The blog's annual 'Uncustomed Heroes' series, spending all of December commemorating great seasons that weren't awarded custom cards in-season, team by team, begins, as usual, with a look at the ongoing tragedy of the Los Angeles Angels. Unlike recent years, where the team struggles to get anywhere despite having Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, the team struggled to get anywhere despite having Mike Trout, and only having him for a month. Seeing Ohtani get a ring the second he leaves Anaheim must not have been good for the Angels' morale.
To this team's credit, Trout's play during April did give this team more of a chance than they had for the remainder of the season. This was still peak Trout, as the 32-year old spent his 29 games of the 2024 season hitting .220 with 10 home runs and 14 RBIs. And that's the damning stat- 10 homers, and for a while they were mainly solo homers, and only 14 RBIs, meaning other than the 10 times he batted himself home, there were only 4 other opportunities he made to score runs. He also stole 6 bases on 7 attempts, so those numbers were back up. And then, as he tends to this decade, Trout got hurt and missed the rest of the season. This time felt especially heartbreaking, as you can tell he's getting tired of missing all this time.
2025 Prediction: I genuinely think this is gonna be his fullest season since 2019, and it's gonna be a Griffey-in-2005-esque return to form.
Patrick Sandoval remains one of the chief starting weapons the Angels have, and though he's under team control for a couple more years, there is the worry that he'll truly hit his best years once he's out of Anaheim. To this point, 2024 was an injury-addled season following two fuller ones, where Sandoval's ERA rose over 5 with a 2-8 record. Simply put, Sandoval was not healthy this year, and by the end of June he was done for the year.
2025 Prediction: As he is currently undergoing UCL surgery, misses a couple months. I do think he'll be firmer and more consistent when he does eventually show up, though I'm guessing that'll be a second half thing. I'm not sure who it'll be for, though, and someone may need to take a flier on him.
It's funny that the Angels now have two different huge prospects that now just sit in the middle of their lineup and strike out 150 times a year. Jo Adell is the homegrown version of this, as he was a huge organizational piece in the late 2010s, was heralded upon his call-up, and hasn't done a dang thing in the majors. After four seasons of bobbing between Anaheim and the minors and not finding the sweet spot up here, Adell had his fullest, most consistent year yet...as a fill-in for Mike Trout. Adell, in 130 games, hit .207 with 20 home runs, 62 RBIs and 15 stolen bases. Those aren't terrible numbers, and they're the best numbers of Adell's career, but considering where the Angels thought Adell would be by this point, it's pretty underwhelming.
2025 Prediction: I actually think he's gonna improve even further, but if the strikeouts are still an issue he might go the way of Joey Bart.
The other former top-ranked prospect who the Angels just have lying around now is former Phillies #1 overall pick Mickey Moniak, who struggled during his development and was swapped for Noah Syndergaard in 2022. This season Moniak had some pretty heroic moments during the second half, but it took a rocky first half to get there. Moniak finished with 14 homers and 49 RBIs, as well as a .219 average. For a team that really doesn't have much right now, he's at least a partial crowdpleaser.
2025 Prediction: 20+ homers but a lot of 'but's.
The big surprise of the year for the Angels was Kevin Pillar, who, after being too mediocre for even the 2024 Chicago White Sox, was picked up and immediately caught fire. Pillar's May was incredible, as in 19 games he hit .409 with 5 home runs and 21 RBIs, immediately catching the attention of most of the league. Of course, his subsequent numbers couldn't match up, and so he hung on as a sort of above average hitting outfielder [he only hit 2 homers the whole rest of the season], but that May alone made his season worthy.
2025 Prediction: He'll be 36, so I don't think he'll top that, but he'll be moderately interesting in a minor role for a competitor.
And finally...Anthony Rendon. Not since Cameron Crowe has someone taken a paycheck as a sign to never be good again. Since joining the Angels, Rendon has rarely showed any of the full baseball prowess he held on a daily basis in Washington. This season was more of the same, but with a new clarification from Rendon that, no, he didn't dislike playing baseball. And so through 19 games, it seemed like Rendon's energy was back, with a .267 average. Then he gets hurt again. And this time, for once in Anaheim, he actually seemed to be frustrated that he would be missing playing time and sitting in his mansion with all his money. He did come back for about a month but, of course, he got hurt again. So the former MVP candidate finished the season with a .218 average, 14 RBIs and no home runs.
2025 Prediction: Can it get any worse? Yes. We just don't know how yet. But it will.
Coming Tomorrow- Dispatches from the Astros team that, after seven years, failed to make an ALCS.
"Ongoing tragedy" is spot on. And why did you have to mention Rendon, now I'll be cursing under my breath and in a sour mood all day.
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