Angels Sign Yoan Moncada

Angels General Manager Perry Minasian brought back third baseman Yoan Moncada on a 1 year $4 million deal yesterday. Third base was an obvious black hole for the club heading into the off season but that has been patched over for 2026.

Signing Moncada not only patches up one part of the lineup, it keeps the trend of avoiding long term contracts in place. The Angels future payrolls are projected to fall well below $100 million and the team is still roughly $75 million under last season's budget after the Moncada signing.

Considering the Angels currently do not have a local TV deal and that Arte Moreno may be poised to sell the team, it is likely that any future additions will follow the same pattern as Yoan Moncada, Kirby Yates, Drew Pomeranz, and Jordan Romano. All of those deals are for one year and modest money by MLB standards.

The most obvious current holes are second base and center field.

If camp opened today, the second base job would be up for grabs. 2024 first round pick Christian Moore failed to impress in his 2025 big league debut. Vaughn Grissom brings solid prospect pedigree but has also failed to produce at the MLB level. Those are the top options.

Last year the Angels defense was brutal as was their on base percentage. Unfortunately, the free agent list at second base won't help much on either front. Dylan Moore can play about anywhere on the diamond and has a .310 career OBP but he's coming off a brutal .267 OBP last year. A Moore vs. Moore battle could be fun, though.

Looking for somebody younger with a likely more potent bat, Luis Arias is 29 years old with a career wRC+ of 97 and a career OBP of .313. He's not great with the glove but he doesn't strike out a ton, which would be a big boost to an Angels team that led the league in K's last season.

Center field is an enigma at the moment. The team has 4 corner outfielders and prospect Nelson Rada is waiting in the wings. None of the Jorge Soler, Mike Trout, Jo Adell, or Josh Lowe should play center field next year if the team is hoping to improve its third worst in MLB standing last year.

Harrison Bader is looking for a three year deal. Unless that changes, Chas McCormick is the only real center fielder to buy and his offense the last two years has been well below league average. The team is better off running Bryce Teodosio out there for his elite defense. Really, the Angels outfield roster construction is just horrible at this point.

And then there's the rotation.

Last year Minasian did very well getting 164.2 innings and 1.7 WAR from Kyle Hendricks for the tidy sum of $2.5 million. He really needs to hit on another deal like this again.

The team also lost 136.1 innings of better than MLB average work from Tyler Anderson, good for another 2 WAR. That's over 300 innings of decent to good pitching they need to replace. Anderson was making decent money at $13 million per year, so perhaps the Angels can splurge a bit on the rotation.

Zach Littell would be an ideal signing as a source of consistent innings. He'll likely land a 2 year deal but could fall into Arte's range. He's posted over 190 innings in back to back seasons and is only 30 years old. Littell throws quality innings as evidenced by his 3.81 ERA last season and career 3.88 ERA. He would be a nice Tyler Anderson replacement and likely cost about the same on a yearly basis.

Considering Grayson Rodriguez's injury history and the fact Reid Detmers is potentially looking at a huge uptick in innings, an inexpensive one year deal similar to Hendricks also makes sense.

Aging veterans like Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer are likely looking for one year deals on real contenders. But there are some interesting bounce back candidates.

Nestor Cortes had an ERA+ of 123 from 2021 through 2024 before getting shelled last year. He's a nice bounce back candidate at the age of 31. Old friend Griffin Canning got off to a blistering start for the Mets last year before injuries took him down. His stuff plus some Mike Maddux magic might be fun to watch.

A rotation of Jose Soriano, Yusei Kikuchi, Zack Littell, Reid Detmers, Nestor Cortes would not remind anybody of the 1990s Braves but it would provide some stability as Rodriguez works back from injury and the young arms of the farm mature.

This is obviously not a good position to be in. Limited free agent options plus limited financial resources equals dumpster diving. At this point, I'd rather the Angels accept reality and rebuild but if they going to try to field a competent team, they will need to spend more than they've shown a willingness to thus far.

Barring a trade or some major cash infusion, the team looks primed to repeat a 90+ loss season for a third straight year.