Let me take you back to June 21st, 2017. The Angels were 37-38 after dropping a game 8-4 against the Yankees. Ricky Nolasco took the loss, giving up 5 ER in 5.1 innings. That same day, I wrote an article about RHP Alex Meyer. Meyer was coming off one of his best starts as an Angel going 6 innings, striking out 9, all while not allowing a run.
Here is the article (if you want to check it out): Alex Meyer: The Angels' Late Bloomer
Revisiting Alex Meyer:
When Meyer was being drafted, many people surrounding the Nationals’ organization (the team that drafted him) and throughout baseball thought of him as having the potential to be a future top of the rotation type pitcher. He had a mid to high 90s fastball with a tight breaking ball. In other words, the stuff was there. But what wasn’t?
Meyer has had injury issues for as long as he has been a professional. In late 2017, he underwent a shoulder procedure which was supposed to have him back at some point in 2018. Once 2018 came around, Meyer found himself having to undergo another surgery to repair the labrum in the same shoulder he had a surgery on the year prior.
Entering his age 29 season, he has already faced setbacks which allows us to question how ready he will be by Spring Training. The most amount of starts he has made in a season is 13, and in that year he put up a decent 3.74 ERA. So despite the injuries, he has been able to find some success at the big league level. His Achilles heel on the field has been command and I can’t imagine missing close to two years of major baseball activity is going to improve his command. The Angels brought him back on a minor league deal for the 2019 season to see if he can recover and get his feet back under him on the baseball field.
Clearly what has happened in his career wasn’t his fault, his body just couldn’t stay healthy. He is only 29 though, meaning if everything goes well he can find himself still having years to play. At this point, however, I want to take back my prior take on him. He was not a late bloomer. As I said before, his stuff was there, but essentially he is an unfortunate case of unused potential.
I’m not here to hate on Meyer, I rooted for him and still do. I sincerely hope that in two years time, I will be writing another article revisiting Alex Meyer to show that I was wrong again.
