Feb. 13: Taylor signed a minor league deal with a spring training invite, per Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. He reported to camp this morning.
Feb. 12: The Angels are in agreement to bring back veteran utility player Chris Taylor, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. It’s not clear whether it’s an MLB deal or a minor league contract with a Spring Training invite, though the latter seems more likely. Taylor is represented by Meister Sports Management.
Taylor finished the 2025 season in Orange County. He signed a big league deal after being released by the Dodgers in May. Taylor made 30 appearances for the Halos. He started games at all three outfield positions and at second and third base. He didn’t make a huge impact beyond that defensive flexibility, as he struck out 29 times and hit .179 across 90 plate appearances. Taylor almost immediately went on the injured list with a broken left hand. A brief return in July proved unsuccessful and he was essentially shelved until September.
The former All-Star combined for a .186/.256/.301 batting line over 125 plate appearances between the two Los Angeles teams. Taylor’s offense has cratered over the past two seasons. His bat speed and power production have dropped, putting more of a focus on his already high strikeout tallies. He has fanned at a 32% clip while hitting .196/.284/.301 with six home runs over 371 plate appearances in the last two seasons.
Taylor will compete for a bench role. He’s still an above-average runner who can fill in anywhere other than catcher and shortstop. The Angels have a wide open second base competition between Christian Moore, Vaughn Grissom, Oswald Peraza and non-roster invitee Nick Madrigal. Third base belongs to Yoán Moncada for now, but he’s hardly a picture of durability. They’re patching together an outfield that’ll include Jo Adell, Josh Lowe and at least one of Mike Trout and Jorge Soler with the other working as a designated hitter.
As a player with six years of service time who finished last season on the major league roster, Taylor hit the market as an Article XX(b) free agent. If he’s signing a minor league contract, it would come with a trio of automatic opt-out dates under the collective bargaining agreement: five days before Opening Day, May 1, and June 1.
Probably time to hang up the spikes, this has midseason DFA written all over it.
Nonetheless a great career from a guy who was once a cast-off.
@patriot. He can opt out five days before the season. I dont see him making the team, also I dont see him going to the minors.
Midseason? He will be gone before the end of April.
S. M. D. H!
It’s not just that they suck so bad. It’s that they remind us every week how little they care.
Angels talent evaluation is just like some guy trying to get rich by buying a lot of lottery tickets at the 7-Eleven. Eventually, he’ll win a few dollars and tell you he knew what he was doing the whole time when in reality he was just playing the odds.
And just like that guy the Angels will spend far more than they win and still think it is a good strategy.
10000 %
toast, of the burnt variety
Making money playing the game you love. In Socal. What’s the downside for Chris?
I was hoping he would come back. Last night I was watching a game Angels vs Twins where he played. I was wondering if he was in Camp with the Halos. Our prayers have been answered.
Based on those numbers it should be a MiLB deal.
Angels honestly might be ruining baseball
That would be the Rockies. At least the Angels have a world series under their belt.
As an Angel fan, how many years the halos been around compared to the Rockies? One WS title in 60 years is crap. Postseason 10 times. Terrible, Dodger fans are lucky, they get October baseball every season probably another 5 rings the next 8 seasons. Poor Ohtani wasted 6 years, he’s making up for it now.
@Sammy the Mariners have never been to the world series. The Angels have been to the world series (and won) more recently than the Padres, Pirates, Brewers, Orioles, Reds, Athletics and Twins.
While the Angels currently have the longest post season drought, arguing about a lack of appearances over that time period as a sign of how bad they are is short sighted, considering how only a handful only got in every year for most of the history of thr mlb.
We can agree that the Angels are a terrible team, but saying they’re ruining baseball is ridiculous. Were the Cubs ruining baseball during their lengthy droughts?
@simonkiller
That is a very good and interesting take on the present and future of baseball, It actually forced me to think about it. Something which I won’t forgive you 😉
In the end, I think Moreno is ruining the Angels.
In 2025, he split time pretty much equally between the Dodgers and my beloved Halos. But inferior Dodgers coaching led him to only post a -0.6 WAR in blue, while our superior system saw him blossom to an impressive 0.0 WAR for the red team. Take that Dodger fans!
Angels should sign Conforto and work their magic.
Sealbeach Comber – I think he did OK with the Angels. He played very good with the glove the whole time and was real bad with the bat at first. He then briefly got red hot until he got hurt. He came back , bones not fully healed and immediately gets hit by a pitch right on the arm. He did much better with the Angels.
What a joke of an off-season
should’ve resigned luis rengifo instead
No! I like Chris better. More consistent.
Consistently bad? He hit .186
You think Taylor is better than Rengifo? Wow
@soccer_ref. It’s grasping at straws, but also could be true when insert name hitting under .200 were signed before him. Apparently gm’s feel the same about rengifo.
Chris Taylor has a work ethic Renjifo doesn’t have.
CT3 is the ultimate pro. Good guy in the community and you know he will give his best effort on the field. Hope he sticks
This news is kind of like having another weekend at Bernie’s only with less hitting.
I’ll take “moves an organization with no depth makes for a thousand,”
Love this Taylor signing. He’s a good ball player.
Career-wise, l’d say he did better than Rudy the football guy.
I find it hard that nobody in the angels organization can match Taylor.
Good. I was hoping they would re-sign him.
Gotta love the signing where they preach versatility even though the guy hasn’t hit even a little in over two years. What’s the point of having a guy that can “play anywhere” when he does it poorly every time he plays? Overswingers like Taylor fall off the cliff fast and this is exactly what happened to him after a decent run
After Spring Training it will all sort out.
Good luck big Chris. Hope you have a comeback season
Chris Taylor is a loser that sucks
how many World Series rings do you have. Taylor has two (2020 and 2024).
I don’t mind fishing expeditions, but LAA might be the #28 team in BB. This is just like Anderson, Kieboom, Sano, Hicks, Kingery, etc. It might be time to accept reality and blow the team up for 1-2 years.
Agreed….but it will take more than 1-2 years for the Angels to right the ship. Their entire organization is a mess. And Moreno needs to sell.
It felt silly saying 1-2, but I don’t like beating guys when they’re down. But it’s always something. Just the other day, the idea that a team would draft 20 straight pitchers was beyond crazy. It had to be some type of experiment.
Be another 10 years, at the least, until the Angels make the postseason
A lot of you say they should blow the team up. Others say they don’t have anything as if they’re starting from scratch. So the question is where are they at right this point currently?
They have alot of good young talent. They have never said we’re going to win the WS in 2026.
They won a handful more games in 2025 vs 2024. So if they can keep going in that direction I’m cool with it.
Where are they? Well, they continure to be perpetually stuck in the middle. Not going in on either rebuilding or signing bigger FA’s. I get that the latter is more difficult to do but if they do have a good young core then you need to build around it. And they do have some good young talent, but alone they aren’t good enough to meaningfully compete.
Basically, they neither rebuild nor fortify their roster.
And in MLB that’s the worst place to be. You don’t get high draft picks but also you don’t make playoffs.
They won more games in 2025 vs 2024 because of the signings that they made during the offseason. The biggest I believe being Kikuchi. This offseason though the biggest add was G. Rod (who is injury prone) while removing their biggest bat.
DolemiteisMyname
They have alot of good young talent.
====================
I don’t see it. One position player with a bWAR > 1.5. And Soriano is their only good ‘young’ pitcher.
For some reason the article doesn’t mention Taylor’s age: 35. If he plays this year he’d turn 36 mid-season. The chance of a rebound at that age is pretty small, but even if it does not happen, The Quiet Man can retire having played 12 seasons of MLB, and there’s certainly no shame in that.
I like this guy’s versatility but he can’t hit worth beans. Has pitching gotten so good that guys can’t hit it anymore? Or am I just used to the Angels normal? We batted .228 as a team in 2025. How does Taylor or anyone we’ve acquired this offseason help improve that number? It wouldn’t be so bad if our pitching staff was better than AAA level. But here we are…again.
One of the most beloved dodgers. Sure, grab a last years salary for security or toys. You’ve earned it Chris. Hope you get 200+PA and sneak in one last good season to end on a good note. Maybe .260/.320/.410 ish??? With the platoon advantage??? Pulling for you. Hope you fully enjoy your final(?) season.
Yoan Moncada, Josh Lowe, Oswald Peraza, Alek Manoah, Nick Madrigal, Grayson Rodriguez, Vaughn Grissom… Go back five years and that’s a set of names with elite world’s of potential and here they are mostly fighting for scraps on LA’s B-team.
A’s fan trolling. Blasphemy
The $1.99 DQ Special of a Roster
Angels sign Chris Taylor to a minor‑league deal, and honestly… tell me this doesn’t feel like the final swirl on the 2026 soft‑serve roster sundae.
You’ve got Arte Moreno and Perry Minasian behind the counter like two guys working the late shift at Dairy Queen, squeezing every last drop out of the machine. They’ve already mixed the roster, blended praying it doesn’t melt by June and now they drop Chris Taylor on top like the whipped cream, sprinkle a few crushed nuts, and gently place the bright red cherry on this budget friendly masterpiece.
Come on Angels get in line
The Angels’ 2026 The DQ $1.99 Special.
Angels are camping the clearance rack this off season. Add this move to the long list.
Only the Angels cannot see he is washed up
Retire dude
Bottom line Angels are not going to see the postseason perhaps in the next 10 years. It’s a traditional postseason drought
“They’re patching together an outfield..”? They’re patching together the whole team this offseason. I’ve never seen such a terrible offseason for the Angels before. No hope of success at all. The only thing that makes sense to me is that Arte thinks the strike/lockout will last a long time and the upcoming season will be a throwaway for the whole league. Since it is most likely a make or break season for Perry, I guess he will be gone.
A healthy Chris Taylor will make the club.