Angels Manager Reveals Why Top Prospect Was Promoted

Christian Moore is the No. 1 overall prospect in the Los Angeles Angels organization, per MLB Pipeline. This week, he made it one step closer to the major leagues.

Moore, 22, was promoted to Triple-A Salt Lake less than one year after he was selected with the eighth overall pick in last year's MLB Draft.

Did we mention it’s CMO time in Salt Lake? pic.twitter.com/qYnVDzI8Ra
— Salt Lake Bees (@SaltLakeBees) May 21, 2025

Angels manager Ron Washington talked about the impetus behind Moore's promotion with reporters Tuesday in .

“He started swinging the bat better in Double-A, and organization felt like he needed a challenge, and we’re gonna give him that challenge,” Washington said, via Jeff Fletcher of the Southern California News Group. “He might go up to Triple-A, and all of a sudden he’d find what we want him to do. And he might go up to Triple A, and it not happen. But we wanted to give him a challenge, so we did it.”

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Moore is 8-for-13 with one home run, five RBIs, a walk and four strikeouts in his first three games with the Bees. He's also helped turn two double plays in the field.

"The defense was great,” Washington said, via Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. “He played in 30-something games, made two mistakes or two errors that showed up. He’s been doing great defensively, and he started swinging the bat better, and we wanted to give him a challenge.”

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Moore is ranked as the No. 60 overall prospect in baseball by MLB Pipeline.

Across three seasons at the University of Tennessee, Moore batted .338/.447/.697. He hit 61 home runs and drove in 160 runs with the Volunteers, culminating in a NCAA championship where he earned All-Tournament team honors. In the series-clinching Game 3, Moore hit a leadoff home run.

uhhhhhhhhhhh yeah so the Christian Moore autograph line is pretty long pic.twitter.com/cmgaoQZ5sy
— Rocket City Trash Pandas (@trashpandas) April 8, 2025

A knee injury last season interrupted Moore's ascent, but he finished the 2024 season at Double-A Rocket City, and repeated the level in April. He was hitting .234 with a .342 on-base percentage and .323 slugging percentage (.665 OPS) at the time of his promotion. He also had five stolen bases in 34 games.

Scouting reports on the Brooklyn native suggest he still has some work to do. According to Baseball America, Moore has "kept his strikeout rate to maintainable level (27%) but he has struggled with swings and misses in the strike zone. While he’s hitting the ball hard, he’s rarely pulling the ball in the air, which helps explain his lack of power production."

Now, the Angels will see what Moore can do in the hitter-friendly atmosphere of Utah.

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