Angels Challenge Caden Dana With Quick Promotion

The Angels have been aggressive in promoting prospects when it appears they have mastered a level, and they didn’t waste any time moving 19-year-old righthander Caden Dana, who has drawn comparisons to a young Noah Syndergaard, to a more challenging league.

The 6-foot-4, 215-pound Dana was so dominant in his first three starts for Low-A Inland Empire—allowing two earned runs and six hits, striking out 18 and walking six in 15 innings—that he was promoted to High-A Tri-City on April 25.

The Angels drafted Dana in the 11th round last year out of Don Bosco High in New Jersey.

The fast track seems to suit Dana, who passed on a Kentucky commitment to sign for $1,497,500, a record for a player selected after the 10th round. He has jumped to High-A less than a year after signing.

The Syndergaard comps in high school were due in part to Dana’s strong, physical frame and Thor-like flowing locks, but the potential of his power arsenal also compares favorably to Syndergaard at age 19.

Dana throws a high-spin fastball that sits between 91-95 mph, and he has shown the ability to hold his velocity and command deep into starts. His best secondary pitch is an 11-to-5, mid-70s curveball with a late vertical drop that has plus potential.

Dana also throws a mid-80s changeup with late fading action that has the potential to be a decent third pitch, and he’s working to improve a slider that he doesn’t yet have a good feel for.

A smooth, clean, rhythmic and repeatable delivery should keep Dana in the rotation for the foreseeable future, and he should be able to gain more fastball velocity as he adds more muscle to his already imposing frame.

Dana will likely spend the bulk of this season at Tri-City, where he is teammates with older brother Casey Dana, a 23-year-old outfielder who was a 16th-round pick of the Angels out of Connecticut last summer.

If he adds some velocity to his fastball, learns how and when to drop his curve into the zone for strikes and out of the zone to get hitters to chase, and gains better command of his changeup and slider, Dana has the potential to be a middle-of-the-rotation starter in the big leagues.