Los Angeles Angels 2023 Season Preview
Every year, the opening to my Los Angeles Angels preview is the same. It is sad, unfair, incredible, awful, criminal, terrible, horrible, inexplicable and downright pathetic that Mike Trout has only played in three playoff games. He’s not the best player in baseball anymore because his teammate Shohei Ohtani is, but Trout debuted in 2011, is now on the wrong side of 30 and has all of 15 plate appearances in the playoffs to his name.
In fact, since Trout’s debut season, the Angels have had eight losing seasons and are now on a streak of seven in a row. They’ve finished 21, 21, 23, 35, 10, 18 and 33 games out of first place. To be fair, the Astros have been incredible in that span, but the Angels went 73-89 last year and had the MVP runner-up in Ohtani and the 10th top-10 finish in MVP voting for Trout in his 12-year career.
Will the additions of…*checks notes*…Hunter Renfroe, Tyler Anderson, Brandon Drury, Gio Urshela and some relievers move the needle enough to put two of the best players we’ll ever see into the postseason?