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Major Key: Albert Pujols must stay healthy.
Albert Pujols is obviously not the same great player he was with the Cardinals for all those years, but he can still hit. He provided a ton of power for an Angels’ club that was not very good offensively in 2015. He belted 40 homers and drove in almost 100 runs. That kind of power is not replaceable, and it already looks like Pujols might miss some of the beginning of the season, as he is recovering from surgery on the plantar plate in his right foot.
The Angels need Pujols’ bat hitting behind Mike Trout to contend. Plain and simple. They do have some nice bats in their lineup besides Trout and Pujols. Kole Calhoun had a breakout year, hitting 26 homers, Yunel Escobar put up an impressive .314/.375/.415 line, and C.J. Cron put together a solid second half, but the foundation of the lineup is Mike Trout and Albert Pujols. For the Angels to contend, Pujols must stay healthy.
One problem with that rotation is that most of the people contending for the last few slots would all BE last slot pitchers on other teams… they really have to count on the top three pulling through for them. Really good test in the first series of the year against the Cubs.