Mike DiGiovanna: Preston Gomez helped Angels’ Jose Arredondo solve control issues

Reporting from Tempe, Ariz.—The Angels this season will wear black diamond-shaped patches, inscribed with the name “Preston,” on the right sleeves of their jerseys in honor of Preston Gomez, the team’s beloved advisor, scout and coach who died in January at 86.

If it were up to Jose Arredondo, the hard-throwing 24-year-old reliever who had a breakthrough 2008 season for the Angels, the patch would be sewn over his heart.

“I love that guy,” Arredondo said, his soft voice barely audible amid the bustle of the team’s spring-training clubhouse. “He taught me everything.”

If Arredondo continues to dominate like he did as a rookie, when he went 10-2 with a 1.62 earned-run average and baffled hitters with a 95-mph fastball and nasty split-fingered pitch, he will be Gomez’s parting gift to a franchise he served for 28 years.

Arredondo was a self-described “troublemaker” as he came up through the minor leagues, a prospect whose arm was clearly major league-caliber but whose temper threatened to derail him.

In June 2007, at double-A Arkansas, Arredondo threw a tantrum when he was pulled from a game and got into an altercation with veteran outfielder Curtis Pride, who was trying to calm Arredondo in the clubhouse afterward.

The Angels suspended Arredondo for a week and demoted him to Class-A Rancho Cucamonga, where he brooded his way to a 2-4 record and 6.43 ERA in 28 games.

Arredondo had also been at Rancho Cucamonga in 2006 when he and catcher Michael Collins got crossed up, the right-hander firing a fastball when Collins expected a changeup. They then argued and fought in the dugout.