The Angels announced that pitching prospect Caden Dana will start Sunday’s game against the Mariners. To add him to both the active and 40-man rosters, the team must execute the necessary changes. Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register broke the story on X before the official announcement. According to Jeff Passan of ESPN on X, the club will also promote left-handed pitcher Samuel Aldegheri, who is slated to pitch on Friday. Aldegheri, like Dana, is not on the 40-man roster, therefore the club will need to make comparable movements to accommodate him.
Dana, now 20, attended Don Bosco Preparatory High School in Ramsey, New Jersey. Baseball America rated him as the #76 player available in the 2022 draft. Even though he wasn’t quite 19, BA saw that his fastball was already in the mid-90s. They suggested he may be off the board in the first two rounds, but he remained unsigned until later owing to signability concerns stemming from his commitment to Kentucky.
The Angels eventually drafted him in the eleventh round, 328th overall. According to MLB.com, he received a signing bonus of $1,497,500, which was a record for a player picked after the 10th round. They were able to do so by offering below-slot deals to other players they drafted, so conserving some of their bonus pool.
Dana made a temporary professional debut in the months following his draft pick, but made a more formal start in 2023. Last year, he made 14 starts at Single-A and High-A, pitching 68 1/3 innings and allowed 3.56 earned runs per nine. His 10.7% walk rate was slightly higher, but he also struck out 31.7% of hitters faced. In 2024, he has made 23 Double-A starts, pitching 135 2/3 innings with a 2.52 ERA, 27.4% strikeout rate, and 7.3% walk rate.
His impressive performance has propelled him to the top of prospect lists. BA currently has him ranked 92nd overall, while MLB Pipeline has him 74th. FanGraphs ranks him barely outside the top 100. All outlets rank his slider as his best secondary pitch, followed by his curveball and changeup. Now, the Halos will promote him to the major leagues, bypassing Triple-A outright.
The Angels have perhaps been the most aggressive club in terms of promoting prospects in recent years, and here is again another piece of evidence to support that claim. Shortstop Zach Neto and right-hander Ben Joyce were the first and third round picks in 2022, respectively, and both were promoted to the major leagues by May 2023. First baseman Nolan Schanuel, last year’s top pick, made the majors just over a month later. Reid Detmers and Chase Silseth were also called up a year after their draft selections. Dana’s gap from draft to debut is significantly longer, but he was chosen out of high school, whilst the others were taken out of college.
It’s also an ambitious promotion for Aldegheri, a 22-year-old whose journey to the majors has been far from typical. He was born and reared in Verona, Italy, and The Athletic’s Matt Gelb covered his odd road to the majors last spring.
The Phillies signed him as part of their 2019 international class, and he received a $210,000 bonus. Since then, he has continued to put up excellent statistics and put himself on the prospect map, and the Angels liked him enough to trade for him during the deadline, sending Carlos Estévez the other way.
Aldegheri has made 19 starts this season between High-A and Double-A. He’s pitched 95 1/3 innings with a 3.59 ERA, 33.5% strikeout rate, and 10.3% walk rate. He isn’t as well-known as Dana, but he has improved his standing. BA currently ranks him sixth in the Angels’ organization, stating that his fastball is in the low 90s but possesses cutting and riding motion. He complements it with a slider, curveball, and changeup. FanGraphs gave him a similar profile, ranking him fifth in the system, while MLB Pipeline had him at eighth.
The Angels are out of contention this year and will use the remaining few weeks of the season to evaluate a few of pitchers who they hope will be a part of their future pitching staffs, which may influence their winter plans. Tyler Anderson and Griffin Canning are expected to be part of next year’s rotation, although both are set to become free agents following 2025. Young players such as Detmers, Silseth, Jack Kochanowicz, José Soriano, and others should be considered. Patrick Sandoval had UCL surgery this summer and could be a factor by late 2025.
Dana and Aldegheri will be able to gain experience in the major leagues this year, but neither will exhaust their rookie status. There are less than 45 days remaining on the calendar, and the club will undoubtedly not allow them to pitch 50 innings. The club will be able to offer prospect promotion incentives if they remain in the rookie category through 2025.
To fight service time manipulation, the collective bargaining agreement incentivizes teams to promote their best prospects. If a player has less than 60 days of service time and appears on two of the top 100 lists at BA, ESPN, or MLB Pipeline, they are PPI-eligible if promoted early enough in a season to receive a full service year. If the player goes on to win Rookie of the Year or finish in the top three in MVP or Cy Young voting during their pre-arbitration years, the club will receive an additional draft pick shortly after the first round.
That will be more important for Dana, who is currently on two of those three lists, but Aldegheri has a chance to make it, especially if he pitches effectively in the coming weeks. There’s also the possibility that he spends all of 2025 on optional assignments and remains a rookie in 2026.
This will be a secondary concern. The Angels’ main purpose is to get their pitchers used to the big leagues and observe how their stuff performs against major league hitters. The club’s starting pitching shortage has been a source of concern for some time, owing to a lack of development as well as a lack of funding. Aside from Anderson, the team has not signed a free agent starting pitcher to a multi-year contract since Joe Blanton’s two-year agreement in 2012. If Dana, Aldegheri, or both can develop into competent big league starters, the team might benefit greatly in the coming years.
As previously said, it also follows a pattern of aggressive promotions. That made a lot of sense when the club had both Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani on the roster, as it appeared they were looking for any way to build a successful team around them when the opportunity arose. Ohtani is no longer with the team, but perhaps they are still attempting to make the most of Trout’s time there. He has missed substantial time in recent years due to injuries and is now 33 years old, yet his contract runs through 2030. Perhaps this is an indication the club still wants to have a crack at contending before Trout gets any older, though it may also rely on how the young players perform, how the offseason plays out, and other factors.
