Inside the Angels’ Rotation: Season Review and Takeaways
October 10, 2025 - Written by Zac Holladay
Photo Credit: @Angels - X
The 2025 season is over. The Los Angeles Angels finished with a record of 72-90. An improvement from 2024, but still not where this team wants to be. It was a very inconsistent season as the pitching was never reliable for a prolonged amount of time. There were spurts of success for about 10 days, then a collapse would hit without notice. But, despite the overall goal of reaching the Postseason not met for the 11th straight year, the pitching has taken a big step that hasn’t been seen in quite some time now.
The killer of this team for years has been the inability to stay healthy. In 2025, the Halos had all 5 starters that entered the season in the rotation (Yusei Kikuchi, Jose Soriano, Kyle Hendricks, Tyler Anderson and Jack Kochanowicz) make 20+ starts. Along with that, they all averaged about 150 innings. For a majority of the 6-month long season, the starting rotation never had to worry about a pitcher missing a start, including the Angels only using 5 starters for the entirety of the 1st half of the season. The reliability for a pitcher to eat up innings and start every 5th day from Opening Day til mid-July was a huge asset for the Anaheim ballclub. Unfortunately, this incredible trend did end almost immediately after the All-Star Break.
One positive takeaway from the rotation was the impressive stuff of Jose Soriano. The right-hander displayed incredible grit and fight along with his magnificent repertoire. His mustwin mentality gives off the impression that he cares so much about his success and progression. Soriano’s poise and humility on and off the mound is extremely encouraging to the organization. In addition to the posture of his character, his pitches are the most promising aspect of his game. Jose’s ability to touch 100mph on his sinker gives him an effective outline to use his breaking pitches. His command can get wild as he has a knack for giving up runs in bunches, but the young Dominican has too much talent to overlook him for such a struggle. Soriano will likely go into the offseason as the Angels’ ace, with the hope that his command will improve.
As for the ace for the 2025 Angels, Yusei Kikuchi, he served as a solid presence in the rotation. He was consistent at times, but his overall performance could’ve been much more efficient. Kikuchi led the starters in games started, earned run average, innings pitched and strikeouts. The Japanese native took the ball every assignment and was a strong presence among the pitchers. And although his numbers could’ve been better, including his walks which were at an all-time high for him, Yusei Kikuchi gave the Angels a fighting chance and would lead the pitchers by example.
As the rotation as a whole, there was no proclamation of success as the pitching resulted in a failure. Not one pitcher within the main 5 ended the season owning a winning or even record. Even though Yusei Kikuchi was the Angels best pitcher statistically, it shows how difficult it is for the team to find a true ace. A 3.99 earned run average for a starting pitcher is alright, but it shouldn’t be the best on the team. This team can be very fun to watch, but in order for this team to be fun within the last few years, the offense has to keep up with the pitching. The inability to have consistent starts by a starter is absolutely crucial. Yes, the offense has a multitude of faults in itself, but you can’t win ballgames if you can’t trust your starters to give you a chance to win a majority of the time. As it was previously stated, Yusei Kikuchi and Jose Soriano both did their best to give this team a chance to score enough runs to win. But even at their best, their lack of consistency diminished their credibility.
The year round tradition of the Los Angeles Angels collapsing from August on is not a feeling that Angel fans are new to. But one difference this year is that the staple in the 2026 rotation is Soriano and Kikuchi. But aside from them, there is a lot of work to do with the pitching. First of all, money needs to be spent this free agency. It is proven that the development of starting pitching in the Angels farm system isn’t the most reliable source. And while someone could always surprise everyone and rise from the depths to be a star, this team doesn’t have time to wait. The track record for the Halos isn’t the best either with spending on pitching, but the front office needs to keep trying. The owner, Arte Moreno, can’t possibly expect to be satisfied with signing and trading for scrappy guys and hope they are a diamond in the rough. Spending on a reliable, highly respected and talented arm needs to be the top priority.
On the development side of the rotation, there aren’t many options that are Major League ready. In the second half of the season, the Angels, yet again, threw out a few minor league prospects to fill in some needed innings for the rotation. These starters included Sam Aldegheri, Mitch Farris, and Caden Dana. Both Aldegheri and Dana have made their fair share of starts in the year prior while it was questioned whether they should have been called up at all. Neither have pitched very well in the Major Leagues nor have they shown any potential to succeed above the minors. Both pitched well in the minors. It was just the thought of whether it was a good decision to bring them up to the big stage in the middle of their development. As of now, the Angels need some starters desperately, due to only 2 real starters in the rotation. Any of these three guys could be an option to join the starting rotation next year, but it will depend on how much depth is added in the pitching department over the offseason. The best decision for the team is to keep these guys in the minors until they can prove they can display consistency in the minors for a whole season before being called up again. Although keeping them in the minors would further their development, the Angels organization would rather keep them in the back pocket in case of emergency.
Within every high and low of the season for the Angels’ starting pitchers, there was a bit of an increase in promise within the organization. This team knows what they need to do to improve and the playoffs aren’t far away. It will bank on the decisions made this offseason to bolster the rotation. Rather the word “bolster” will live true within the next 6 months, the team has the potential to be a scary team to face. And it all starts with the pitching.
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