Today the Angels announced that they have acquired RHP Matt Andriese from the Diamondback in exchange for RHP prospect Jeremy Beasley. The team also DFA’d RHP Luis Madero. Beasley was slotted in at 25 on top 30 prospect list for the Angels and could have been a spot starter or reliever at the major league level. He worked with a fastball that would sit in the low to mid 90’s and a plus split finger. Luis Madero is slotted to be my 11th overall prospect and was added to the 40-man roster last season. Madeo is fun to watch pitch and has the ability to start games works with a low 90’s fastball and has seen the mid 90’s with that pitch when things are going well. He also works with two average to above average secondary pitches, a slurve and change up.

Now let’s move onto who the Angels got back in this trade, 30-year-old SoCal native, and former third round pick by the Padres out of UC Riverside, Matt Andriese. Last season in Arizona he went 5-5 in 54 relief appearances. In those 70.2 innings pitched Andriese had a 4.71 ERA, 3.72 FIP, 79 strikeouts, 27 walks, and a 50.3 ground ball percentage. It was reported by Jeff Fletcher of the Orange county register that “he will come to spring training as a starting pitcher.” While this is a nice depth piece for the starting side of things for the Angels I think that he is more valuable as a reliever in the long run.

With all that being said, let’s do a pitch by pitch break down of what Matt Andriese has starting with his four seam fastball. Last season he threw his four seam fastball 597 times or 49.6% of the time. Andriese’s fastball averaged 92.5 MPH last year and he will spin this pitch with an average spin rate of 2337, which is slightly above league average. His fastballs vertical movement is not overwhelming either as it averaged 16.1 inches of drop, or 4% higher than the league average. Being that he doesn’t have an overpowering fastball, doesn’t have an incredibly high spin rate, and doesn’t have great vertical movement this is a recipe for living down in the zone with this pitch. Hitters had an .233 xBA, .320 wOBP, .411 xSLG, and a 24.0 Whiff% against his fastball as well.

Locations of all fastballs throw by Andriese in 2019

Fastball vs Delino DeShields

Andriese next most used pitch in 2019 was his changeup which he threw 446 times or 37% of the time. It is definitely more of a power change as his average velocity on it was 86.0 MPH, and average spin rate on it was 2223. This pitch is a unique pitch as it spins at almost a 3:00 direction and has some of the better movement in baseball for a changeup, but not in the way you might think. The vertical movement on this pitch averaged 37.2 inches which was 18% higher than the league average, though it only averaged 4.6 inches of horizontal movement, which was 67% lowers than the league average. Normally with a changeup you want to kill spin to create more depth on this pitch, but with the way he throws it he gets very good depth with it, and has become a very nice swing and miss pitch for him. Hitters had a .203 xBA, .281 wOBP, .328 xSLG, and a 27.5 Whiff% against this pitch last year.

All locations of Andriese changeup in 2019

Changeup vs Josh Donaldson

Last but not least is a pitch that I believe could be a huge difference maker for Andriese in 2020, and that is his curveball. Last season he only threw this pitch 139 times(11.5% of the time). The average velocity on it was 80.9 MPH and it has and average spin rate of 2671 which is above average. This pitch pairs well with his fastball because while his fastball spins at about a 1:00 direction his curveball spins the exact opposite way, at about 7:00 direction. This having the effect that it is the same pitch when it really isn’t. It averaged 55.7 inches of vertical drop which is 7% higher than the league average as well as just 5.2 inches of horizontal movement which means it moves more straight down then it doesn’t side to side. Unfortunately though it was his most hit pitch as batters had a .327 xBA, .501 wOBP, .549 xSLG and a 21.3 Whiff%. It will be very interesting to see if Mickey Callaway and staff can help his curveball, as well as how pitch sequencing can help it too.

All of Andriese’s curveball locations in 2019

If you are adding up the pitch percentages and wondering why it doesn’t add up to 100% that is because he threw 13 sliders and 9 sinkers. My assumption to this is that his curveball backed up on his and it turned into a slider(though with Tampa he threw a slider). For his sinker he probably over threw his fastball resulting is less spin and more vertical movement.

Like I stated above Matt Andriese will enter Spring Training as a starting pitcher, but I believe at the end of the day we will see him as a long reliever, the real question is whether or not he can get that curveball to work well with his fastball or not.