Angels Articles

November 23, 2024 - Written by Zac Holladay

Do the Angels Really Need Major Offseason Changes?

As the Los Angeles Angels go throughout their offseason, they have a lot of weak spots to fill. It has been seen that over the last 4 years, the Halos have a reputation of their few reliable players being sent to the IL, which has resulted in a failure of a season. Filling up their weak spots in their rotation and in their everyday lineup could be taken in the route of signing multiple big-name free agents and trading for solid pieces that are on the chopping block around the league. But do the Angels really need to add much?

The Angels are known for many things as the team’s coaching and managerial staff make some questionable decisions year after year. Some include calling up prospects fairly early, acquiring pitchers with a lengthy injury history and choosing to stick with the ballplayers that they have, rather than spend money on the large market. It is clear, going into 2025, that the Angels need to add above-average pitching depth, there is really no need to add any offense. The young core is only going to improve and the veteran guys like Mike Trout, Luis Rengifo and Taylor Ward are showing their consistent contributions every year when healthy. Their record and the statistics show that they had an extremely poor offensive season as they ranked 28th in batting average and runs scored. But when the Angels have all their main guys in the lineup, they are a very productive baseball club. Yet the reputation of prolonged injuries for the Halos carried into the 2024 season, headlining Mike Trout as their main offensive absence. 

A New Spark for the Angels this Spring

In spring training of 2025, the Angels will show up to camp with all but Zach Neto and Robert Stephenson ready to train and play with everything they have. With the aspiration that the Angels stick with what they have offensively and hold back on adding, they need a spark to the offense. While they do have plenty of power within their lineup, they need a guy that will get this team over the hump and make a run at the promise land in October. And that guy is none other than Christian Moore. 

Christian Moore was drafted 8th overall from Tennessee in the 2024 MLB Draft. He’s a second baseman with serious pop and has a flare for the dramatic. While he has barely played in the minors, his tenure in college was nothing to sneeze at. In 72 games in 2024 for the Tennessee Volunteers, Moore hit a whopping 34 home runs and drove in 74 runs all while hitting .375. In addition, he helped lead Tennessee to its first College World Series championship in school history. He has shown that he can provide prolific power numbers while exhibiting his ability to smack the ball to all parts of the field. 

When Should Christian Moore Join the Big Leagues?

As the Angels have a real talented piece on their hands with Moore in their system, the decision the team will have to make is when to call him up. Knowing that it is in the Angels’ likeness to pull guys out of the minor leagues and up into the Big Leagues in a rapid fashion, do they really want to rush him? So far, the experiment of showing players short time in AA and AAA has worked like a charm. Though guys haven’t performed to their full potential in their stints with the team, they haven’t struggled to the extent of their first taste of the Majors being cut short. Guys like Zach Neto, Nolan Schanuel and Ben Joyce had all been called up to the Majors within the same year of being drafted with decent hype behind their names. While none of them came out of the gate with crazy success and eye-opening numbers, they balled out enough to stay with the team and give the Angels some promise for the future seasons. 

So while the Angels have had major success with their fast call-ups, whose to yield them from calling up Christian Moore too? Actually, it had been rumored from a few sources that he was prepared to be called up for the roster expansion on Sept. 1st, before he suffered a leg injury in a game for the Trash Pandas on August 30th. So, allegedly, his call-up is overdue in the Angels' terms. With this, Zach Neto’s delayed start of the season and the hype behind his name, there is ultimately no reason not to have this man in the starting lineup on Opening Day in 2025 in the southside of Chicago.

If he doesn’t succeed within the first month, they can always send him down and wait a while, like every prospect in the process. There is never a problem with sending him down or keeping him down in AA or AAA. But Moore is a low-risk, high reward segment to the Angels lineup. He has proven in his college days and in his short time in the minors that he is a game-changer. He’s nothing short of special. To further the case, there will not be any stress for Moore to succeed immediately. With Mike Trout leading the team and the trio Baby Boomers of Neto, Schanuel and Logan O’Hoppe taking on quick leadership roles, Christian Moore will have virtually no weight on his shoulders to carry the team in any scenario. 

Can Moore Secure a Starting Spot?

Although the power of Spring Training decides who wins each position depending on their 1 month performance, the competition that the Angels have within the middle infield positions do not possess the talent that Moore has exhibited. Perry Minasian is figured to add some much needed depth pieces to the roster. While he can make moves that could interfere with Moore and his position, there isn’t a need to find a full-time second baseman. Saving money and value is the utmost priority for the Angels to make the team better. 

Slotting Christian Moore in the Angels 2025 everyday lineup is something that needs to be done. He will make the team better and more productive. The stats prove it and the circumstances lead to it. It needs to happen in order for the Angels to succeed next year.

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