The Los Angeles Angels are doing their best to stay relevant in a crowded American League. The Angels’ No. 2 prospect, Caden Dana, has been recalled from Triple-A on Saturday ahead of their game with the Miami Marlins, according to multiple reporters, including Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. This will be his second stint with the big league club this season. In a corresponding move, the Angels have designated reliever Shaun Anderson for assignment. Dana will likely work out of the bullpen for the Angels.
Caden Dana has been called up. He’s taking Shaun Anderson’s place.
Dana will be pitching out of the bullpen.
— Jeff Fletcher (@JeffFletcherOCR) May 24, 2025
The Anderson Experiment is Over
With this news, Shaun Anderson’s time with the Angels is seemingly over. Anderson made the team out of spring when Ben Joyce was placed on the injured list. Since then, he hasn’t delivered at all. He has thrown 10 innings with the Angels this season and has a whopping 6.30 ERA. The right-hander struck out 10 batters, but the long ball and traffic were his downfall. He gave up three home runs and had a 1.700 WHIP.
No matter how you sliced it, the Angels needed to do something. That something was recalling 21-year-old right-hander Caden Dana and using him out of the bullpen. He has done that one time professionally.
Caden Dana Recalled from Triple-A
Dana clocks in at no. 65 on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 list of prospects. The Angels drafted him in the 11th round out of high school in the 2022 MLB Draft. While he has had a brief stint with the big club already, he has struggled a bit in Triple-A and MLB. He has 13.1 innings logged at the big league level, all starting outside of this season. He has an 8.78 ERA at the MLB level, with six walks and 10 strikeouts. With Triple-A Salt Lake, he’s thrown 38 innings this season with 41 strikeouts and a 5.21 ERA.
The trouble for Dana has been the walks. While he holds a 10.1 K/9 throughout his professional career, he also walks 3.2 batters per nine innings. If his command can hold out, he offers a four-seamer that can regularly touch 95 MPH, a slider, a changeup, and a curveball as well.
What is a bit puzzling is that the Angels will be using him in a relief role, something that goes against what he’s been developed as and what brought him to be the No. 2 prospect in the organization. While the Angels are in the bottom third regarding rotation performance, their bullpen has been even worse. The bullpen sits last in ERA at 6.57. This gives the Angels another arm that can give them length, something the starters have had to eat.
However the Angels decide to use him; they’re working on keeping pace with a crowded postseason field. The club sits in third place in the AL West and is 8-2 in its last 10 games.
Main Image Credit: © Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images
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