The prodigal pitching prospect returned to the Angels organization in 2014 only to be lost again. Just when the Angels thought they’d added a solid young arm to their rotation for years to come, Tyler Skaggs had to ruin a perfectly promising season by blowing out his elbow and going down with Tommy John surgery.
Before the injury, was Skaggs sneaky good or overtly mediocre?
With a 4.30 ERA and 6.85 K/9 rate, Skaggs doesn’t look to have had all that great of a season. He showed some flashes along the way, but his basic numbers were underwhelming.
However, his peripherals were far more encouraging. With a 3.55 FIP and 3.76 SIERA, Skaggs actually appears to have been a very strong performer. He’d even fixed a lot of the problems that plagued him back when he was with the Diamondbacks. He undid some of the mechanical adjustments Arizona had forced on him, recovered his velocity and mixed a two-seam fastball into his repertoire. The end result was a 6.5% walk rate, which is as low a rate as he’s posted since his days in Low-A. He also way down on his homer rates, which were his biggest failing with the D’Backs.
The peripherals were probably a better representation of his true ability though. His 63.9% strand rate was just garbage and really inflated his ERA. What Skaggs proved he could be, at worst, is a solid, efficient mid-rotation workhorse that pitches to contact. With more experience, he could take his game up a level and learn how to setup and finish batters.
Can he be the same after Tommy John?
Most pitchers come back with a minimal loss in ability, if any at all. However, the Angels haven’t had the greatest track record with elbow injuries of late, in case you forgot about the Ryan Madson and Sean Burnett experiences. Ironically, the Angels had actually been exceptionally fortunate in terms of avoiding Tommy John. It had literally been decades since one of their homegrown MLB starters needed Tommy John surgery.
Could he possibly work any slower?
His pace was the slowest of any Angel pitcher and among the slowest in the league. He wasn’t David Price slow though, so, technically speaking, he could pitch slower. But seriously, this is something the staff is really going to have to work with him on, especially with him being a heavy groundball pitcher. He can’t be taking forever and giving Erick Aybar‘s ADHD time to kick in.
Couldn’t they have let him finish his no-hit bid?
His elbow was already toast, so they might as well have. At least it would’ve let him end the season on a high note.
Final Answer
Skaggs will miss all of the 2015 season, save for maybe a few weeks of rehab assignments towards the end of the minor league season, if he’s lucky. It burns one of his cheap pre-arbitration years, but the Angels will still have plenty of time continue developing Skaggs into the frontline starter they thought they had when they first traded him to Arizona for Dan Haren years ago.
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