ANAHEIM, Calif. — A common theme surrounding the Angels in 2026 is the hope for a bounce-back season.
They spent the winter buying low on once good players who have struggled in recent years, with the hopes that those players can somehow regain the magic. However, the Angels are also looking for bounce-back seasons from their home-grown right-handers in the back of the rotation.
Jack Kochanowicz and Ryan Johnson both cracked the big league club out of spring training last season, but struggled mightily in their stints. Both have differing circumstances surrounding their situations, but both find themselves anchoring the Angels' rotation to start the season.
Kochanowicz, the Angels' 2019 third-round pick, didn’t make his professional debut until 2021 and worked his way through the minor leagues for three seasons before his MLB debut in 2024.
His first taste of the big leagues was a success. After two shaky starts, Kochanowicz settled in and pitched to a 2.78 ERA in the remaining nine starts to end the season.
After a strong spring training last season, Kochanowicz won the fifth starter role in the rotation. However, he couldn’t keep the momentum rolling into the regular season.
Kochanowicz never found his footing the whole season, posting a 6.81 ERA in 23 starts and was demoted to Triple-A Salt Lake three times.
“You've got to take a step back at times, for sure,” Kochanowicz said.
Failure is something Kochanowicz tries to use to his advantage, and 2025 gave him plenty of lessons to learn from.
“The only success I've had has been after a bit of failure,” Kochanowicz said. “It's a game of adjustments, and I feel like I made some adjustments to put myself in a good spot.”
Kochanowicz spent the offseason training at The Baseball Performance Center to make adjustments to his delivery and arsenal. The biggest difference is that his arm angle rose from 30 to 37 degrees, giving his fastball more ride and his changeup more depth.
Getting more depth on his changeup will help Kochanowicz play it off of his sinker to add some deception to his arsenal. Kochanowicz has already shown more confidence in the changeup, throwing it 30% of the time in his first start of the season. He only threw it 14% of the time last year.
“Really just learning how my body would make my direction towards the plate,” was the biggest adjustment made, Kochanowicz said. “Last year, it was like a fight the whole time, trying to get my command back where I wanted it.”
As for Johnson, it’s a much different path.
He was selected in the second round of the 2024 draft and threw his first professional pitch on Opening Day against the Chicago White Sox the next year. Johnson pitched a strong spring training to force the Angels’ hand in putting him on the Opening Day roster.
Johnson began his professional career as a reliever, and it didn’t go as planned.
He gave up five earned runs in 1 ⅔ innings in his debut, but then had a 2.77 ERA in his next 13 innings. But then he allowed a run in four straight outings, including a blowup outing against the Toronto Blue Jays, which led to him being sent down to High-A Tri-City to be a starter again.
“Just figuring out what my strengths are, who I am as a pitcher and how I can attack hitters and keep them just off my stuff and on my game,” Johnson said of what he learned in his first taste in the big leagues.
One of the main issues with Johnson’s first major league stint was his struggles against left-handed hitters. Lefties hit .455 with a 1.389 OPS against Johnson.
The culprit of his struggles, Johnson and the Angels believe, is his lack of pitch mixing. When he was sent down, Johnson said the Angels sat down with him and told him he was too cutter-heavy and needed to work on mixing his pitches.
Johnson made an effort to make that adjustment, and it showed in his results. He had a 1.88 ERA in 12 starts at High-A Tri-City, with a 29.7% strikeout rate, 4.6% walk rate, a .196 batting average against and a 51% groundball rate.
“It can always just be a mindset more than anything else,” Johnson said of the process of learning how to mix his pitches better. “Just being convicted and trying something new and wanting to go out there and win with a particular pitch.”
Last season, Johnson threw his cutter 43% of the time, while mostly only using his sweeper and splitter as secondary offerings. In his first start of the season this year, Johnson primarily used his cutter and splitter (35% and 34% of his pitches) and mixed in his sinker and sweeper 16% and 15% of his pitches.
One of the big helps for Johnson has been the addition of new pitching coach Mike Maddux.
“I think he's really challenged me to mix more of my stuff and to understand more of what the hitters are thinking and why different pitches are good in different counts as opposed to just, ‘no, this is just what I do,’” Johnson said.
Maddux has been a big-league pitching coach since 2003 and has an admirable reputation for his work, including a 2023 World Series championship with the Texas Rangers.
“He keeps things super simple,” Kochanowicz said. “That is perfect for me. I like to go after guys with my stuff and not really think too much into it. Just ‘here's my stuff, can you hit it?’ And he's all about that.”
Injuries to right-handers Grayson Rodriguez and Alek Manoah helped Kochanowicz and Johnson crack the rotation out of camp, and with a new pitching coach and an offseason of arsenal adjustments, the Angels are hoping for better fortunes for their two home-grown arms.