Even though I’ve never quite had a prototypical beach bod, you couldn’t keep me and my Pop from spending hours in the Atlantic City sand with his trusty metal detector — and nothing would deny me that satisfaction of finding treasure in the hunt. But this isn’t a story going down memory lane. Instead, let’s zoom to the future. And then reminisce on the present.
It’ll all make sense. Just know this — this is a story about how, in retrospect, Shohei Ohtani’s departure from the Angels was actually a good thing for them (and fantasy baseball players) in a crazy “addition by subtraction” way that nobody else is noticing.
The year is 2054. In a bid to share my most cherished childhood memories with my legacy, I take the grandkids and wife of 40 years (and the metal detector) down to A.C. Five minutes into our excursion, the detector starts beeping. Off goes little Johnny like a shot! Before I can offer him a shovel, the boy is shoulder-deep in the sand and yells “I found something! It’s… a really nice ring!” You wouldn’t believe it if I told you — but right there in his hand was a Los Angeles Angels championship ring… from the year 2024.
So what the heck happened?
That memorable 2024 season started like so many before it for Halo fans, with widespread deflation feeling as valid as ever. Every gray cloud on the coast seemed to gather immediately with the departure of history’s greatest ballplayer, Shohei Ohtani (and *no one* — outside of maybe 2001 Mariners fans — could have guessed that his subtraction would indeed become addition of the highest order). Opening Day ended without much fanfare, the way most expected, in an 11-3 beatdown by the defending AL East champion Orioles — and if you listened carefully enough in the parking lot before that first game, you could hear people arguing over which brand of paste Arte Moreno prefers eating most.
Well, baseball seasons are marathons, not sprints. And really, for the 2024 Angels, it was more like a long line of dominoes — positive ones! — falling after Ohtani left.
THE OFFENSE
It never hurts building a roster around a generational talent and one of the best pound-for-pound hitters in history. Mike Trout hit an Opening Day homer off Corbin Burnes, the first of a monumental run at one of the greatest seasons ever. With Ohtani finally out of the way and no longer clogging up everyday DH duties, Trout could finally manage his health properly. At age 32, Mike Trout went beyond nuclear as the ninth player to hit 60-plus bombs, but only the second since Babe Ruth to hit +.340 while doing it. With the ultimate version of Trout anchoring the offense, the rest fell into place without having to squint much to see it. Zach Neto got off to a crazy start in Spring Training (.310 BA, 3 3B, 3 HR, 4 SB) so maybe we should have seen it coming — after all, the young man had fewer than 200 total professional plate appearances before his promotion.
While that particular offseason felt devoid of player acquisitions for the Angels, I’m not sure anything could be further from the truth. When compared to the prior year’s lineup from mid-August, Brandon Drury was the only Angel still starting by the time 2024 rolled around. Avoiding injuries is a funny thing in baseball, and it was finally the Halos’ turn to laugh. Taylor Ward missed time in ’23 after getting plunked in the dome and he returned with a bang. Anthony Rendon apparently found inner peace and posted more PAs (625) in 2024 than he had in his entire previous Los Angeles career. And then of course 2024 spurned the legend of pulled flyball king Logan O’Hoppe, the eighth backstop in history to connect for 40-plus bombs. Wow, looking back, it really was an exciting squad.
THE ROTATION
Most teams aim to set their best foot forward and roll out their ace starting pitcher on Opening Day — but not the 2024 Angels. Patrick Sandoval walked off the bump with a +16 ERA, adding to the pessimism of a potential hundred-loss season. Maybe more Angels fans should have been following my work way back when.
I remember it as if it were just a few days ago — writing a bold prediction article for The Athletic, unable to choose which of my two favorite young starters would go off that year. Turns out there was no wrong answer between the winged lion Griffin Canning and 2024’s fantasy league winner, Chase is on the case Silseth. Turns out, Ohtani leaving didn’t just benefit Trout and the offense but positively impacted the staff, as well.
Moving back to a more conventional five-man rotation helped Canning parlay his command and fourseam/slider combo into 15 wins and a remarkable +33% CSW, only to be overshadowed by his Cy Young vote-getting teammate. For all the losses I’d taken publicly as an analyst and handicapper over the decades, we nailed the 2024 Silseth call; and I have family vacation photos to prove it. Not only did Mr. Silseth maintain two separate +33% whiff offerings, he leveled up their efficacy by featuring the sweeper to RHH and split-finger to LHH. As April’s game data rolled in, I remember thinking the spin numbers had to be off — the same pitcher with Top 30 SP fourseam rpm (2402) also had a Bottom 10 1132 rpm spin rate among split-fingers? That has to be among, if not the, widest disparity in MLB. No wonder he was able to overcome lack of extension and average diagnostics to such extraordinary results. At least it helped us learn what to look for in the future…
THE REST
Health plus talent begat enough early winning to transform the normal downtrodden tenor around Angel-town into unfamiliar positive vibes, resonating all the way up to ownership.
Having just saved a quadrillion dollars not retaining Ohtani, Moreno eventually blew the dust off his wallet and went on a mid-season shopping spree. The Angels shored up three phases of their game at the All-Star break, acquiring all the best available expiring contracts in Pete Alonso, Shane Bieber, and Kenley Jansen. And this was all around the same time that Robert Stephenson would return to absolute dominance out of the bullpen, catalyzing an equally successful second half. Managing to win close games down the stretch earned a postseason bid in an expanded format, and the rest as they say, was history.
Hopefully even the non-Angels fans had some fun thinking about variance and ranges of outcomes as we spiraled down my halo-themed rabbit hole. For anyone who eye-rolled their way through this waiting for pertinent fantasy advice, I can assure you we’ll be bringing that by the boatload every single Friday right here. Let’s at least recap all the potential Week 1 adds worth monitoring…
Top Weekend Targets By Position
- Travis D’Arnaud, C, ATL
- Cavan Biggio, 1B/2B, TOR
- Brendan Donovan, 2B/OF, STL
- Jordan Westburg, 3B/2B, BAL
- Zach Neto, SS, LAA
- Victor Scott II, OF, STL
- Garrett Crochet, SP, CHW
- Abner Uribe, RP, MIL
(Pic of Zach Neto: Steph Chambers/Getty Images; top photo: Katharine Lotze/Getty Images, Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
