Why Can’t The Angels Accept Reality?
We're nearly one third of the way through the 2026 regular season. The Angels have won exactly one third of their games. Despite getting out to a decent start -- the Halos were 11-10 after a win on April 17 -- they're now sitting on a 17-34 record. A resurgent performance from Mike Trout and a breakout from Jose Soriano fueled that early success, but those two alone can't carry the rest of the roster. The Angels have won only six of their past 30 games and just one of their past 10.
The end result doesn't come as a major surprise, although it's nevertheless jarring when any team rattles off a stretch with only six wins in 30 games. Still, the Angels didn't enter the season expected to be contenders. MLBTR readers overwhelmingly voted that their offseason was worthy of a D or F grade. FanGraphs projected what now looks like a charitable 72 wins. PECOTA had them down at 66 wins, which now also looks like it could finish on the high end. My colleague Anthony Franco opened his review of the Halos' offseason by writing that the Angels "did little to improve a 90-loss roster and again enter the season as one of the American League’s worst teams on paper."
It's a familiar refrain. The Angels will extend their playoff drought to 12 years when the current season concludes. They haven't had a winning record since 2015. Owner Arte Moreno has cycled through seven managers since their last winning season. Current skipper Kurt Suzuki is in a virtually unprecedented situation: a rookie manager on a one-year deal. There's a chance that 2027 will bring an eighth manager in 12 years.
To hear Suzuki tell it, the Angels are right on the cusp of turning things around. Sam Blum of The Athletic asked him last week whether he felt this was a cold stretch or reflective of where the Angels are as an organization. Suzuki replied: "I truly do believe that we've hit a cold stretch. Even that being said, there are a lot of games where we're in it. We're one swing away, maybe one pitch away, one out away."
Granted, there's not much Suzuki can say in that situation. It's a perfectly fair question to be asked, but a rookie manager on a one-year contract isn't going to throw the entire organization under the bus. He probably does believe, to an extent, that the players on hand have underperformed, gotten unlucky and that the record could be better. There may even be some truth behind that. The Angels certainly aren't a good team, but a team with Trout, Soriano and Zach Neto probably isn't quite bad enough to be a 54-win team (the Angels' current pace).
That said, the Angels are an unequivocally bad team. The organization has been stuck in neutral for more than a decade. Let's take a look at the current state of the roster, what could be done, and why the Halos are spinning their wheels in perpetuity.
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The Guardians’ Faith In Their Own Players Is Paying Off
The Guardians had a very disappointing offseason. Despite winning the American League Central in two straight years and three of the past four, they did almost nothing to upgrade their roster for 2027. They made no trades of significance and spent less than $12MM in free agency.
Even that very modest outlay was offset by savings elsewhere. Emmanuel Clase was supposed to make $6MM this year but he probably won’t see any of that due to his ongoing gambling investigation. José Ramírez signed an extension that technically increased his 2026 salary from $21MM to $26MM but the new deal defers $10MM annually, so it actually saved the club money in the short term.
After MLBTR published its Offseason In Review entry for the Guards, readers mostly panned the club’s actions. In the poll at the bottom of the post, both the F and D options got 37% of the vote. C was next with 19%. The B option got just a 5% share, followed by A at 2%.
But almost two months into the season, they are thriving. They are currently 30-22, one of the few American League clubs comfortably above .500. They are 3.5 games clear of the White Sox and six up on the Twins. Coming into the season, the Tigers were considered by many to be the division favorite, but they are 9.5 back.
How are the Guards doing it? The pitching staff is quite good, which isn’t really a surprise, since they were strong in that department last year. But they have taken a big step forward offensively. The team has a collective .230/.324/.377 line and 101 wRC+. That may not sound too impressive, being just barely above average, but consider where they were last year. The 2025 Guards hit .226/.296/.373 for a wRC+ of 87. They were successful in spite of that lack of offense thanks to their pitching and defense. Cranking up the offense, even just to be middle of the pack, is a notable improvement.
Since they made almost no effort to add external options, the gains are clearly coming from inside the house. Some of this was to be expected. Chase DeLauter and Travis Bazzana came into the season ranked among the club’s top prospects and both are contributing, but the Guards are also getting improved results from guys who have already been on the team for years, as each of Brayan Rocchio, Angel Martínez and Daniel Schneemann have boosted their numbers this season.
Rocchio came into this season seemingly on the fringe of the roster. By the end of 2025, he had 911 career plate appearances. He had just 13 home runs, a .222/.293/.327 line and 77 wRC+. He had exhausted his final option season. On paper, he and Gabriel Arias had the middle infield jobs but Bazzana was on the way, along with Juan Brito and Angel Genao. There was a non-zero chance of him getting pushed off the roster.
But instead, he’s been taking a step forward. The Guards somewhat surprisingly started the year with Bazzana in the minors and Rocchio at second base. Arias hit the IL in April, leaving Rocchio in charge of the shortstop job. Rocchio has stepped to the plate 188 times and has a .290/.376/.420 line, leading to a 130 wRC+. A lot of that is due to plate discipline. He came into the year with a 7.7% walk rate and 21.3% strikeout rate in his career. Those numbers are at 10.1% and 10.6% this year.
His contact hasn’t made huge strides. In fact, his hard hit rate and exit velocity are actually down relative to last year. What seems to be working for him is some extra patience. His swing rate is down 3.4 percentage points. Perhaps more importantly, his first pitch swing rate is down by 11.5 points. That has led to more walks and fewer strikeouts.
There is a bit of luck at play, as he has a .309 batting average on balls in play. Since he is striking out so rarely, that means lots of balls in play and the luck is really helping him. Perhaps there is some regression coming but Rocchio has already racked up 1.7 wins above replacement in the eyes of FanGraphs, with his solid shortstop defense and nine stolen bases also helping.
Martínez was sent to the plate 653 times over the 2024 and 2025 seasons. He had a tepid .226/.277/.353 line and 77 wRC+ in those, hitting 14 home runs. His 21.9% strikeout rate was around average but his 5.8% walk rate was quite low. He wasn’t guaranteed playing time in 2026, as Cleveland came into the year with an outfield mix consisting of DeLauter, Schneeman, Steven Kwan, George Valera, CJ Kayfus, David Fry and Petey Halpin.
But some struggles from the guys in that group have opened time for Martínez that he has taken advantage of. Unlike Rocchio, there are no big improvements here in terms of discipline. His 19.4% strikeout rate is a bit better but he’s also walking less, with just a 3.4% rate this year. But he already has nine home runs, almost matching his previous career tally, in just 175 plate appearances. That has helped him hit .256/.298/.488 for a 119 wRC+.
Also unlike Rocchio, there are some tangible shifts in the Statcast data. His 36.2% hard hit rate is only around league average but a big jump from the 29.3% rate he had last year. His 88.6 mph average exit velocity is exactly league par but a mile and a half better than his own mark from last year. His 41st percentile bat speed isn’t too impressive but he was in the 21st percentile last year. Making those kinds of gains can sometimes come with more whiffs but, as mentioned, he is actually striking out less.
He also may have found a defensive home in the outfield, depending on who you ask. Martínez was bounced between second base, third base and the grass in 2024 and 2025. His outfield results were poor, as he was given minus-9 Defensive Runs Saved and minus-5 Outs Above Average. DRS is still not convinced this year, giving him a minus-3 grade. Since that’s in roughly one third as many innings, it’s roughly the same pace as last year. But he has been credited with 3 OAA on the year. He has also stolen eight bases, already matching last year’s total. He’s been credited with 1.2 fWAR on the year.
Schneemann spent 2024 and 2025 in a utility role, playing everywhere except first base and the battery. He hit .210/.290/.358 for a wRC+ of 84 in 643 plate appearances. He has been sent to the plate 150 times this year with a .246/.327/.403 line and 109 wRC+.
It’s possible that Schneemann’s improvements are more fluky than those of Rocchio or Martínez. While Rocchio is showing an improved approach and Martínez is hitting the ball with more authority, Schneemann’s gains look to be based on luck, as he has a .333 BABIP so far. HIs 10.7% walk rate is nice but only a slight gain on the 9.8% pace he had coming into the year. His 28.7% strikeout rate is high and only a marginal improvement over the 29.1% rate he had in previous seasons.
In terms of the Statcast data, his hard hit rate and average exit velocity are actually down relative to last year. If there’s one big bright spot, it’s that Statcast has his launch angle sweet spot percentage in the 97th percentile, whereas he was in the 23rd percentile last year. The regression may already be setting in, as Schneemann is hitting .143 in May after batting .321/.391/.564 through the end of April. Even if it was just one big month, some solid offensive results have combined with his speed and defense to give him a tally of 1.0 fWAR on the season.
These three guys aren’t going to get any MVP votes but their contributions are significant in the larger context. As mentioned, the Guards did almost nothing to add outside help. There are seven players on the team who have received at least 150 plate appearances this year. Ramírez is doing his usual thing. DeLauter is having a strong rookie season. But Kwan and Kyle Manzardo are struggling so far. Rocchio, Martínez and Schneemann have stepped up. Those three have a combined .265/.335/.439 line, 120 wRC+ and 3.9 fWAR on the year so far.
Time will tell if they can keep it going but those strong starts have already pushed the Guards out to a nice division lead. If the gains do prove to be sustainable, then it could lead to some interesting decisions down the line.
Bazzana was called up at the end of April and has taken over the second base job, having hit .288/.409/.384 for a 133 wRC+ in the early going. The Guards also have one of the league’s top infield prospects in Genao. He was promoted to Triple-A earlier this month and has put up a .305/.359/.576 line at that level so far. A promotion is arguably already viable and his knocks on the door should get louder every day. His defense is still a work in progress but evaluators expect him to be a viable big league shortstop as he refines his tools.
The Guardians have historically not been shy about trading from their middle infield. Francisco Lindor was their regular shortstop for most of the 2015 to 2020 period before getting flipped to the Mets. Amed Rosario and Andrés Giménez came back in that trade and were fixtures of the middle infield for the next few years. Giménez even got a nine-figure extension. But both were eventually traded, Rosario to the Dodgers and Giménez to the Blue Jays. With Bazzana, Genao, Rocchio, Arias, Schneemann and Brito all now in the middle infield mix, maybe they can make someone in that group available to address another part of the roster.
In the outfield, it’s probably just nice that things are going relatively well out there, as Cleveland has been struggling for years to get production from the grass. Their outfielders hit a collective .225/.288/.341 last year for a 77 wRC+, putting them ahead of only the Royals. This year, they are up to the middle of the pack with a .232/.316/.384 line, thanks to Martínez and DeLauter.
Perhaps the Guards will have to move on from Kwan at some point. He is under club control through 2027. He’s making $7.725MM this year and would be due an arbitration raise going into next year. But his offense slipped to league average last year and he’s down to .202/.330/.260 in 2026, so perhaps a non-tender or a trade are becoming possibilities. Even without Kwan, they have DeLauter, Martínez, Valera, Schneemann, Fry, Halpin, Kayfus, Brito and Kahlil Watson in the mix and controllable for years to come.
Photos courtesy of Brett Davis, Rick Osentoski, Ken Blaze, David Richard, Imagn Images
José Azócar Elects Free Agency
José Azócar elected free agency after clearing outright waivers, according to the MLB.com transaction log. The Braves designated the outfielder for assignment on Wednesday when Eli White returned from a concussion.
Azócar has had two brief stints on Atlanta’s roster this season. He has appeared in nine games, going 5-15 with a pair of doubles and a stolen base. The 30-year-old Venezuela native is a career .248/.293/.325 hitter over 434 plate appearances, most of which came with the Padres between 2022-23.
Around the MLB calls, Azócar has had a solid start to the year with Triple-A Gwinnett. He’s batting .270/.348/.420 with a couple homers and eight steals in 10 tries over 30 minor league games. Azócar has played all three outfield spots and has plus speed off the bench.
There’s a good chance he’ll circle back to the Braves on a minor league deal in the next couple days. Azócar also elected free agency after a DFA on May 8, only to re-sign three days later. He’s out of options and needs to go through waivers each time the Braves want to send him down after a stint on MLB roster.
Chris Taylor Retires
Two-time World Series winner Chris Taylor is retiring, according to the MiLB.com transaction log. He had been in Triple-A with the Angels.
Taylor played parts of 12 seasons in the big leagues. The University of Virginia product was a fifth-round pick by Seattle in 2012. He played a bench role with the Mariners for a couple seasons before being traded to the Dodgers for right-hander Zach Lee in June 2016. That seemingly minor trade would haunt the Mariners, as then-GM Jerry Dipoto would call it “the worst deal I ever made” a year later.
Although Taylor wasn’t much of a factor in his first half-season with the Dodgers, that changed following his recall from Triple-A in April ’17. Taylor hit .288/.354/.496 with 21 home runs and 34 doubles over 140 games. He carried that form into the postseason, posting a near-.900 OPS in his first October action. That included a pair of homers in a five-game NLCS victory over the Cubs, in which Taylor was named the co-series MVP with Justin Turner.
That was the start of a five-year stretch in which Taylor was a key piece of very successful Dodgers teams. He’d hit .258/.340/.450 with 57 homers from 2018-21, earning an All-Star selection in the final of those years. He’d win his first World Series ring when L.A. defeated the Rays in 2020. That was ironically one of the only postseasons in which Taylor didn’t have good numbers, but he’d go on an absolute tear the following October.
Taylor had a signature moment when he hit a walk-off home run against Alex Reyes to knock out the Cardinals in the ’21 Wild Card Game. That was the first of four he’d hit in that postseason despite Dodgers getting bounced by the Braves in the NLCS. Taylor carried that momentum into his first trip to free agency, eventually re-signing on a four-year contract that guaranteed him $60MM.
Although it was an obvious move for the Dodgers at the time, that didn’t work out the way Taylor or the team would’ve hoped. He missed time in each of the first three seasons while his power production dropped. His game always came with a lot of strikeouts, so the declining slugging numbers made him a below-average hitter. He remained a valued clubhouse presence, though, and he’d win another championship when the Dodgers knocked off the Yankees in a five-game World Series in 2024.
Taylor spent the first six weeks of the 2025 season holding a spot on Dave Roberts’ bench. He’d get released in May and joined the Angels on a big league deal. He broke his hand early in his Halos’ tenure and spent most of the year on the injured list. He hit .186 in 58 games between the two clubs, but he’d collect a third ring for his early-season work once the Dodgers repeated as champions. Taylor also achieved the 10-year service milestone last August, albeit while on the injured list.
Taylor re-signed with the Angels but was unable to snag a roster spot out of camp. After 32 games with Triple-A Salt Lake, he evidently decided he was prepared to call it a career. It’s unclear if that’s due to some kind of injury. Taylor played on Wednesday and departed in the sixth inning after being hit by a pitch in what’ll seemingly be his final professional plate appearance.
Over more than a decade in the Majors, Taylor tallied 860 hits and 110 home runs. He had a league average .248/.327/.419 batting line overall, though he was an above-average hitter for five straight seasons at his peak. His .247/.351/.441 postseason slash was superior to his regular season mark despite the higher quality of competition.
Taylor was a part of two World Series winners and four NL pennants in L.A., three of them as an everyday player. He also suited up at six positions — all three outfield spots and the infield positions to the left of first base — as a versatile defender. Baseball Reference and FanGraphs credited him with roughly 16-17 Wins Above Replacement, and he racked up nearly $78MM in earnings. Congratulations to Taylor on an excellent run and all the best in retirement.
Image courtesy of Vincent Carchietta, Imagn Images.
Red Sox To Begin Playing Marcelo Mayer At Shortstop
The Red Sox will be without Trevor Story for some time after the two-time All-Star underwent sports hernia surgery this week. Interim manager Chad Tracy said Friday that’ll spur a primary position change for Marcelo Mayer, who has been a full-time second baseman this season (link via Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic).
Mayer remains at second base for tonight’s series opener against the Twins. Tracy said the 23-year-old infielder is still ironing some things out in drills with interim bench coach/infield instructor José David Flores. The Sox are hoping to have Mayer make his first MLB start at shortstop on Sunday.
The fourth overall pick in 2021, Mayer was a shortstop throughout his minor league career. Most prospect evaluators felt he’d stick at the position despite his 6’3″ height and fringy speed. That was mostly a testament to his fluidity, instincts and arm strength — even if he’s unlikely to be the flashiest defender.
Mayer hasn’t had the opportunity to play shortstop at the major league level; he has three career innings there over two late-game appearances. His first MLB call last May came as the corresponding move for an Alex Bregman injured list placement. Mayer spent nearly two months as the primary third baseman while Bregman rehabbed a quad strain. He moved to second base when the veteran returned. Mayer himself went down with a wrist injury not long after and underwent season-ending surgery.
The Sox stuck with Mayer at the keystone for his first full MLB campaign. They’d initially given some thought to moving Mayer back to third while playing Caleb Durbin at second. Former skipper Alex Cora preferred Durbin at the hot corner. Tracy stuck with that arrangement, as Durbin has played excellent defense despite his lack of production at the dish.
Mayer hasn’t done a whole lot at the plate either. He’s hitting .221/.290/.313 across 146 plate appearances. Mayer has only connected on two home runs without hitting many line drives. He has played pretty well at second base but has been part of a Boston infield that, with the exception of Willson Contreras, hasn’t contributed offensively.
Story was also out to a very poor start (.206/.244/.303). Mayer’s move to shortstop will leave second base to a combination of utility players Nick Sogard, Andruw Monasterio and Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Sogard, who started at shortstop tonight, has also begun taking third base reps over Durbin. The Sox have one of the best shortstop prospects in the sport, Franklin Arias, but the 20-year-old is at Double-A and not a factor in the short term.
Rockies Place Mickey Moniak On Injured List
The Rockies announced they’ve placed Mickey Moniak on the 10-day injured list with right ankle tendinitis. Rookie outfielder Sterlin Thompson is up from Triple-A Albuquerque to take his spot on the roster. Thomas Harding of MLB.com reported the moves before the official announcement.
It’s the second IL stint of the season for Moniak, who missed the first week and a half with a finger sprain on his right hand. Manager Warren Schaeffer tells team reporter Kelsey Wingert-Linch that Moniak injured his ankle when he collided with the wall during a mid-May series against the Pirates. He has played through the injury for a couple weeks but will need some time on the shelf.
Moniak has probably not coincidentally been in a slump since that series. He’s 2-20 over his last seven games. Moniak had been one of the more productive hitters in the sport before that and still carries a strong .280/.335/.607 slash line across 164 plate appearances. He leads the team with 12 home runs, a top 10 mark in the National League.
The former first overall pick has found his stride since signing with the Rockies on the eve of Opening Day 2025. He’s a .272/.314/.541 hitter in 625 plate appearances over his year-plus in Colorado. That’s almost all against right-handed pitching and has disproportionately come at Coors Field, yet Moniak has certainly hit well enough to put himself on the radar as a midseason trade candidate. He’s making $4MM and under arbitration control through 2027. If he’s healthy, he could be a platoon corner outfield/designated hitter target for a contender.
Thompson, a supplemental first-rounder from the 2022 draft, is up for the second time in his MLB career. He went 1-8 in a three-game stretch last week before being optioned back to Triple-A. The Florida product is in the lineup at DH tonight against Arizona righty Michael Soroka. Colorado is shorthanded in the outfield with Moniak and Brenton Doyle landing on the injured list in consecutive days. Thompson should get fairly regular playing time as part of an outfield that also includes Jake McCarthy, Troy Johnston and Tyler Freeman.
Giants Select Victor Bericoto
7:12pm: Lee indeed lands on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to May 19, with a mid-back strain. Will Brennan has drawn the past couple starts in right field and could get the bulk of the playing time while Lee is unavailable.
11:43am: The Giants will select the contract of outfielder Victor Bericoto from Triple-A Sacramento today, as first reported by journalist Manolo Hernández Douen. San Francisco already has an open 40-man spot. Corresponding moves aren’t yet clear, but Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle suggests that Jung Hoo Lee could need to miss a few more games or perhaps even head to the injured list. He’s been day-to-day with a back issue recently.
It’s the first call to the majors for the 24-year-old Bericoto. He’s generally not considered to be among the organization’s top 30 prospects, but he’s enjoying a nice start to his season with the River Cats. In 186 plate appearances, the righty-swinging outfielder has slashed .299/.355/.449 with six homers. He’s walked at a slightly below-average 8.1% clip, but his current 18.8% strikeout rate would be a career-low mark over a full season.
Bericoto has played all three outfield spots and first base in his professional career. He’s spent the bulk of his time in right field and at first base, however, and hasn’t appeared in center field since 2024, when he logged only six games there. In January 2025, FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen wrote that Bericoto has plus power but contact skills that were “toward the very bottom of the acceptable range.” He’s made some modest gains in that regard. His 73.5% overall contact rate is still below the major league average (76.8%), but he’s connected on 85.5% of the swings he takes on pitches within the zone, which is right in line with MLB average.
Phillies Trade Andrew Baker To Rockies
The Phillies announced they’ve traded minor league reliever Andrew Baker to the Rockies for international bonus pool space. Baker is not on the 40-man roster.
It’s the second time in as many months that the Phils traded for bonus pool room, as they acquired $500K in allotments from the Dodgers for Griff McGarry. Matt Gelb of The Athletic notes that the Phillies are adding to their bonus pool to facilitate the signing of amateur pitcher Chan-min Park, a 17-year-old righty from South Korea.
The 26-year-old Baker was Philadelphia’s 11th-round pick out of junior college in 2021. He has spent parts of five seasons in Double-A. That includes some strong work this season, as the righty has worked to a 2.65 ERA across 17 innings. Baker has fanned 25 opponents against five walks. He has never had any trouble missing bats, but that kind of control would be the best of his career if he’s able to maintain it.
Baker has gone unselected in the Rule 5 draft a few times. Although he’s not a premium prospect, he’s a potential up-and-down bullpen arm for the Rox. Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs gave him an honorable mention in his January writeup of the Philly system, writing that Baker has a 96-98 mph fastball and a plus slider with below-average control. He’ll be Rule 5 eligible again next offseason if the Rox don’t give him a 40-man roster spot.
Anthony Volpe To Start Second Base Work
The Yankees will begin to have Anthony Volpe taking drills at second base, manager Aaron Boone told reporters on Friday (link via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com). Volpe remains on the big league roster even with José Caballero back from the injured list. New York optioned rookie outfielder Spencer Jones last night.
Caballero had a minimal IL stay due to a fracture in his right middle finger. The Yankees recalled Volpe to handle shortstop for the past week and a half. Boone said at the time he viewed Caballero as the starting shortstop. The manager was a little less firm on that today, saying he’ll “make (that) decision every night,” but Caballero indeed drew back in today against Nick Martinez for the start of a big weekend series against the division-leading Rays.
Volpe has played more than 4000 innings at the MLB level, all of which have come at shortstop. He started two games at second base in A-ball five years ago. That said, it’s common for shortstops to move fairly easily to other infield positions. Boone said the Yankees don’t intend to have Volpe take any reps at third base. They’ll hopefully quickly get to a point where they’re comfortable using him at either middle infield spot.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. remains the primary second baseman. He’s starting his 48th of 52 games there tonight. Amed Rosario has gotten the other four starts to occasionally spell the lefty-hitting Chisholm against an opposing southpaw. Chisholm has had a tough year against pitchers of either handedness, but his .239/.317/.372 line in a down season is still better than what Volpe provided at the plate over his first three seasons.
Volpe appeared in eight games while Caballero was out. He had five hits, including two doubles, while drawing seven walks in 30 plate appearances. He showed enough that the Yankees opted not to send him back to Triple-A, though it remains to be seen if they’ll get him into the lineup on a semi-regular basis.
They’re not going to use Volpe only against left-handed pitching. Rosario is a better hitter against lefties and a cleaner fit in that role, not that the Yankees use Chisholm as a strict platoon player regardless. Caballero has more established positional versatility and was out to a strong start to the season. He’s the team leader with 13 stolen bases while hitting .259/.320/.400 across 147 plate appearances. Caballero was a full-time shortstop early in the season with Volpe rehabbing last fall’s shoulder surgery. He could bounce to third base or the outfield if the Yankees want to mix Volpe in at shortstop. They haven’t gotten much from Ryan McMahon at the hot corner all year.
Angels Select Wade Meckler, Donovan Walton
The Angels announced that they have selected the contracts of outfielder Wade Meckler and infielder Donovan Walton. They will take the places of outfielder Josh Lowe and infielder Yoán Moncada. Lowe has been optioned to Triple-A Salt Lake while Moncada has been placed on the 10-day injured list with right knee inflammation. The Halos came into the day with one open 40-man spot after outrighting Alek Manoah earlier this week. They opened another by transferring left-hander Yusei Kikuchi to the 60-day IL.
Meckler, 26, spent his entire career with the Giants until recently. The Angels claimed him off waivers in January but then outrighted him a few weeks later. He started this year with Triple-A Salt Lake but struggled in five games, so the Halos sent him down to Double-A Rocket City. He has been mashing for the Trash Pandas, with a .343/.449/.525 line. That is partly due to a .395 batting average on balls in play but his matching walk and strikeout rates of 16% are both very strong figures.
Prior to joining the Angels, Meckler got a very brief major league debut with the Giants in 2023. He hit just .232/.328/.250 in 64 plate appearances. As a prospect, his profile indicated he had a solid floor thanks to his speed and defense. His offense was and is more questionable. He has generally had a good contact approach without a ton of power. He has 1,393 minor league plate appearances in his career with a strong 14.2% walk rate and 16.6% strikeout rate but only 21 home runs in that time.
With Meckler putting up good numbers at the plate lately, the Angels will see if he can translate any of that to the big leagues. At worst, he should be able to run the ball down and steal a few bases, though whether he can produce from the batter’s box will be more of a question. If it doesn’t work out, he does still have an option and can be easily sent back down to the minors.
The Halos have had a primary outfield of Mike Trout, Jo Adell and Lowe this year, with guys like Jorge Soler, Adam Frazier and Jose Siri also chipping in. Trout and Adell should still be in there regularly but the other guys in that cluster could perhaps be competing to take some of the playing time that has opened up with Lowe no longer on the roster.
Walton, 32 next week, has been a part-time major leaguer for quite a while but in fits and starts. He debuted in 2019 and this will technically be his seventh big league season but he has appeared in only 72 games. In his 214 plate appearances, he has a .172/.223/.298 batting line. Though he hasn’t done much with the bat, he has at least provided defensive versatility, with experience at the three infield spots to the left of first base as well as left field.
His offense has been far better in the minors. In 1,647 Triple-A plate appearances in his career, he has a strong .281/.372 /.439 line. That includes a .282/.429/.481 line this year, after signing a minor league deal with the Halos in the offseason. Even in the hitter-friendly context of the Pacific Coast League, that line translates to a 128 wRC+.
Walton gives the Angels another lefty bat for their infield. Righties Vaughn Grissom and Oswald Peraza are currently getting a decent amount of time at second and third base, so Walton could perhaps complement those two, along with lefty Adam Frazier.
Moncada has been scuffling while battling a knee injury this year, putting up a .189/.308/.297 line. A trip to the IL could allow him to reset but it’s also possible he’s facing a longer absence. Surgery on that knee is a possibility, per Francys Romero of BeisbolFR. Time will tell how much time he needs to miss. For now, his absence opens up third base time for the aforementioned cluster of infielders.
As for Lowe, this move isn’t surprising with his current numbers, but it’s quite notable in the larger context. Back in 2023, he hit 20 home runs for the Rays and stole 32 bases. He hit .292/.335/.500 for a wRC+ of 130. FanGraphs credited him with 3.4 wins above replacement that year.
Unfortunately, he’s been on a downward trajectory since then. In 2024, his line dropped to .241/.302/.391, leading to a 98 wRC+. Another drop came in 2025, as he put up a .220/.283/.366 line and 79 wRC+. The Angels took a shot on a bounceback, acquiring Lowe in a three-team trade that sent pitchers Brock Burke and Chris Clark out of town. That move hasn’t panned out for the Halos at all, with Lowe having hit .184/.226/.320 this year. A .220 BABIP isn’t helping but his 4.5% walk rate and 29.1% strikeout rate are both awful figures.
The Angels will try to get him back on track in Salt Lake. Once he spends 20 days in the minor, this will be his final option season and he will be out of options in 2027. Either way, he’s trending towards a non-tender. He has already qualified for arbitration and is making $2.6MM this year.
Kikuchi landed on the 15-day IL in early May with shoulder inflammation. Shortly thereafter, the Halos announced that he would be shut down for three to four weeks before ramping back up again. His 60-day count is retroactive to that initial IL placement, so he’ll technically be eligible for reinstatement in early July. Whether he can get healthy by then remains to be seen.
Prior to the official announcement, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register relayed that Meckler and Walton were in the lineup with Lowe and Moncada not on the lineup card. Moncada then told Jack Janes of The Sporting Tribune that he was going on the injured list.