Colorado Rockies: Three fits for a Jon Gray trade

The Los Angeles Angels

Death, taxes, and the Angels don’t have any pitching. Those seem to be the three constants in the world. Outside of Jered Weaver, they really haven’t had any starter that should be above a fifth starter in the majors and/or been healthy or consistent enough to show that they are a quality MLB starter for nearly a decade. That’s a big reason why they have been to playoffs once since 2009 and haven’t won a playoff game since ’09.

You could even contend that they haven’t had a consistent pitching staff since Rockies manager Bud Black left the team after spending seven seasons as their pitching coach to become the Padres manager before the 2007 season.

Last season, they had the same record as the Rockies (26-34) and their starters were a big reason why they did so poorly as they were 29th in majors in starter’s ERA at 5.58.

Currently, the Angels starting pitching looks like this with a six-man rotation that they will likely employ.

1. Andrew Heaney, LHP
2. Dylan Bundy, RHP
3. Griffin Canning, RHP
4. Patrick Sandoval, RHP
5. Jaime Barria, RHP
6. Shohei Ohtani, RHP

Of the six, Ohtani is far and away the best but they have the six-man rotation for him since he would be playing in the field or DH’ing most of the time. In other words, Gray would be the clear ace of the Angels staff.

They are one of a few teams that have already made some moves to be better in 2021 as they traded for shortstop Jose Iglesias and Cincinnati Reds closer Raisel Iglesias (no relation), among other players.