The Rockies are in agreement with Mickey Moniak on a one-year, $1.25MM contract, report Mark Feinsand and Thomas Harding of MLB.com. The Angels released the former first overall pick yesterday. Moniak, a Wasserman client, has a little over three years of service time and is technically controllable through 2027 via arbitration. Colorado has not announced the signing. They opened a 40-man roster spot by waiving Greg Jones, who was claimed by the White Sox this afternoon.
Moniak had gone to an arbitration hearing with the Halos. He prevailed and was awarded a $2MM salary. However, arbitration salaries are only fully guaranteed if the player and team mutually agree to them without a hearing. The distinction was introduced in the most recent collective bargaining agreement, at least partially to incentivize players to agree to deals without going to hearings.
Players who go to a hearing (regardless of whether they win or lose) are only guaranteed termination pay until the beginning of the regular season. Players released before or early in Spring Training receive 30 days termination pay; those released within 15 days of Opening Day are guaranteed 45 days termination pay. Moniak obviously fell into the latter bucket, so he received roughly $484K from the Angels when he was cut loose.
That’s on top of the money he’s guaranteed from the Rockies, meaning he has now locked in around $1.73MM for this season. That’s about $270K below what he had won in the hearing, but it’s roughly $230K above the Angels’ $1.5MM filing figure during the arbitration process. Moniak lands just shy of the midpoint between his and the Halos’ respective filing numbers.
Moniak, a lefty-hitting center fielder, has spent the last two seasons playing a semi-regular role with the Angels. He had a productive 2023 season, hitting .280/.307/.495 with 14 homers in 85 games. A massive 35% strikeout rate made it unlikely he’d be able to keep up that production. His numbers indeed fell off last season, as he hit .219/.266/.380 over 418 plate appearances. Moniak cut his strikeout rate to a slightly more palatable 27.3% mark, but that came with a dramatic drop to his ball-in-play results.
The Angels are moving Mike Trout to right field this season. That reopened the path for Moniak and another former top prospect, Jo Adell, to work as a center field platoon. Moniak had a terrible Spring Training, batting .191 while striking out 18 times in 58 plate appearances. Adell’s numbers were even worse (.172/.194/.375 in 67 PAs), but the Angels decided to move on from Moniak and cut a little more than $1.5MM from their payroll.
Moniak projects as a fourth outfielder in Colorado. Brenton Doyle is one of the better all-around center fielders in MLB. Jordan Beck, Sean Bouchard and minor league signee Nick Martini round out the corner outfield after last week’s Nolan Jones/Tyler Freeman swap. The signing probably doesn’t bode well for Sam Hilliard, another left-handed hitter who was slated to work as the fourth outfielder. Moniak and Hilliard are both out of options, so they’ll need to break camp or be exposed to waivers. Moniak is clearly going to make the team. Hilliard batted .137 while striking out nearly half the time this spring.
Image courtesy of Jesse Johnson, Imagn Images
He lives! Not sure if this will help his strikeout numbers though
Moniak Freed again…… Third teams will be the charm!
The downside to being a 1/1 pick that never should have been chosen that high is that the pressure certainly impacts the development process.
The upside – a life-changing signing bonus, and enough extra looks by teams to allow for a few more shots at some solid cash that a tenth round pick would have never gotten. I wish him well out there; it would be wonderful if he could manage to develop into a useful and effective platoon option for a few more years.
Totally agree w/ your points.
At this juncture, I’d like to see him develop into a solid 4th OF. The whole 1/1 is long over, he’s only 26 and has time to elevate into that permanent role.
Funny the “Daycare” thing is still a thing in Philly, yet all those guys are older than Mickey. Like other former high pics for the Phils, I’ll continue to follow his career.
Nice place for any hitter to land.
Maybe this provides Mickey with an opportunity to swat 30 or more homers.
with 200 SOs and .215 AVG
Hes not striking 200xs. Really?
Only if he stays healthy.
Right on…
Outstanding proof of what I have been saying for years
Top draft picks have done nothing to earn the absurd bonuses they get to sign
He got SIX MILLION dollars to sign a contract
What was his alternative? Throw a tantrum and get a job at Starbucks?
He did nothing to merit that bonus in his career
These bonuses are BS that need to be changed
Let players EARN their millions
Cmon now, a high school kid getting six million is so ridiculous
He was baseball America’s high school player of the year, gatorade California player of the year, and San Diego Section (highest level of amateur ball in Cali) player of the year. He set the SD section triples record. He was the best high school player in the state of California if not the entire nation in 2016.
He was just insanely toolsy, who never adapted to a wood bat, or adapted to advanced scouting profiles of which his caliber of game (lack of plate discipline) is very susceptible too.
But again, the point is, taking Moniak wasn’t a crazy call. That entire top 10 of that class in 2016 is one of the worst in recent history (outside of 2020).
The next best high schooler was RHP Ian Anderson who has 3.7 bWAR and has barely played due to injuries. The next two HS position players were Josh Lowe (4.8 bWAR, but plays 3B) and then Will Benson as the next HS OF at #14. There was quite a drop off in perceived talent after Mickey.
He def earned it but SD baseball is absolutely not better than the LAUSD raquet. Not even close
1 through 31 of the 2016 class was just uninspiring. Not until Will Smith at pick 32 did you get a real impact player.
Captainmike1, Are you forgetting that a draft pick doesn’t have to sign? He can go back into the next year’s draft, so he has a certain amount of leverage. The hardest thing in baseball is projecting what kids will do. Some guys, like apparently Moniak, are dominant at the age they’re drafted, but don’t develop much beyond that. Some guys drafted late, develop beyond expectations. It’s a crapshoot. Philly drafted him #1 overall on sound reasoning. Had they not given the big bonus, and he went back into the next year’s draft, and turned into Mike Trout, people would be calling the Phillies stupid for not giving him the big bonus.
Jean, these draft picks are like buying stocks, overall the owners clean up on these stocks.
Totally disagree
I don’t see the teams winning at all
Go study the data in more detail
You don’t get it Mike. When they win, it can be a profit of more than 100 million dollars.
Virtually every regular playing baseball, the signing team has made millions of dollars versus their signing bonus.
They don’t need it to be a high percentage of success to make a huge profit and virtually every team makes a huge profit.
It’s called math.
I disagree
You can disagree with 2+2 =4, but it’s not much of a take.
Since this is about the Phillies, let’s pic the Phillies.
Aaron Nola, Chase Utley, Cole Hammils.
Profit made on Utley, on just him…About 65 million dollars. They made more on Nola and Hammels.
So about 200 million dollars. That means they could totally miss out on 30 years of #1 picks that were complete failures, and they’d still be ahead.
But they don’t miss. Total WAR for 1st round Phillies’ picks 418.
Math is your friend.
Hardly proof. It’s evidence.
If a young player excels, these bonuses represent a fraction of the value these players bring to a team. For example, Ten years ago, Bregman got a six million dollar signing bonus, the Astros paid him pennies on the dollar for six years, including the first three years for a total of 1.75 million, then 13 million a year for the next three years. On the open market, Bregman is getting 38 million a year.
My evidence blows your evidence out of the water.
One example in your favor
150 examples in my favor
That’s one hell of a hill to die on.
You are right about everything. Post more!
Let players EARN their millions
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If he were a FA coming out of HS, he’d have gotten a ton more than $6M. The only reason he got such a tiny amount is that the PA is its own monopoly.
One factor not mentioned here: MLB is also competing with NFL and NBA. Financial incentives are basically immediate for the football and basketball athletes. An undersized Kyler Murray still chose football over baseball because the financial and opportunity paths were far greater.
@CaptMike – Actually, it proves nothing and your conclusion is what is patently absurd.
Drafts are an inherently rigged system anyway, for the free market aficionados. And there is an underlying reason for it, as the chaos of large market teams being able to overwhelm everyone else if they were all able to sign anywhere would be troubling unto itself.
You also completely forget that players are controlled for at least six major league seasons (along with cheap pay in the minors as well) at under market rates before they can test the market, and a large part of those years are when they are at their highest level of performance and potential demand for services.
Every draft in professional sports has a relative slotting system where the highest picks are rewarded based upon their potential and the market to acquire them – why are you so concerned about organizations paying large bonuses to the best of the pool of players when they are drafted?
This is a decent, young, low-risk, high-reward signing every rebuilding team could afford to make.
A number 1 prospect, who hasn’t played to his potential, is only 26, with potential and is the right age to become part of a youth movement, could turn into something decent.
Reminds me of the Josh Hamilton deal…
Now, if he ends up producing similar numbers in Colorado to a Jeffrey Hammonds or a Jay Payton, I think it could be a win-win for Colorado.
I’m not sure you can call the Rockies “rebuilding.”
Pete they’re definitely going in a youth movement, they’re adding to the big league roster with some young “veteran” players, but the additions of Halverson, Chivili, Beck, Doyle, Tovar, etc means they’re in a rebuild phase.
If Moniak, Martini, Farmer all perform at high levels and the likes of Veen, Dollander, Romo, and Amador outperform peak expectations and kick the doors down the veterans all become trade Assets to restock the farm system, while the younger guys start moving up.
IMO the Rockies aren’t rebuilding. One of the hallmarks of rebuilding clubs is the trading away of veterans, not adding them. A youth movement isn’t the same thing as a rebuild.
Except the Rockies are notorious for hanging onto players at the deadline instead of getting anything for them. They are the most insulated and poorly ran club in the league. They should be playing Veen over Martini if they were in a true youth movement. I would say “constant disarray” as opposed to rebuilding or youth movement
Pete was commenting on the broken state of the Rockies org. You can’t rebuild a house that was never there. It’s a joke (the Rockies and Pete’s comment).
If he produced like either player the Angels would have kept him (actually the Phillies probably would have kept him too)
Starting LF perhaps, with Doyle in CF and Beck in RF. If they are smart they would only let Bryant DH, but we know they aren’t smart
Is Moniak demonstrably better than Greg Jones?
Well I was actually hoping for this move to happen, but I figured the Rox would stick with Hilliard until June or so.
I remember when Rockies fans used to argue that their Coors field products weren’t overrated. Cargo,etc
CarGo had the sweetest lefty swing since Griffey. Don’t underestimate him based on Coors. At his peak, he would have been a star anywhere.
A quick look at that 2016 draft and it is not pretty.
The Rockies have never picked #1 overall. When Moniak gets into a Rockies game for the first time, he will be the second ever overall #1 pick to play for the Rockies though. Former Tigers closer Matt Anderson (#1 in 1997) ended his career by pitching 12 games for the 2005 Rockies. One of those cool trivia questions and answers that very few people care about. But I love them.
Here is one of my favorite trivia questions. Who is the first round pick to make the all-star game his first two seasons, at two different positions, yet never play in another all-star game.
He retired with a war of less than ten.
Good one. Never heard that one. I honestly have no clue. Got a hint or a timeframe?
I’m a huge Angel, and only a huge Angel fan would know this. There is also an Angel fan who has his name in his handle. His name, followed by 73….i think
Took a bit of work, but I think I found him. Dave Chalk? Man, without B/R I could have guessed from now until the end of the year and probably never gotten the right answer.
The Angels were my favorite AL team growing up, but it was more mid 80s than mid 70s.. I remember guys like Jack Howell, Johnny Ray, and Gary Pettis much more than Chalk.
Yep.
As an Angels fan who remembers Dave Chalk well, I’m embarrassed that I didn’t get that.
Don’t lose hope, the Rox have the right trajectory to pick 1st soon enough.
Not this year. They are ineligible to pick any higher than #11. And unlike most fans, I hope my team NEVER picks first. I want them to win as much as possible, not be the worst team in the league.
hiflew
not be the worst team in the league.
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Is there a material difference between being #29 or #30?
Best of luck Mickey. Hope it works out.
His speed will work well in that large outfield. Hopefully he cracks plenty of doubles too.
Potentially one of the most chicken left on the bones type dudes, hopefully he figures it out , will be rooting for him.
They’re using Moniak as a low-cost lab rat to test whether a flawed ex-prospect can thrive in their park, then flipping him midseason to a team overvaluing Coors-inflated numbers.
I was really upset that Perry Minasian and Co. let him go. Just watch Moniak turn into a star with the Rockies. That would be typical Angels turnabout.
Agreed. Washington and Minasian have no idea what they’re doing. He just needs more playing time. You don’t hit .280 with 21 doubles and 14 HR’s less than two years ago by accident. His biggest negative are strikeouts. He’s an excellent defensive OF so we’ll see if a change of scenery for him will help.
This is a somewhat mysterious move because Sean Bouchard and Nick Martini are just flat out better than Moniak. Then there’s Veen off-screen. But as the article notes, Sam Hilliard is looking cooked. Unnoted is Kris Bryant’s status. He’s healthy, but he looks like an 80 wRC+ hitter who can’t play the field. He’s paid enough to give him a long leash, but we’re nearing KB cut day if he can’t show a pulse by end of May. At that point, Moniak suddenly fits a lot better.
One thing you are missing is that none of Bouchard, Beck, Martini, or Bryant is a viable option in CF. And you would only put Veen there if you were desperate.
So if they were not going to keep Hilliard, they needed somebody capable of backing up CF. Apparently they decided Moniak was a better option than Greg Jones for that.
Having written that, I wonder why they didn’t just DFA Hilliard to open the roster spot for Moniak. That would have allowed them to keep Jones in AAA as depth in case of injury.
$108M left for KB. He’s not going anywhere.
At some point, lost money is just lost money. Maybe it comes in the form of a phantom IL stint (the union looks the other way when they’re used on toast veterans trying to find one last hurrah), but an 80 wRC+ DH is unrosterable regardless of pay.
I’m not saying he’s dead quite yet, but he has months, not years to show some life.
There’s also room on the bench (for now).