It was a futile effort as the Angels season drifts to irrelevance.

Starting pitching was supposed to be a strength of this team. Particularly the young starters. Instead, it’s been at the root of their failures as any shred of hope for a postseason run evaporates.

“I just pitched like s—,” Sandoval said. “I didn’t fill the zone up. Didn’t pick up my teammates. … Just a tough loss.”

The Athletic requested to speak with Angels pitching coach Matt Wise last week about, well, the pitchers. However, under a revised policy, the team only allows coaches to speak to the media on a case-by-case basis.

The team did not permit Wise to speak to The Athletic about this topic because the potential line of questioning was deemed too negative. The team said it prefers Nevin, who has no background in pitching, to handle such questions.

Wise, though unable to discuss these issues, has overseen a steep regression from the pitching staff in 2023. It has a 4.56 ERA, which ranks 23rd in the majors. It ranks in the bottom 10 in WHIP (1.38), home runs (151), walks (459) and quality starts (37). Just a year after it ranked in or near the top 10 in those same categories.

The Angels banked on their young starters’ taking a step forward. Instead, they’ve gone a step back. They assumed Tyler Anderson — an All-Star in 2022 — would be solid again this season. That hasn’t been the case. Even Shohei Ohtani, who should shoulder no blame, has been less dominant on the mound in 2023.

“It’s pitch selection. It’s understanding when a good time to throw balls are,” Nevin said of his staff Aug. 5. “Where to throw on the plate. That’s everything we talk about each day, and try to get them better at. Obviously, we struggled with that lately.”

Reid Detmers has a 5.27 ERA and a 1.412 WHIP. He allowed 29 runs over his last 25 2/3 innings. The lefty has coughed up four more homers this year and nine more earned runs and that’s with 21 1/3 fewer innings pitched. Walks, wild pitches, hit-by-pitches — all up.

Detmers’ fastball is getting hit a lot harder in 2023, with a .295 batting average against, compared with .232 last season. The average exit velocity is up by 1.2 miles per hour, which is not insignificant.

He has made some other sequencing changes — mostly abandoning his changeup and using his slider more. Detmers has said this season that he’s tinkered in-game with his mechanics, specifically with grip and wrist placement. And that it’s been hard for him to find something that consistently works.

Angels pitching coach Matt Wise, left, catcher Chad Wallach and starting pitcher Tyler Anderson head to the dugout before a baseball game against the White Sox early this season. (Charles Rex Arbogast / Associated Press)

Nevin said Wise has worked with Detmers on pitching to contact more, and not trying to strike everyone out. It’s unclear how his penchant for striking guys out, however, is at the root of his failures on the mound.

“He’s got to throw more of his pitches and more consistently for strikes,” Nevin said. “That’s basically it. Pitch to contact, not try to strike everybody out. I think he’s kind of got into that rut.”

Sandoval has a 4.09 ERA after posting a 2.91 ERA last year, despite a recent run of success entering Monday’s disaster. Overall, he has nearly matched his walk total from last season, despite throwing 35 1/3 fewer innings.

The lefty is still a slightly above-average MLB starter, based on his ERA+. But the expectation was that he would take another step closer to becoming an ace.

His whiff numbers have dipped to 28.2 percent, as he’s now just about league average on generating swings-and-misses in the zone. He previously was well above average in that respect.

Sandoval’s velocity is down slightly across the board. He relies on his very strong slider and changeup to play against an otherwise weaker fastball. However, the batting average against his slider is up to .263, compared with .201 last year.

“Just all of them honestly,” Sandoval said when asked whether he struggled Monday with a particular pitch. “I probably threw more balls than strikes. I threw a ton of pitches in 2 2/3 and it’s not a recipe for success.”

Among the other starters, Anderson has seen his walks explode this year. He has 47 in 109 innings after posting just 34 in 178 2/3 innings with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He has a 5.28 ERA. It’s been a bad year.

Ohtani’s walks are also up quite a bit. He has 10 more in 2023 than in 2022 but in 35 1/3 fewer innings.

There was hope José Suarez would become a rotation mainstay. Instead, he allowed nine homers and 15 walks in 24 1/3 innings. He was the worst starter in baseball for the first month before being shelved on the injured list with a shoulder injury.

There have been some success stories on the Angels pitching staff. Carlos Estévez is one of the best closers in baseball. Chase Silseth has been elite in his last four starts since being recalled from Triple A. Matt Moore has been dependable. And Canning, despite some hiccups, has regained the form of a major-league starter, albeit an inconsistent one.

But those stories have been greatly overshadowed by regressions across the staff, and even among the bullpen.

It’s unfair to place all the blame on Wise because he has not been enabled by the organization to speak to these issues. He deserves his say.

The results, however, are the results. And results always speak for themselves.

(Top photo of Patrick Sandoval: Ron Jenkins / Getty Images)

Los Angeles Angels star Shohei Ohtani will miss his next scheduled pitching start on Wednesday against the Texas Rangers to rest his arm.

The two-way star will not take any time off as the team’s designated hitter, but is taking a break from pitching due to arm fatigue, manager Phil Nevin told reporters ahead of the team's matchup with the Houston Astros on Sunday.

“He feels good at the plate,” Nevin said via the Associated Press. “He feels healthy swinging at bat. It’s just the (throwing) right now, he’s got some normal arm fatigue that happens at times.”

Nevin emphasized Ohtani is not injured, telling reporters the right-hander would return to the rotation during a series at home against the Reds that begins Aug. 21.

“I’ve told you guys many times he knows his body better than anybody,” Nevin said. “I trust him when he talks about it. He’s assured me there’s no pain, there’s no injury. He’s got some regular arm fatigue that some go through at times. I trust him when he tells me this and he’ll be ready for his next time out.”

The 29-year-old went into Sunday's game with a 3.17 ERA as a pitcher, though he had to leave a start after just four innings earlier this month due to difficulty extending his right middle finger. As a hitter, he notched his AL-leading 41st home run of the season in Sunday's 2-1 Angels win over the Astros.

Ohtani has played in 116 of the Angels' 118 games as of Sunday, starting as a pitcher in 22 of those them. His break from serving as a starting pitcher comes as he hasn't received a day off since early May. He hasn't technically been removed from a game before its end since July 28, a pull that came in the ninth inning.

While the most interesting part of the summer is tracking the unrestricted free agents, we typically see some of the more interesting names on the restricted free agent side.

There was no shortage of names worth following this summer, including Alex DeBrincat, Troy Terry, Vince Dunn, K’Andre Miller, Bowen Byram and Ilya Samsonov, among others. But with training camps about a month away, there are still a few others to keep a close eye on.

According to CapFriendly, 14 of the league’s 32 teams have under $1 million in cap space, with eight sitting over the cap. A few of those teams still have moves to make, including with RFAs.

This year’s RFA class is like a buffet; there’s so much to offer, from elite game-changing forwards to mobile defensemen and third-line grinders. Let’s take a look at the top 10 remaining RFAs:

Trevor Zegras, C/LW, 22 (Anaheim Ducks)

2022-23 salary cap hit: $925,000

Zegras has taken the patient route, waiting things out similar to Troy Terry. Zegras notched 23 goals and 45 assists for a team-leading 65 points in 81 games last season—the second straight season that he has surpassed the 20-goal and 60-point threshold. The Bedford, New York product has already garnished a list of achievements throughout his young career. He won a 2021 world junior gold medal with the United States, is a top-10 draft pick and was the EA Sports NHL 23 video game cover boy. In 189 NHL games, Zegras has tallied 49 goals and 90 assists for 139 points.

Jamie Drysdale, D, 21 (Anaheim Ducks)

2022-23 salary cap hit: $925,000

Drysdale appeared in just eight games this season after getting injured early in the season in a game against the Vegas Golden Knights. He had to undergo surgery for a torn labrum. Picking up a season-ending injury is tough for anyone, let alone a 20-year-old just starting his career. The season prior, he notched 32 points in 81 games and produced 12 power-play points in his first full season. Drysdale has registered 40 points over 113 games, emerging as a solid offensive defender.

Shane Pinto, C, 22 (Ottawa Senators)

2022-23 salary cap hit: $925,000

After a setback in 2021-22 following shoulder surgery, Pinto rebounded and scored 20 goals during his freshman campaign. He finished the season with 20 goals and 15 assists for 35 points in 82 games while starting the season as the league’s rookie of the month for October. Pinto plays a solid two-way game, and while he isn’t flashy, he gets the job done. He is expected to be on the second power-play unit and will get a lot of opportunities to play with Dominik Kubalik, Drake Batherson and Jakob Chychurn.

Evan Bouchard, D, 23 (Edmonton Oilers)

2022-23 salary cap hit: $863,333

Bouchard has become a staple on the Oilers’ blueline. The 23-year-old has notched back-to-back 40-point seasons while seeing his opportunities climb with Tyson Barrie’s trade to Nashville. The Oakville, Ontario native has become the quarterback of the first power-play unit. The arrival of Mattias Ekholm alleviated some defensive-zone pressure for Bouchard, which was nice. Bouchard notched 17 points in 12 games during the Oilers’ Stanley Cup playoff run and is up to 89 points in 184 games.

Alexis Lafreniere, LW/RW, 21 (New York Rangers)

2022-23 salary cap hit: $925,000

The first pick in 2020, Lafreniere notched a career-high 39 points (16 goals, 23 assists) in 81 games last season. His third-line ice time has him averaging 14:25 per night over his first three seasons, and he’s been largely relegated to the second power play. The Rangers would have loved to see much more from a player that dominated the QMJHL in his draft year. Instead, he’s still trying to find his footing.

Morgan Frost, C, 24 (Philadelphia Flyers)

2022-23 salary cap hit: $800,000

The Philadelphia youngin is coming off a healthy, 19-goal, 46-point season. His value has only increased after the club traded Kevin Hayes, and the lost season of Sean Couturier last year. While the Flyers do have extra cap space, it seems the route they will be going is a bridge deal. In March, the Aurora, Ontario product told reporters, “I want to be here next year. I want to be here for the long run.” General Manager Danny Briere already took care of fellow RFAs Cam York and Noah Cates with two-year bridge deals, and, soon, Frost could be next.

Calen Addison, D, 23 (Minnesota Wild)

2022-23 salary cap hit: $795,000

During the 2022-23 season, Addison notched three goals and 26 assists for 29 points in 62 games while averaging 16:07 ice time. After the Wild moved on from defensemen Matt Dumba and John Klingberg, Addison will see an increase in minutes, including a promotion to the second pairing. The Wild have just $1.6 million in cap space, so Addison will need to come in cheap, potentially on a bridge deal.

Joe Veleno, C, 23 (Detroit Red Wings)

2022-23 salary cap hit: $894,167

Joe Veleno has become a regular in the Red Wings’ lineup over the past two campaigns. During the 2022-23 season, Veleno tallied nine goals and 11 assists for a career-high 20 points in 81 games. Consistency has been an issue—Veleno went pointless for a 20-game stretch this past season from mid-February to the end of March. There is also the whole ‘stomping incident’ that unfolded at the World Championship. GM Steve Yzerman already inked J.T. Compher, Daniel Sprong, Klim Kostin, and Christian Fischer to deals while also acquiring Alex DeBrincat from the Senators. With spots dwindling down, it seems like Veleno will once again be situated in the bottom six, assuming the Red Wings keep him around.

Logan Stanley, D, 25 (Winnipeg Jets)

2022-23 salary cap hit: $863,333

A few months ago, Stanley reportedly requested a trade out of Manitoba. After dealing with injuries throughout the campaign, the 6-foot-7 defender had three points in 19 games. The former Memorial Cup champion has registered 20 points in 114 games with the Jets. He has just three goals in three years, so offense isn’t really his thing. But Stanley can get in your way and make people miserable, so that’s where he can become valuable.

Tim Berni, D, 23 (Columbus Blue Jackets)

2022-23 salary cap hit: $925,000

The Blue Jackets qualified Swiss defenseman Tim Berni following the 2022-23 campaign, which saw him register just three points. Berni’s calm, poised style of defense matched well with rugged veteran tough-guy Erik Gudbranson as the two spent many minutes together. In a perfect world, the Blue Jackets' defense will be healthy and reliable next season. With the addition of Damon Severson and Ivan Provorov, plus the emergence of David Jiricek, making the Blue Jackets will be difficult. But Berni’s experience will definitely come in handy in a pinch.

This article first appeared on Daily Faceoff and was syndicated with permission.

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