Top 41 Prospects: Los Angeles Angels

Detmers only made 13 minor league starts before the Angels summoned him to the majors. In truth, he wasn’t quite ready for the call, and a slew of tough opponents gave him a rough welcome to big league life. His 2021 performance simultaneously reflected the strides he’s taken since draft day — including a modest velo uptick that quelled pre-draft concerns about his ceiling — while also underscoring a few developmental areas of focus going forward. While Detmers runs his fastball into the mid-90s, the pitch normally has average velocity and is without the spin characteristics that can help a four-seamer play up. He’ll have to locate it more carefully going forward, because big league hitters tattooed it in 2021. Detmers will likely always be fly-ball prone because of how he uses his fastball (at the top of the strike zone), but it’s when his location drifts into the meat of the zone that he gets in trouble. It’s also worth noting that the lefty’s spin rate dropped more than 200 rpms over the course of the season. That wasn’t uncommon in 2021, of course, but it does rub a tiny bit of the shine off of his early season strikeout dominance in Double-A.

Despite those issues, there’s plenty to like here. We trust Detmers’ longer track record of strike-throwing and still think he projects to have plus command, which could go some way toward ameliorating his home run problems. He also has a well-rounded mix of offspeed pitches. He’ll toss a mid-80s sweeping slider to lefties and his fading change missed plenty of righty bats down on the farm, but it’s the curve that’s the real calling card. It’s a low-to-mid 70s offering with a lot of spin and extremely long break. Even hitters who recognize it out of the hand have trouble keeping their weight back and staying on the pitch as it travels from the lefty batter’s box to the other corner. While he needs a bit more seasoning, Detmers has three useful offspeed pitches, one of which looks like an unconventional out pitch. He projects as a low-variance mid-rotation arm.

A low-slot slingin’ relief prospect, Bachman sat 91-94 in 2020 and began to show a velo uptick in the fall, working 94-96 with huge tail. He was often throwing harder than that in 2021, sitting 96-97 most of the time and touching 101. The huge uptick put him firmly in the first round picture. Some teams thought he should go close to pick 10, while others had him slotted closer to 40 due to relief projection and his injury history (hip, shoulder). He doesn’t always finish his slider but even when he doesn’t, hitters don’t have a great look at it because Bachman’s slot is low and funky. The movement of his fastball and slider diverge in opposite directions, and Bachman’s changeup action naturally mimics his fastball’s, but he’s barely thrown it to this point and its finish is very inconsistent. At its best, that pitch looks like a way to get groundballs right now. Because of the limited repertoire, delivery, and spotty health track record, there’s a lot of relief risk here, and that’s where we have Bachman projected, but he could move fast and help the big league team in 2022.

A high-profile $2 million 2019 international signee, Vera’s first two years in pro ball really only generated looks on the Tempe backfields, as the first year of the pandemic wiped out what would have been his first full season. Still 18-years-old for most all of 2021, Vera slashed .317/.384/.469 in the Arizona Complex League and was promoted to Low-A for most of the last month of the season. He didn’t homer all year. That’s less about how much power he has (Vera is pretty physical for a teenage shortstop) and more about his swing’s functionality and his style of hitting. His left-handed swing is somewhat long and downward-cutting. This, plus Vera’s willingness to offer at pitches out of the zone, has him currently spraying unpredictable grounder/liner contact all over the field. His natural strength and ability to rotate often makes the contact hard enough to slip through the infield. While his righty swing has more pull/lift elements, it is less explosive. Barring an eventual lefty swing change, Vera looks more like a good utility man or low-end regular, the kind of everyday shortstop who hits near the bottom of the lineup, and he’s FV’d such that we’re projecting that outcome. He has both the athleticism and, based on opinions from outside the org, the baseball aptitude to do that. Because the below-average plate discipline also creates bust risk here, we’re more inclined to take a “believe it when we see it” approach regarding the swing change rather than an anticipatory one.

Guzman was the Angels’ top 2021 international amateur signee and kept his head above water during stateside Extended Spring Training while facing players who were typically a couple of years older than him. Then he spent the summer in the DSL (the Angels had a crowded ACL infield) and only performed okay, slashing .213/.311/.362; he wasn’t part of the Angels’ stateside instructs group. Guzman needs to get stronger and be more consistent in all facets of the game, which is typical for any 17-year-old prospect. He shows glimpses of good middle infield defense as well as relatively advanced feel to hit, and he’s gifted at getting the barrel to pitches on the inner third (though he sacrifices some plate coverage to do so). Because he’s so young and lacks strength, Guzman’s swing currently lacks real oomph and has a lot of length as he takes full-body cuts just to get the bat around with any kind of force, but it is an athletic, exciting cut with natural lift. He’s another in a long line of exciting, projectable athletes in this system.

After a rough freshman season at Washington State, Bush transferred and began to right the ship at Central Arizona, then kicked back into D-I ball, had a velo spike, and posted big numbers as a junior at Saint Mary’s. He whiffed 112 hitters and allowed just three homers in 76 innings, a performance that propelled him all the way into the second round of last summer’s draft. The big southpaw throws out of a three-quarters slot, which gives his fastball sink and a bit of tail. A 2-7 slider in the low-mid 80s is his best weapon, a sharp breaker that he likes to bury in the dirt to entice whiffs. He’s prone to missing erratically with it, though, and his other secondaries are a work in progress. Between the shallow arsenal, his fastball shape, and below average command, most scouts project that he’ll wind up in the bullpen. He could be quite good in short stints, particularly against lefties. He’s a safe relief prospect with a shot to work in the late innings.

Adams arrived in the Angels system as a raw but toolsy prospect, a latecomer to baseball with 80 speed, above average raw, and top-tier athleticism. Three-and-a-half years later, the tools remain as tantalizing as ever, but he hasn’t hit a lick. Once a month he runs into a pitch and launches a ball into the stratosphere, the hang time of which provides plenty of time to dream on his potential should he develop a fully actualized hit tool. The rest of his ABs, however, illustrate how far he is from having one. He has a grooved hack, swings under mediocre velocity, chases spin, doesn’t adjust well, and hits far too many balls on the ground. Perhaps he’ll blossom late. At this point though, he looks like a speedy fourth outfielder with contact issues.

Junk works north and south with his heater — a 90-93 mph fastball (up to 96) that lives off spin and angle, and plays best at the letters — and two distinct breaking balls in the low-to-mid-80s. His ultra-simple delivery is easy to repeat, especially for an above-average on-mound athlete like Junk. His best secondary weapon is the slider, which has huge lateral movement, though that pitch’s one-planed shape limits its utility, and it runs into barrels if it’s left in the zone. Junk’s curveball has more in-zone margin for error, especially when he sets it up with high fastballs. Both breakers flash plus but are more consistently average, and dependent on Junk’s ability to locate. His command, and his fastball’s surprising utility even at fringe-average velocity, makes him a high-probability big league starting pitcher with a lower ceiling. Will there be a better changeup here eventually? It’d be nice, as Junk doesn’t have a pitch with arm-side action right now. His 2019 changeup had better movement than his ’21 version, but he was slowing his arm speed to throw it. He’ll take a leap if he can learn to create better action on that pitch, especially if he commands it as well as his other stuff.

Placencia had a hitterish look as an amateur and during his first stateside instructs. Then he swung and missed at a concerning rate in 2021, and looked especially lost against breaking stuff. It’s difficult to reconcile Placencia’s on-paper walk rates, which are pretty good, with visual reports of his pitch recognition, which are bad. His barrel drags into the hitting zone, and his swing is mechanically similar to Estevan Florial‘s, which isn’t good. Still, Placencia has plus bat speed, began the year as a 17-year-old, and has a broad strokes profile that we tend to like: he’s a short-levered switch-hitter likely to end up playing an up-the-middle position. It makes sense to drop his FV after the season he had, but we don’t want to come off him entirely.

Jackson continued to track like he has since high school: he has scary, potentially bust-causing swing-and-miss issues, but he also has extremely rare power for a shortstop, and a multi-year track record of getting to it in games. There are times when Jackson looks totally fine at short and others when he makes unforced errors. He’s still just 21, and playing even a 40- or 45-grade shortstop is imperative to his big league utility, as the notion of a low-OBP hitter at third base (where Jackson has also seen a lot of time) is not enticing. Freddy Galvis‘ career and Jazz Chisholm Jr.’s 2021 season are great examples of what sort of WAR value good defensive shortstops who hit for otherwise empty power can have, right in line with a 45 FV. Those guys are both clearly better defenders than Jackson, whose skill set dictates he fall below that tier. We still want to indicate that Jackson has upside (again, this is a 21-year-old potential shortstop with plus power) and an explosive skill of import, hence the 40+ FV. He’s not likely to be an everyday player but instead one who starts against lefties and is a dangerous bat off the bench.

Missed time continues to define Paris’ pro career. He has now lost much of his three pro seasons to a broken hamate (2019), the pandemic, and lower body injuries (a ’21 strained hamstring and fractured fibula) that have limited him to 50 career games, and a shade over 200 career plate appearances. He’s struck out a lot (31% career rate) but that sample is so small and scattered that it must be discounted somewhat, and Paris’ relative age is relevant in this regard, too. Based on how he looked at instructs, he still seems like a middle infield contributor, though he doesn’t have big ceiling and his developmental timeline is quite compressed now.

The short-levered Paris has a predilection for putting balls in play, he can fly, and he’s worked to add significant weight and strength since signing. The strength hasn’t really brought much more raw power to the party yet, so for now we just consider it an indication that he’s working. Paris’ compact frame and swing make him tough to beat with velocity, as even when he’s late, he’s typically able to spray solid contact the other way rather than miss the pitch. Most of his extra-base damage comes via liners he laces down either baseline; his wheels do the rest. It’s not pretty-looking contact right now, but there’s enough of it to support a part-time middle infield profile.

Hidalgo sits 93-94, flashes plus curveballs, and works to his arm side with an upper-80s changeup. His changeup command is advanced but the action on the pitch isn’t great right now. He tries to work them under the hands of righty batters but they’re hit hard even though Hidalgo hits his spot. His curveball has depth and bite, and it’s often plus. Hidalgo’s frame (well-composed but not especially projectable), delivery (a head whack and more general stiffness), and fastball command pull the profile toward relief. Hidalgo is on par with the sort of high school arms who get $1 million bonuses in the draft, with a bevy of solid components but not the sort of premium athleticism or projection that portend potential impact growth.

A compactly-framed Cuban player, Quero wracked up 13 extra-base hits in just about a month of complex-level play, slashing a huge .253/.440/.506, before heading to an affiliate and struggling for a couple of weeks. He was signed in February of 2021 not long before minor league spring training began, and held his own among a strong group of Tempe teenagers. Quero does not have the kind of power that his batting line might indicate, but he does swing quite hard for a teenager and has above-average bat speed from the right side of the plate. His lever length and flat-planed swing create a short path back to the baseball that should enable him to be a hit-over-power prospect at peak. He’s not all that physically projectable, but is likely to add strength simply through maturity.

Defensively, Quero is fine for a teenage backstop. He’s a twitchy, willing ball-blocker with good lateral agility, and is quick out of his crouch on throws to second, showing a repeatable arm stroke, and popping close to 2.00 seconds. His receiving is below average right now, but workable. This is a good teenage catching prospect with a puncher’s chance to be a starting catcher one day, though that reality is likely more than a half-decade away.

Daniel was up to 96 (sitting 90-94) at Auburn and had a very pretty 12-to-6 curveball, but he blew out early during his draft spring and needed TJ in April of 2019. While we were high on Daniel entering 2021, his rapid ascent across three levels, all the way to Triple-A, was unexpected. It was largely enabled by his strike-throwing, which was better than when he first came off surgery (which is typical for TJ rehabbers). Daniel has a fastball that plays at the letters and two distinct breaking balls. His low-70s curveball has huge depth while his low-80s slider has above-average length and bite, and he tends to command it to his glove side. Daniel also has a seldom-used changeup. He went from rehabbing and missing a 2020 season to throwing 110 innings right away, so he’s now either on track to start in the big leagues or work multiple innings in relief. His curveball has limited utility because of its speed but it does give him a third offering with which to navigate lineups multiple times. Daniel doesn’t have to be added to the 40-man until after the 2022 season but he’s on track to make his debut a year sooner.

The Angels spent almost all of their 2021 draft selecting college pitchers, many of whom came in under slot. This allowed them to take a late, $1.25 million flier on Albright. Originally from Maryland, Albright played his senior year at IMG Academy in Florida. He gives the Angels interesting raw stuff with which to work, but he is not all that projectable for a teenage pitcher and will have to find velocity via means other than physical maturation. He sat 91-92 at instructs and his fastball has diverse utility, as Albright can create sink and tail from his low slot, but can also run his fastball up the ladder because his slot creates such a shallow approach angle. He also has a dandy curveball, a shapely mid-70s pitch with an above-average combination of depth and bite. Guys with this slot and arm-side fastball shape are fairly well-suited to develop a changeup with shape that mimics the two-seamer, but Albright’s arm action and athleticism aren’t round-up traits when it comes to projecting on that offering. He’s a fine long-term starting prospect, probably one with a middling ceiling unless more velo comes than we anticipate.

Signed out of Cuba at 19, Martinez hit .272/.328/.438 in three pro seasons, though the bulk of that was in the Pioneer and Cal Leagues. He has a balanced and well-timed cut, above-average bat control (though he sometimes sacrifices contact quality just to put the bat on the ball), and just shy of average raw power. The physical tools are modest, short of a corner regular, but we think there’s enough here for Martinez to have some kind of big league utility, likely in a corner platoon. He’s slugged .470 against righties each of his last two full seasons.

Salvador came over from Cincinnati as the Player To Be Named Later in the 2020 Brian Goodwin deadline deal. He has posted big strikeout totals in the low minors as a starter even though he only sits about 89-90, because his extreme vertical arm slot creates that coveted backspin and cut/rise shape on his fastball. It also helps create depth on Salvador’s curveball, which is comfortably plus. Even though he’s dominated rookie ball as a starter, his delivery (which makes the spinal tilt in Michael Wacha’s old delivery look generic) will likely push him toward the bullpen, where we hope Salvador will experience a velo spike to cleanly fit in a middle-inning role.

After falling out with the Peaky Blinders, Naughton turned his attention to the mound. A decimated Angels pitching staff and Naughton’s own velo rebound pushed him all the way from Double-A into the Angels rotation last summer, where he made five starts. He’s a bit of a throwback, relying on a sinker-changeup combination that works because his three-quarters slot helps the movement on both pitches play up. Ultimately though, the southpaw doesn’t throw hard and neither of his breaking balls generate many whiffs. He projects to pitch in a low-leverage, multi-inning role.

Seminaris is an athletic, ultra-efficient, strike-throwing lefty with mostly fringe pitches, except for a plus-flashing changeup. His lack of velocity may be a barrier to him being a traditional big league starter, as his fastball lives off of angle and location, so instead we think he’ll make for a good bulk middle-inning reliever. Lefties who are this athletic and who have a changeup of this quality tend to overachieve.

His stuff is comfortably below average right now, but Guanare is a plus on-mound athlete with superlative feel for location for a pitcher his age (he walked just one hitter in 50 DSL innings), and has a much better chance to be a starter than lots of the other pitchers in this system. Guanare’s breaking ball also has promising depth and angle that plays down and away from righties, as well as to the back foot of left-handed hitters. He worked with just one breaking ball during the summer but looked to be varying its shape during instructs. He looks like a backend starter prospect right now, but there’s lots of abstract projection here because of Guanare’s age and mechanical grace, and he could break out in a big way once more velo starts to arrive.

The ultra-lanky Blakely took just shy of $1 million to eschew a commitment to Auburn. Drafted as a raw, long-levered SS/3B from Michigan, Blakely spent 2021 on the complex, sandwiching a rough summer between a good-looking Extended and instructs. He’s a smooth, loose, lefty-hitting shortstop with an exciting, projectable frame. Blakely has good defensive hands and feet but his internal clock wasn’t calibrated for the pace of summer showcase ball, and he’s put forth a mixed defensive performance as a pro, often making acrobatic plays to corral the baseball but then failing to make accurate throws to first to complete the play. While Blakely played all over the infield in 2021, he’s likely a long-term third base fit. Based on what he showed last year, he has the tools to be plus there with experience, but he needs to throw with more conviction. It doesn’t always look pretty, but Blakely can recognize breaking stuff and ball and strikes. His on-paper performance during the ACL season was actually fine until he went 1-for-50 over the last two weeks of the season. There’s still quite a bit of variance here, but Blakely projects as a part-time infielder.

Warren has one of the most unusual development paths in this system. An infielder at Wake Tech Community College, the thin right-hander decided to give pitching a shot in Legion ball after his freshman year. He threw well enough from there to earn a walk-on invite to UNC-Wilmington, where he refined his two-plane slider and landed on LA’s radar as a senior sign in 2018. Three years later, Warren emerged as one of the few reliable arms in Joe Maddon’s bullpen down the stretch. Stuff-wise, he’s a 94-and-a-slider type, perhaps providing fewer strikeouts and generating more grounders than most guys with this profile. His big league walk rate is perhaps likely to regress to something more resembling his minor league career rates, which aren’t great. If he can split the difference, he’ll be a good reliever.

Ramirez’s 95 mph average exit velo was the highest in the entire 2019 DSL, driven largely by his mature physicality. This guy looks like a Power Five conference wideout at a shredded 6-foot-3 or so. Swing efficacy issues bring about a lot of swing-and-miss, and there’s serious hit-related bust risk here because Ramirez’s bat path simply doesn’t work and he has poor breaking ball recognition. There’s a real chance the hit tool just bottoms out on him, but he’s so physically gifted (in addition to the prodigious power, he runs pretty well) that if his swing is ever made functional by a team that’s good at developing it, he could break out. The breaking ball recognition will still be a barrier, though. There’s impact big league power here but low big league probability as things are currently constituted.

A scout christened Santana the “Dominican Bo Jackson” because of his speed and physicality, which is unmatched in this system. The speed Santana has for a player his size is incredible, as he’s an ultra-physical 215 pounds and routinely runs 4.20 and below to first base. His feel to hit is very crude, but after Santana struggled badly during 2021 Extended and in the ACL, he looked more comfortable at the plate during instructs. Purely a physically gifted flier to monitor, Santana is a toolsy sleeper for now.

Diaz hung around the Red Sox system for six years as a strike-throwing lefty with a big, sweeping slider before landing with the Angels as a minor league free agent. Now 25 and still with plenty of option years left, he is a high-probability sixth starter, an essential depth piece for any contending club.

Marceaux has four pitches and, when you consider how much better he was at limiting walks as a junior, has a pretty good chance to remain a starter in pro ball. Both of his breaking balls flash plus, he has plus raw breaking ball spin, and his slider’s angle has back-foot utility against lefty hitters. He needs to polish his breaking balls’ shapes so those pitches are more distinct, as Marceaux will likely need to lean heavily on them as a pro, since his fastball and changeup are both below average. He’s a high-probability depth starter or bulk middle innings reliever.

Kochanowicz struggled badly at Low-A, where he was hit hard and didn’t miss many bats. While we can’t just point to the pandemic and sweep those numbers under the rug, the lost developmental year and the elimination of short-season ball hurt this player type (i.e., cold-weather kid, light on reps, long levers) particularly hard. He still has arm strength, an above-average curve, and an innings-eating frame. He projects as a No. 5 starter.

Erla ended up spending five — yes, five — years at Michigan State, passed over in 2019 after a down year and then again in 2020 because of the shortened draft. Sure, he’s much older than the typical prospect who has just entered pro ball, but his stuff was resurgent during instructs and he still presents the same amount of roster flexibility to teams that a new draftee does, so he’s not a 24-year-old who needs to be 40-man’d soon. Erla sat 90-94 during the 2021 college season, then came out in the 94-97 range during instructs. The volatility present in his health (he had a lat tear in college and his delivery is quite violent) and performance are just part of his profile now, so he’ll have to prove he can sustain this across a whole year to move up the list. But 94-97 with tail, and a plus changeup (Erla’s short slider has good raw spin but lacks great movement, visually) would make for a good middle-inning relief option.

Silseth was among the hardest-throwing college pitchers in the country but his fastball lacks action so it still gets hit around. His arm talent and two good secondaries — a slider and a splitter — make him a nice developmental piece despite the lack of fastball movement. Silseth threw a splitter in junior college but he de-emphasized it at Arizona in favor of the more average slider, and he looked to be using a more straight-change grip. After the Angels got ahold of him, he was throwing harder at instructs and his breaking ball shape had been altered to look more like a curveball. He’s going to have to take a secondary-heavy approach because the fastball quality here doesn’t match the velo, and in our opinion, that plus SiIseth’s 40-grade athleticism push him to the bullpen. His repertoire depth could enable him to work more than just one inning at a time, though.

A breakout 2021 season has Davis back on the prospect map. A more seasoned approach at the plate and a slightly toned down swing gave his bat path a better chance to work, and work it did: He managed to curb the worst of his swing decisions while obliterating his previous career bests in nearly every statistical category. Defensively, Davis still doesn’t have a home. He’s an average runner, and while he played some short last year, he’s more likely to spend time at second, third, or a corner outfield spot going forward. A utility role of some sort seems likely, because both the bat and power are likely to play down at the highest level, where big league arms will exploit his tendency to swing and miss. Regardless, this was a tidy waiver find and development job from the Angels front office and PD staff.

Calabrese is built like a compact little sports car and he’s as fast as one, reaching first in about 4.1 seconds after contact. Along with the diminutive frame come very short levers that make Calabrese’s swing very minimalistic; he’s difficult to beat in the strike zone because of it. The contact and speed combination, along with Calabrese’s pre-draft age, made him look like a potential leadoff man as an amateur, but injuries and the pandemic robbed him of valuable reps and he had a rough 2021. The contact piece of his profile is now in question, which puts Calabrese on thin ice since his frame limits power projection.

Marte was traded to the Angels in the Tony Watson deal alongside Sam Selman and Ivan Armstrong. Marte’s sinking fastball scrapes the triple digits and he’ll show you a plus power slider. It’s back of the bullpen stuff with 30 command, a combination that should keep him near the periphery of the big league club for a few years.

Ortega enjoyed yet another velo spike in 2021, up two ticks from ’19 and averaging 96 in the minors. Though his fastball is very hard and has backspin, it doesn’t have explosive carry. The same goes for his curveball, which has vertical action, just not a lot of it. He got a big league cup of coffee in 2021 before spending the winter with Licey. He’ll likely be an up/down reliever for the next couple of years and then either sink or swim in a more regular middle-inning role after that.

We’re starting to sound like a broken record on this list, but Peguero is a low-slot reliever with a mid-to-high 90s sinking fastball. He pairs that with a very firm slider, a biting offering that he doesn’t have great feel for yet. The Angels pulled him off the 40-man in late September, and he appears fated to spend the next few years on either side of the 40-man roster bubble.

Pina may well throw harder if and when he converts to relief, but the big issue here is that he has 20 command. His crossfire delivery makes him deceptive but it comes at the expense of any feel for the gloveside half of the plate. His curve has flashed plus but it too comes and goes. He’s a relief conversion candidate next year; we’ll see how everything plays out of the ‘pen.

Tyler gained about three ticks on his heater and slider in 2021, which helped him blossom from an org guy into a legitimate relief prospect. The righty comes at hitters straight over the top with a cutter that carries more than you’d guess based on the pitch’s spin rate and efficiency, and he pairs it with a vertically-oriented, almost 12-6 slider. His game basically boils down to tunneling those two offerings, as the other three pitches are mostly ornamental. He projects as an up-and-down spot starter or long reliever.

Vanderbilt’s Luke Murphy brings huge velo and fringe secondary stuff out of the bullpen. He strides way down the mound and throws with flat angle across the body, presenting righty batters with a nightmare look. Murphy also gets right in the kitchen of lefty hitters with his fastball, which tops out at 99. He has very little feel for executing any of his secondary offerings, but Murphy has really rare velo, and elements of his delivery help his fastball play up. If he can find just one good second pitch, he’s a lock reliever.

Higgins’ stuff was up and down in college, peaking in the upper-90s during his underclass stint in the Alaskan Summer League. He now sits about 94 with big carry, and his slider doesn’t have much movement but it breaks late enough that, when he sets it up with well-located fastballs, it induces some bad swings. Higgins is a roster bubble relief prospect.

Yan’s velo has regressed and he now has 40-grade arm strength after he was up to 96 in 2019 and struck out so many hitters that the Angels felt they needed to put him on the 40-man. In the past we’ve compared him to a mirror image of Freddy Peralta, a long-armed side-armer with a cross-bodied delivery. His fastball dominates lefties because it’s being released so far behind their heads that they struggle to see the ball, while it has weird angle in on the hands of righties, making at-bats against Yan awkward for them as well.

The rest of the repertoire isn’t great. Yan’s slider lives almost entirely off of his arm slot and its spin rate regressed by several hundred rpm in 2021. It really only works against left-handed hitters, and Yan doesn’t throw his changeup with conviction (he may have transitioned from one grip to another in 2021, based on data sourced by FanGraphs).

That his velo has regressed is a real problem since he needs to feast off his fastball to succeed. Yan worked as a starter early in 2021 but moved to the bullpen for his final four appearances and began missing more bats (and the strike zone, to be fair). He’ll enter 2022 in his final option year. His best chance of succeeding is to be a fastball-dominant reliever. He’ll be an interesting reclamation project if his looming lack of roster flexibility ends his time with the Angels within the next year or so. Until then, it’s fair to expect him to be an up/down reliever with some long-term upside.

Armstrong is a gigantic 21-year-old who sits 93-97 with sink and tail in relief. His slider, typically 86-88, has bat-missing length when it’s located right. He’s a relief prospect who might be up and down in 2022 due to raw command.

Soriano had Tommy John in February of 2020 and rehabbed all year, then Pittsburgh made him the first pick in the 2020 Rule 5 Draft knowing he’d likely be on the shelf for a huge chunk of 2021, which arguably made him easier to roster for the required time in order to retain him as a long-term prospect. He came back to make minor league rehab appearances in May, with the hope that he’d be a passable relief option for the back half of the summer. In his first Low-A outing, Soriano sat 96-98, then was 96-97 early in his second appearance before his velo tanked into the low-90s toward the end of his outing. He had blown out again, and needed a second Tommy John procedure in June. The Pirates returned him to the Angels in November to clear roster space. The timing of the second TJ means almost no 2022 for Soriano. He won’t be back on a mound in an actual game until he’s about 24 years old, so at this point he’s a talented wait and see guy.

A two-way high schooler who has done a little bit of both as a pro, Holmes was very exciting for portions of 2019, at times showing mid-90s velocity and a plus breaking ball. He was arguably the best on-mound athlete in the 2018 draft, and a great developmental prospect who seemed to level up late in 2019. Unable to roll that into what would have been a vital, more consistent 2020 season, Holmes’s 2021 never got off the ground as he lost velo and couldn’t throw strikes. He ended up hitting a little bit toward the end of the year, but was really only ever a true prospect as a pitcher. He’s a 2022 40-man add, which means his developmental timeline is extremely compressed and will likely extended beyond ’22, since Holmes is very unlikely to go from unplayable to on a 40-man in a year. He’s purely an athletic flier at this point in time.