Griffin Canning

After three lights-out starts at Triple-A, Canning, the Angels' top pitching prospect, was summoned to the majors in April to bolster a banged-up rotation. He offered immediate aid, posting a 3.06 ERA, 0.96 WHIP and 34:9 K:BB across his first six starts. Canning actually did a better job of keeping the ball in the yard thereafter (1.2 HR/9), but a correction in his BABIP and strand rate plus a slight uptick in walks saddled him with a 5.43 ERA over his final 12 turns before he was shelved with elbow inflammation. All in all, it was a promising debut season for Canning, who established himself as a mainstay in the rotation moving forward. Canning's lack of a dominant offering in his four-pitch arsenal probably hinder his chances of emerging as a bona fide ace down the road, but at just 23 years old, there's certainly time for him to improve his skills and change that narrative.

Canning was one of the great in-season helium prospects early on in 2018, but some of that air was let out of the balloon after he advanced to Triple-A. After Canning posted a minuscule 1.97 ERA and 1.01 WHIP in 10 starts for Double-A Mobile, he struggled to a 5.49 ERA and 1.53 WHIP with Salt Lake (13 starts). Part of it was just the change in park factors going from the Southern League to the Pacific Coast League -- his HR/FB more than doubled with the jump in levels. However, Canning also lost something from his K-rate (from 27.2% to 24.5%) and the explosion in his opponents' BABIP (from .229 to .376) wasn't all luck and park related as his line-drive rate jumped from 18.3% all the way to 26%. Canning doesn't have any one standout offering, but he has a decent four-pitch mix (fastball, slider, curveball change) and fringe-average command. The Angels will need arms this season, and Canning appears a likely candidate to start at some point.