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Angels Sign Nicky Lopez

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The Angels have signed infielder Nicky Lopez to a major league deal, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. Earlier, Sam Blum of The Athletic relayed that Lopez has a locker for tonight’s game against the Dodgers. Blum also relayed that left-hander José Quijada does not have a locker, so perhaps he has been removed from the club’s roster. Subsequently, Blum has added that left-hander Angel Perdomo is also without a locker. The 40-man roster count dropped to 39 earlier today with the release of Mickey Moniak. Adding Lopez would bump that back up to 40 but that would drop again if Quijada and/or Perdomo are removed.

Lopez, 30, was in camp with the Cubs on a minor league deal until recently. He was reassigned to minor league camp ahead of that club travelling to Japan for the Tokyo Series. It was reported at that time that he was expected to trigger an opt-out in his deal. He was officially granted his release a few days ago, freeing him up to sign this deal with the Halos.

Broadly speaking, Lopez is a glove-first infielder. He did have one especially strong season at the plate in 2021, though that was largely fuelled by a .347 batting average on balls in play. He has 2,346 big league plate appearances overall with a .248/.312/.314 line and 77 wRC+.

But the defensive profile is strong, with over 2,000 innings at the shortstop position. Defensive Runs Saved has considered him to be roughly average at that spot, before giving him a rough -9 mark last year. Outs Above Average, however, has Lopez at +33 at short in his career. He has also received strong marks for his work at second and third base, with brief showings at first and left field as well.

He was with the White Sox last year and could have been retained for 2025 via arbitration, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting him for a $5.1MM salary. Given his light hitting, the Sox weren’t willing to pay that. He was passed through waivers in November and elected free agency. He later signed a minor league deal with the Cubs, with that pact coming with a modest $1.5MM salary if he made the majors. Presumably, this deal with the Angels comes with a fairly modest salary.

The Angels have plenty of uncertainty throughout their infield. Shortstop Zach Neto is going to start the season on the injured list as he is still recovering from offseason shoulder surgery. Third baseman Anthony Rendon underwent hip surgery last month and has been moved to the 60-day injured list. The Angels signed Yoán Moncada to replace Rendon at third but he’s been battling some thumb soreness in camp and hasn’t played in an official spring game since March 12. Second baseman Luis Rengifo has been dealing with a nagging hamstring injury. He’s been back in the lineup for over a week but is hitting .150/.261/.150 in Cactus League action.

As of now, Kevin Newman seems likely to be the club’s shortstop. Rengifo seems to be healthy enough to play either second or third base. Lopez gives them a glove-first guy who can bounce around. Non-roster invitees like Tim Anderson or J.D. Davis could also factor into the mix if added to the roster.

Perdomo and Quijada are both out-of-options lefty relievers. That means they need to be on the active roster or else removed from the 40-man. Nothing official has been announced but their absences from the clubhouse seem to suggest they won’t be making the club.

Quijada, 29, has generally been able to rack up lots of strikeouts but also plenty of walks in his career. To this point, he has 128 innings under his belt with a 4.64 earned run average. He has punched out 30.3% of opponents but given out free passes at a 14.8% clip. He underwent Tommy John surgery in May of 2023, meaning he didn’t pitch much in the past two years.

He qualified for arbitration for the first time after that 2023 season. But due to the surgery, he was only able to bump his salary to $840K, barely above league minimum. He and the Angels agreed to a deal in January that will see him make $1.075MM this year, with a $3.75MM club option for 2026.

Hypothetically, if he were to be passed through waivers unclaimed, he would have the right to elect free agency as a player with at least three years of service time. However, he has less than five years of service, meaning he would have to give up that money to head to the open market. In that scenario, he would likely stick with the Angels as non-roster depth in order to keep his 2025 salary in place.

Perdomo, 31 in May, was acquired from the Braves in a cash deal about a week ago. He has a 5.55 ERA, 35.8% strikeout rate and 15.8% walk rate in his career. He only has 48 2/3 innings pitched but has almost three years of service time thanks to many injured list stints. He has a previous career outright and would therefore have the right to elect free agency if passed through waivers.

Ryan Johnson Makes Angels’ Roster

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The Angels will break camp with righty Ryan Johnson on their big league roster, reports ESPN’s Jeff Passan. It’s a remarkable ascent to the majors for Johnson, a 2024 second-round pick who hasn’t pitched a single minor league inning. They won’t need to open a 40-man spot after releasing Mickey Moniak earlier today.

Johnson, who signed for a $1.74MM bonus last summer, pitched 11 1/3 innings during camp and allowed five runs on 11 hits and a walk with 10 punchouts — good for a 3.97 ERA. He’ll be the first player to skip the minor leagues entirely since Garrett Crochet, though Crochet’s rapid ascent came under different circumstances, as he was drafted and debuted in 2020 when there was no minor league season. Prior to Crochet, Mike Leake was the most recent player to skip the minors entirely.

The Angel are known for being the most aggressive team in the sport with promoting prospects. They typically focus on polished college players with their top picks, and Johnson is no exception. In 252 career innings at Dallas Baptist University, he posted a 3.46 ERA — including a 2.21 mark in 106 frames as a junior this past season. Baseball America ranked him seventh among Halos farmhands this year, noting that he had the potential to stick as a starter but could be a particularly quick-to-the-majors arm if moved to the bullpen. That’s indeed how it’ll play out, likely in faster fashion than anyone anticipated.

In recent years, the Angels have pushed Zach Neto, Nolan Schanuel, Chase Silseth and Ben Joyce through the minors in a year’s time or less. They were reportedly weighing a late promotion of last year’s first-round pick, Christian Moore, and while they ultimately held off, it’s plausible — if not likely — that he could debut at some point in the first few month of the 2025 campaign.

Johnson is the latest and most extreme example of the Angels’ rush-to-the-majors gambit. He’ll join a bullpen anchored by offseason signee Kenley Jansen and the aforementioned Joyce — baseball’s hardest-throwing pitcher. Others in the Angels’ bullpen include righties Ryan Zeferjahn and Ian Anderson and lefties Brock Burke, Angel Perdomo and Reid Detmers.

Angels To Release Mickey Moniak

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The Angels are releasing outfielder Mickey Moniak, reports ESPN’s Jeff Passan. The former No. 1 pick won an arbitration hearing against the team earlier this winter, securing a $2MM salary in the process. However, salaries awarded in an arbitration hearing are only partially guaranteed, so the team will only owe 45 days of termination pay — just under one-quarter of his salary (about $484K).

It’s a moderate surprise, if only because the Angels chose to tender a contract to Moniak back in November. He looked to have a real chance at being non-tendered after batting just .219/.266/.380 in 414 plate appearances last year, but once the Halos made the decision to keep him, it seemed likely he’d open with the club — particularly in the wake of Mike Trout’s move from center field to right field. Moniak’s bleak .173/.224/.346 slash this spring couldn’t have helped his standing, however, and the Angels will apparently go with the cost-saving route rather than hope Moniak can bounce back to his 2023 form, when he hit .280/.307/.495.

Moniak never seemed likely to fully replicate that production in subsequent seasons. It was a solid-looking line on the surface, but he struck out in 35% of his plate appearances that season and needed a colossal .397 average on balls in play to get to that production. He was an obvious regression candidate, though perhaps not to the extent we saw in 2024 and so far this spring.

With Moniak no longer on the roster, former top prospect Jo Adell looks to have center field to himself. He’ll be flanked by Taylor Ward in left and Trout in right. The Angels don’t have prototypical fourth outfielder now, though infielder/corner outfielder Matthew Lugo could add another option if he makes the roster. Trout, of course, can occasionally serve as a backup in center if Adell is out of the lineup, and it remains possible that the Halos add another center field option between now and Opening Day as teams make their final waves of cuts.

Reid Detmers To Open Season In Angels’ Bullpen

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The Angels informed Jack Kochanowicz over the weekend that he won the fifth spot in the rotation, manager Ron Washington told reporters (including Bill Shaikin of The Los Angeles Times). Reid Detmers is going to open the year in the bullpen, though Sam Blum of The Athletic notes that he’ll stay stretched out in a multi-inning role in case he’s needed to return to the rotation midseason.

The Halos signed Yusei Kikuchi and Kyle Hendricks over the offseason. They join Tyler Anderson and José Soriano as the top four starters. Kochanowicz, Detmers and Chase Silseth entered camp as the main candidates for the final spot. Silseth dropped out of the competition quickly, as he allowed 16 runs in 13 innings. The Angels optioned him last week.

Kochanowicz and Detmers have each pitched well in camp. The former has worked 12 1/3 innings of five-run ball (four earned). His 7:4 strikeout-to-walk ratio is middling, but he’s kept the ball on the ground at a 52.4% clip. Detmers has surrendered seven runs (six earned) with 17 punchouts and four walks over 19 1/3 frames. He has gotten grounders at a solid 46.6% rate in his own right.

It seems the job was Kochanowicz’s to lose. The 24-year-old righty made his first 11 MLB appearances last season. He posted a 3.99 earned run average across 65 1/3 innings. He had fantastic control (3.8% walk rate) and got grounders at a massive 57% clip, but his 9.4% strikeout rate was the lowest among all pitchers who reached 50 innings. It’s not easy to find sustained success with that low a strikeout rate. Kochanowicz has a 5.39 ERA with a 19% strikeout rate in four minor league seasons.

Detmers, the 10th overall pick in 2020, has a lot more swing-and-miss upside. He has fanned a quarter of opponents over four MLB seasons, including a career-high 27.9% of batters faced last year. Yet Detmers’ results have been up and down. He allowed an ERA approaching 7.00 over 17 starts last season. A .357 average on balls in play didn’t do him any favors, but he also surrendered nearly two home runs per nine innings. The Angels optioned him to Triple-A. He pitched in the minors between June and September. The homer troubles continued in the Pacific Coast League, where he allowed a 5.54 ERA despite a near-30% strikeout rate.

Since Detmers has two options remaining, the Angels could have sent him back to Triple-A when they settled on Kochanowicz as their fifth starter. The 25-year-old southpaw pitched well enough this spring to ensure he’d stick on the MLB roster. The Angels swapped lefty reliever José Suarez to the Braves for right-hander Ian Anderson over the weekend.

They still need to decide whether to carry out-of-options southpaws José Quijada and Angel Perdomo in the bullpen with Detmers and Brock Burke. They’ll have righties Kenley Jansen, Ben Joyce and Ryan Zeferjahn in the later innings. Ian Anderson is out of options and seems likely to make the team in a long relief role, which would round out the pitching staff unless the Halos cut Quijada or Perdomo.

Braves, Angels Swap Ian Anderson, Jose Suarez

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The Braves are poised to acquire left-hander Jose Suarez from the Angels, according to a report from Ari Alexander of KPRC2. According to Jon Heyman of the New York Post, right-hander Ian Anderson is headed to Anaheim in exchange for Suarez.

Suarez, 27, signed with the Angels out of Venezuela and made his pro debut back in 2015. He’s spent his entire career in an Angels uniform to this point and first made it to the majors in 2019. The early days of his big league career weren’t exactly inspiring, as he carried a career 7.99 ERA in 83 1/3 innings through the end of the 2020 season with a 9.5% walk rate against a lackluster 18.6% strikeout rate.

Things turned around in a big way for the southpaw come 2021, however, and settled in to become a quality swing man for Anaheim. He pitched 98 1/3 innings that year in the majors split between 14 starts and nine relief appearances, and he was generally impressive by the results in those outings with a 3.75 ERA (119 ERA+) with a 4.12 FIP. That success carried over into the 2022 campaign, where Suarez was utilized as a more traditional back-of-the-rotation starter. He made 20 starts (and two relief appearances) for the Angels at the big league level that year, and pitched solidly enough with a roughly league average 3.96 ERA and a roughly matching 3.91 FIP. After posting successful seasons in back-to-back years, it seemed likely that the Angels would be relying on Suarez to serve as a back-end starter of swingman for years to come.

That’s not how things have transpired, however, as the lefty has been nothing short of disastrous over the past two seasons. In 86 innings of work since the start of the 2023 campaign, Suarez has struggled to a 6.91 ERA in 33 appearances, ten of which were starts. After striking out 21.5% of opponents and walking 7.9% from 2021 to ’22, the past two seasons have seen Suarez’s walk rate balloon to 11.6% while his strikeout rate has ticked down to 20.7%. He also began to give up increasingly dangerous contact, as his barrel rate ballooned from 7.4% in his successful years to 9.7% over the past two seasons. That’s led him to allow 17 homers in those 86 innings of work, more than he surrendered in either 2021 or ’22 despite pitching more innings in both of those seasons.

Suarez even found himself outrighted to the minors for much of last year, though he was added back to the club’s 40-man roster in September and remained there throughout the offseason. Now, however, he’ll head to Atlanta in hopes that a change of scenery can help get his career back on track. For the Angels, the move to part ways with Suarez comes on the heels of a mixed showing in camp where he struggled to a 6.55 ERA but struck out 25.5% of opponents while walking 9.8%. For Atlanta, he’ll offer another left-handed bullpen option who can be deployed in the middle innings, allowing Dylan Lee and Aaron Bummer to be used more exclusively in high leverage situations.

Going the other way is Anderson, another reclamation project without options remaining. The right-hander, 27 in May, received NL Rookie of the Year votes in both the 2020 and 2021 seasons as he pitched to a combined 3.25 ERA with a 24.5% strikeout rate and 3.80 FIP in 30 starts during the regular season before adding an incredible 1.26 ERA in eight postseason starts to his resume over the course of those two years. That performance appeared likely to make Anderson a likely fixture of the Atlanta rotation going forward, but things took a turn for the worse in 2022 when he struggled to a 5.00 ERA (despite a 4.25 FIP) in 22 starts before he eventually went under the knife early in the 2023 campaign, undergoing Tommy John surgery.

Anderson missed the entire 2023 season while rehabbing and made 15 starts in the minor leagues last year as he got back up to speed, though his 3.44 ERA in 68 minor league innings did not lead to a return to the majors. The right-hander appeared likely to be part of the club’s rotation to start the season with Spencer Strider ticketed for the injured list entering camp, but despite a 2.65 ERA in 17 innings this spring Anderson’s camp raised concerns as he walked an eye-popping 18 opponents, or 24% of his total batters faced. With Anderson no longer in the fold, it seems likely the fifth starter job will instead go to AJ Smith-Shawver to open the season. Meanwhile, the Angels seem likely to utilize Anderson in a long relief role, though it’s at least possible he could get a look in the rotation if Reid Detmers begins the season at Triple-A.

Angels Outright Scott Kingery

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The Angels announced this afternoon that they’ve outrighted infielder Scott Kingery to Triple-A Salt Lake earlier today. Kingery had been designated for assignment earlier this week when the club acquired southpaw Angel Perdomo from Atlanta.

Kingery, 31 next month, was a second-round pick by the Phillies back in 2015. The infielder signed a six-year, $24MM contract with Philadelphia before even making his MLB debut and went on to struggle badly throughout his time in the majors with the club. Kingery’s rookie season in 2018 saw him hit just .226/.267/.338 in 484 trips to the plate, and while he took a major step forward with a .258/.315/.474 (100 wRC+) slash line across 500 plate appearances in 2019 en route to a 2.1 fWAR/2.7 bWAR season, that success as a league average contributor did not last. The 2020 campaign saw Kingery hit just .159/.228/.283, and he’s taken just 19 trips to the plate in the majors since then.

Despite Kingery’s failures at the big league level, the Angels brought him into the fold and gave him a spot on their 40-man roster this winter in hopes of creating some depth on the infield. J.D. Davis, Kevin Newman, and Tim Anderson all jumped head of Kingery on the Anaheim depth chart throughout Spring Training, however, and Kingery eventually found himself on the outside looking in with regards to the Opening Day roster mix. That led the club to designate him for assignment, and now that he’s cleared waivers he’ll serve as non-roster depth for the club at the Triple-A level.

While Kingery’s struggled in the majors so far, he’s still a worthwhile depth piece for a club littered with players who struggle to stay healthy like the Angels. Kingery spent most of his time in the majors at shortstop and in center field, but has the versatility to play virtually anywhere on the diamond except for catcher with significant experience at both second and third base as well. He also showed flashes of improvement at the Triple-A level last year, crushing the ball to the tune of a .268/.316/.488 slash line in 125 games while swiping 25 bases.

Kingery’s speed and versatility seem likely to make him a viable depth option off the bench for the club should injuries clear room on the roster for him at some point, and it’s at least possible that his surge of success with the bat at Triple-A last year could translate to modestly improved production in the majors as well. If a spot opens up in the majors, Kingery will likely compete with Kyren Paris and Carter Kieboom for the opportunity to fill in.

Offseason In Review: Los Angeles Angels

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The Angels were the most active team in the first few weeks of the offseason. They added a mid-rotation starter and a new designated hitter to upgrade the middle third of the lineup. They went oddly quiet after that, leaving them to enter the season with a roster that again seems too thin to hang in the race all year.

Major League Signings

2025 spending: $47.25MM
Total spending: $95.25MM

Option Decisions

  • None

Trades and Claims

Notable Minor League Signings

Extensions

  • None

Notable Losses

The Angels finished 63-99 under first-year manager Ron Washington, narrowly avoiding what would have been their first 100-loss campaign. Only the White Sox, Rockies and Marlins had a worse run differential. They have the longest active playoff drought in MLB at 10 years.

Shortly after the season ended, owner Arte Moreno told Jeff Fletcher of The Orange County Register that he expected to compete for a playoff spot in 2025. "(General manager Perry Minasian's) marching orders are we need to build a team that can compete for a playoff spot. When you get to playoffs, anything can happen," Moreno said. The owner indicated he was prepared to raise payroll to make that happen. The Angels had cut spending by more than $40MM over the 2023-24 offseason.

Expecting to add 20+ wins within one offseason, even with a payroll spike, is unrealistic. Still, the Angels began the winter with a sense of urgency that reflected a real desire to improve in the short term. They pulled off the first major trade of the offseason within hours of the World Series concluding. The Angels took the remaining two years and $26MM on Jorge Soler's contract off the Braves' hands. Los Angeles sent Griffin Canning, whom they were presumably planning to non-tender, the other way. Atlanta subsequently cut Canning themselves, confirming that was purely a salary dump on their part.

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Angels Sign Travis Blankenhorn To Minor League Deal

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The Angels have signed infielder/outfielder Travis Blankenhorn to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. The log says the deal was signed on March 6 but the deal only became apparent today when he appeared on the Angels’ lineup card, as relayed by Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register.

Blankenhorn, 28, has an inconsistent track record. Broadly speaking, he has performed well in the minors. That has led to several brief chances in the majors, which he hasn’t been able to capitalize on. He appeared in each of the past five big league seasons, but didn’t get even 40 plate appearances in any of those. Overall, he has hit .154/.230/.264 in 100 trips to the plate, scattered across those five seasons.

But he’s had a massive tally of 3,445 minor league plate appearances. In those, he has a .256/.333/.456 batting line and 114 wRC+. That includes 1,506 trips to the plate at the Triple-A level from 2021 to 2024. In that time, Blankenhorn has 74 home runs, a 10.3% walk rate, a .254/.343/.489 batting line and 113 wRC+.

As mentioned, those strong minor league numbers have led to many call-ups. Most recently, he was with the Nats for a while in 2024 but hit .129 in 13 games. He was outrighted off the roster and elected free agency in September. Defensively, Blankenhorn is mostly an outfielder/first baseman at this stage. He has some previous experience at the other infield positions but none since 2022.

The Halos have Nolan Schanuel at first with Taylor Ward and Mike Trout projected to be in the outfield corners and Jorge Soler the regular in the designated hitter slot. They also have Ryan Noda, Niko Kavadas, Matthew Lugo and Gustavo Campero on the 40-man roster. It’s a tough path to playing time for Blankenhorn but he can at least get into some games and showcase himself, to Angels’ decision makers as well as those on other clubs.

Photo courtesy of Rafael Suanes, Imagn Images

Angels Acquire Angel Perdomo, Designate Scott Kingery For Assignment

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The Angels announced they’ve acquired lefty reliever Angel Perdomo from the Braves for cash or a player to be named later. The Halos designated infielder Scott Kingery for assignment to open a 40-man roster spot. Perdomo had not previously been DFA, so this drops Atlanta’s roster count to 39.

Perdomo spent more than a year with Atlanta but never threw a regular season pitch for them. The 6’8″ southpaw was a member of the Pirates when he underwent Tommy John surgery late in the 2023 season. Pittsburgh waived him at the end of that year. Atlanta claimed him, non-tendered him, then brought him back on a fresh major league deal. They kept him on the 60-day injured list for all of last season to see whether he warranted a spot in their bullpen once he returned to health.

The 30-year-old Perdomo has gotten back on the mound this spring. He has made seven appearances, working 7 1/3 frames of two-run ball. Perdomo has issued four walks while recording six strikeouts. The Braves evidently didn’t see enough in that small sample to carry him as a third left-hander behind Aaron Bummer and Dylan Lee. Perdomo is out of minor league options, so the Braves couldn’t send him to Triple-A without running him through waivers.

That the Angels jumped the line via trade suggests Perdomo would not have cleared waivers. The Halos will also need to carry him in the MLB bullpen or make him available to other teams. They’ll very likely move on from one or two left-handers by Opening Day. The Angels now have five lefty relievers whom they can’t send to the minors.

Brock Burke, José Quijada, José Suarez and Perdomo are all out of options. Rule 5 pick Garrett McDaniels needs to stick on the roster or be waived and offered back to the Dodgers. Burke will make the team and McDaniels is pitching fairly well this spring. Suárez and Quijada seemed like bubble candidates to stick on the roster all offseason. Neither has pitched well this spring. Quijada has been blitzed for nine runs in 3 2/3 innings. Suárez has surrendered a trio of homers across 7 2/3 frames.

Perdomo has pitched in parts of three big league seasons. His best work came with Pittsburgh two years ago. He turned in a 3.72 ERA while striking out almost 38% of opposing hitters in 29 innings. His fastball averaged 94 MPH before the Tommy John procedure. Perdomo is playing on a pre-arbitration salary and is under club control for four seasons. He’d be an affordable bullpen piece if he sticks on the roster.

Kingery, a one-time top prospect with the Phillies, has played one major league game in the last three years. Philadelphia had kept him in Triple-A after outrighting him off their 40-man roster. They traded him to the Angels at the start of the offseason. The Halos added him to the roster to prevent him from reaching minor league free agency. Kingery was coming off a .268/.316/.488 showing in Triple-A that led the Angels to get a look at him in camp.

The 30-year-old needed a strong showing in Spring Training to secure a spot on Ron Washington’s bench. He’s hitting .138 with 11 strikeouts in 36 plate appearances this spring. That pushed him off the roster and is likely to land him on waivers in the next few days. If he goes unclaimed, Kingery would have the right to elect free agency because he has more than three years of service time. Doing that would mean forfeiting his $770K arbitration salary, so there’s a decent chance he’d accept an outright assignment and head back to Triple-A.

Angels Notes: Rengifo, Neto, Moncada

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TODAY: Washington told Jeff Fletcher and other reporters today that Moncada’s thumb has “some deep bruises” but “nothing is torn,” so “we’ve got to let it settle down before we start letting him try to hit.”  The manager isn’t yet sure if Moncada may or may not need an IL stint to begin the season.

MARCH 15: The Angels have had a number of health woes throughout the spring, with among the most recent being concern that a nagging hamstring issue could keep infielder Luis Rengifo off the club’s Opening Day roster. Fortunately for the club and Rengifo, however, things appear to be trending in the right direction with less than two weeks remaining until the Angels begin their season in Chicago against the White Sox. As noted by Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register, Rengifo started the club’s spring game yesterday at third base and declared to reporters (including Fletcher) that he would be ready for Opening Day. Manager Ron Washington was more reserved, but acknowledged that Rengifo does have enough time to be ready for the start of the season so long as he avoids any further setbacks.

That Rengifo figures to be ready for the start of the season is surely a huge relief for the Angels. After all, the switch hitter was the club’s top offensive performer last year aside from Mike Trout, who was limited to just 29 games due to injuries last year. Rengifo was not healthy in 2024 himself, playing in only 79 games with 304 trips to the plate, but in those limited appearances he hit a solid .300/.347/.417 with a wRC+ of 117. Rengifo is currently penciled in as the club’s starting second baseman, though he has the versatility to handle third base, shortstop, and the outfield corners as well. With second baseman and 2024 first-rounder Christian Moore seemingly already knocking on the door of the major leagues with a phenomenal spring, it’s easy to imagine that versatility being key to Angels’ plans for Rengifo in the near future.

In other positive injury news, Fletcher relays that shortstop Zach Neto has been making progress as he works his way back from offseason shoulder surgery. Neto has already been ruled out for Opening Day, but isn’t expected to miss much of the regular season as he’s already ahead of his expected schedule. The 24-year-old has yet to progress to facing live pitching, but is preparing for game action by standing in the box for the bullpen sessions of his teammates and is currently throwing from 105 feet, nearly the full length from shortstop to first base. The Halos’ top hitter by both bWAR and fWAR last year, Neto figures to slide back into his job as the club’s everyday shortstop sometime in April as things stand.

Not all of the latest news out of Angels camp is positive, however. As noted by MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger, third baseman Yoan Moncada was scratched from yesterday’s lineup due to thumb soreness. He remained out of the lineup today, and while there’s been no indication of the severity of the issue to this point, it’s at least somewhat concerning given the veteran’s lengthy injury history and the issue’s proximity to Opening Day. If Moncada’s thumb issue were to prove more serious, non-roster invitee J.D. Davis may be best positioned to take advantage of the vacant job at third base although fellow non-roster invitees Tim Anderson and Carter Kieboom could also theoretically be in the mix.

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