Angels' Kyren Paris Opens Up on Brutal Slump After Red-Hot Start

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The Los Angeles Angels had an electric start to the 2025 campaign, and much of it was due to the unprecedented rise of Kyren Paris.
During the Halos' 9-5 start, Paris was batting .400 with a 1.402 OPS to go with eight RBIs and five home runs. Since then, he is hitting .105 with 42 strikeouts in 76 at-bats.
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In Paris' 36 career games in MLB since 2023, he was batting .110 with a home run and six RBIs.
Although his rise was meteoric to kick off 2025, it wasn't completely unexpected given the work he had put in over the offseason. He called upon Aaron Judge's hitting coach for work on his swing and approach this past winter and the results spoke for themselves in spring training.
The translation to The Show was short-lived, but nobody knows more than Paris that he is ready to return to his elevated form and get back to his March/early-April numbers.
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“The confidence is definitely there,” Paris said. “Definitely knowing that I’ve already done this. Just understanding what I need to do to get back to where I was.”
Paris isn't alone in his self-belief as manager Ron Washington has shown unwavering support through not just keeping him in the lineup amid his slump, but spoke on the young outfielder's maturity.
“The reason why I keep putting him out there is because I don’t see him losing his confidence,” Washington said. “That’s maturity. He’s working and he has confidence that he’s able to do something.”
Washington also assured the public that the Halos' staff is "working with him diligently on trying to get him to cut his swing down with two strikes. If he can do that, I don’t think he’ll have as many strikeouts as he has.”
Confidence is a major aspect of succeeding in baseball, but Paris needs to back it up with getting his bat on the ball and showing more patience at the plate. He also claimed that in order to break out of the slump, he must be "consistent with everything I do every day, and not missing my pitch when I get it.”
Paris has just one hit with 10 strikeouts in his last 15 plate appearances. Fans will hope that the Paris of a month ago makes his imminent return to the batter's box.
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For more Angels news, head over to Angels on SI.

Gabe Smallson is a sportswriter based in Los Angeles. His focus is sports and entertainment content. Gabe has previously worked at DodgersNation and Newsweek. He graduated from San Francisco State University in 2020 and is a Masters Candidate at the University of Southern California. You can get in touch with Gabe by emailing gabe.smallson@lasportsreport.com. You can find him on X @gabesmallson
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