Well, that series against the Yankees exposed some of the lingering issues with the Mariners roster, as currently constructed. Left-handed pitching is going to be a huge problem for this extremely lefty-heavy lineup throughout the season, and there really isn’t much relief in sight — J.P. Crawford is back from his brief IL stint but bats left-handed and newly-extended Cole Emerson does too. It’s very early days so we shouldn’t put much stock into just seven games. Anyway, I’m sure this lineup will start hitting a bit better as soon as they hit the road. Speak of the devil Angels. The Mariners embark on the first road trip of the season with stops in Anaheim and Arlington.
It’s so hard to parse who the Angels believe themselves to be. Are they trying to win? Gambling on bounce back seasons from guys like Grayson Rodriguez, Alek Manoah, and Josh Lowe isn’t a terrible idea if they’re looking to uncover some undervalued players but none of them are impact players in 2026. Are they building for the future? Signing four relievers with an average age of 36 and carrying Adam Frazier on the Opening Day roster instead of top prospect Christian Moore sends the wrong message. In an era where front office decision making has largely been homogenized by analytics, the Angels stand out as an outlier in the worst way possible. It’s easy to rag on them because things are so bleak for the franchise, but also, things are dire in Anaheim. Do you think the visitor’s clubhouse has air conditioning?
For a brief moment during the first weekend of the season, Mike Trout was leading all of baseball in fWAR. He had a fantastic opening series against Houston, blasting two home runs, collecting six hits, and even stealing a bag. Then, he went hitless in three games against the Cubs to start this week. Zach Neto and Jo Adell are two of the most important players for the Angels’ future. The former has quietly developed into one of the best young shortstops in baseball over the last few years while the latter finally broke out last season after years of stalled development. Nolan Schanuel could be a core piece of the future if he could ever figure out how to hit for just a little more power. His bat-to-ball skills give him a decent floor, but right now, he’s profiling a bit too much like Casey Kochman.
Last year, the Angels moved Reid Detmers to the bullpen and he wound up seeing some high leverage work by the end of the season. Perhaps it was out of frustration with his slow development path despite possessing above average stuff, but that experiment lasted one season because a talented starter — even an inconsistent one like Detmers — is always going to be more valuable than a back-end reliever. If there’s one thing that he’ll carry forward from his time in the ‘pen, it’s a more aggressive approach that leans heavily on his two fantastic breaking balls to put batters away. He’s also added a splitter to his repertoire this spring in the hopes that it gives him a weapon to keep right-handed batters at bay.
There’s a pretty serious disconnect between Jack Kochanowicz’s high velocity and extremely miniscule strikeout rate. Sure, he throws a sinker as his primary fastball, but his entire repertoire is simply too hittable. It’s really not a good thing when each of your pitches has an expected wOBA over .350. And when he pitches in the zone, batters run a contact rate over 90%, an outrageously high rate. That has forced him to start pitching out of the zone more often, but his secondary pitches just aren’t optimized to earn swings and misses. It’s a vicious cycle where his arsenal isn’t good enough to overpower batters, but not deceptive enough to get them to chase. Without those strikeouts, we’re left with a groundball specialist who doesn’t have great command and allows way too many balls in play. It’s not a great profile.
Ryan Johnson is a perfect encapsulation of everything wrong with the Angels current player development philosophy. He was drafted in the second round in 2024 after dominating in college ball at Dallas Baptist. He made the Opening Day roster in 2025 as a reliever, skipping the minor leagues entirely. After a month and a half and a 7.36 ERA, the Angels pulled the plug and sent him to High-A to continue his development as a starter. He made 12 starts in the minors and looked really good. Fast forward a year and Johnson had a solid, but not outstanding, spring training and Los Angeles opted to start the season with Johnson on the big league roster again. His first start of the season did not go well; he lasted just 3.1 innings against the Cubs, allowing six runs on seven hits and four walks while striking out just two. It’s really too bad because Johnson has a really intriguing profile, and obviously has some raw talent, but the games the Angels have played with his development pathway have really hurt his ability to grow.
The Astros swept the Red Sox earlier this week, pushing their early season win streak to five games. They’ll travel to Sacramento this weekend, starting a long road trip that culminates in Seattle next week. The A’s offense has started the season in a huge funk, but maybe returning to the friendly confines of Sutter Health Park will give them the spark they need. The Rangers won their series against Baltimore and will open up their home slate with a series against the Reds this weekend.