{"id":530686,"date":"2026-03-12T04:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T04:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/530686\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T04:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T04:52:08","slug":"alek-manoah-in-danger-of-losing-rotation-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/530686\/","title":{"rendered":"Alek Manoah In Danger Of Losing Rotation Spot"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Angels entered camp with three-fifths of their rotation set.\u00a0Yusei Kikuchi<\/a>,\u00a0Jos\u00e9 Soriano<\/a> and\u00a0Reid Detmers<\/a> were locked in. Offseason reclamation pickups Grayson Rodriguez<\/a> and\u00a0Alek Manoah<\/a> started the spring as the favorites for the final two spots.<\/p>\n

Neither has made a great first impression. Rodriguez has allowed seven runs with a 7:6 strikeout-to-walk ratio through eight innings. He has at least had encouraging velocity, averaging 95 mph on his fastball. He\u2019s a wild card after missing the past season and a half to shoulder issues.<\/p>\n

Manoah has had an even tougher time, giving up five runs with eight walks and only four strikeouts through 7 1\/3 frames. The former Cy Young finalist, who also hasn\u2019t made an MLB appearance since 2024, has been in the 91-92 mph range with his fastball. His velocity was in a similar spot last season in the minor leagues. Manoah threw 93-94 on average before undergoing elbow surgery two seasons ago.<\/p>\n

Both pitchers still have a pair of minor league option years remaining. Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com<\/a> writes that Manoah\u2019s struggles, in particular, have opened the door to him beginning the season in the minors. That\u2019d obviously open a rotation spot for someone else. Jack Kochanowicz<\/a> and Sam Aldegheri<\/a> seemingly represent the top two challengers.<\/p>\n

Kochanowicz was arguably the worst regular starter in MLB last season. Among pitchers with 100+ innings, no one had a higher earned run average than his 6.81 mark. Only\u00a0Erick Fedde<\/a> had a lower strikeout\/walk rate differential. Kochanowicz finished the season on optional assignment to Triple-A Salt Lake.<\/p>\n

The sinkerballer has put a stronger foot forward in camp. Kochanowicz has only allowed two runs in 8 2\/3 innings spanning three appearances. He has recorded five strikeouts with one walk while keeping the ball on the ground at a 60% clip. That shouldn\u2019t outweigh last year\u2019s struggles, but it could be enough to jump the struggling Manoah on the depth chart.<\/p>\n

Aldegheri is one of the team\u2019s more talented pitching prospects. He has been knocked around for a 6.41 ERA in his first seven big league appearances but is coming off a 3.78 ERA season in Triple-A. Aldegheri has only made two Spring Training outings for the Halos. His most impressive performance to date came for the surprisingly undefeated Team Italy in the World Baseball Classic. Aldegheri struck out eight over 4 2\/3 scoreless frames against Brazil (admittedly one of the worst teams in the tournament).<\/p>\n

Mitch Farris<\/a> has had a slight velocity uptick this spring, but he has been rocked for 12 runs in six innings. Caden Dana<\/a> is behind in camp after an offseason mononucleosis diagnosis. Walbert Ure\u00f1a<\/a> has made one career Triple-A start, while\u00a0Victor Mederos<\/a> has already been optioned out of MLB camp. Prospect\u00a0George Klassen<\/a> leads their group of non-roster invites. The 24-year-old has only made one Triple-A start but has bigger stuff than any of the depth pitchers on the 40-man roster.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a rough group, but the Angels showed little interest in making a significant free agent upgrade. That\u2019s essentially off the table at this point. Lucas Giolito<\/a>, whose previous brief stint as an Angel couldn\u2019t have gone worse, is the only unsigned starter who\u2019s guaranteed to command a big league contract.\u00a0Patrick Corbin<\/a> and old friend\u00a0Tyler Anderson<\/a> are probably looking at minor league deals as they enter their respective age-36 seasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Angels entered camp with three-fifths of their rotation set.\u00a0Yusei Kikuchi,\u00a0Jos\u00e9 Soriano and\u00a0Reid Detmers were locked in. Offseason…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[44383,49,48,32004,40420,208213,462,208214,82],"class_list":["post-530686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-alek-manoah","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-grayson-rodriguez","tag-jack-kochanowicz","tag-mitch-farris","tag-mlb","tag-samuel-aldegheri","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}