With Harrison Bader a Giant, Who Plays Center Field for the Angels?

Center field has long been a bright spot for the Angels. Jim Edmonds, Darin Erstad, Torii Hunter, then a kid named Mike Trout. Before those greats was Fred Lynn and just below them were really solid players like Devon White and a young Garrett Anderson.

Since Mike Trout started slowing down with injuries, the center field position has been in flux. Angels GM Perry Minasian has tried everything from a former first round pick (Mickey Moniak) to an assortment of utility players like Kyren Paris yet none has really worked.

Coming into this off season, center field looked like a position of obvious need but also a difficult one to fill. The free agent list essentially consisted of Harrison Bader and nobody else. Even Bader isn't a surefire hit as he's been under average offensively in more years than not. With more teams looking to add a center fielder than trade one, that market is barren as well.

Center field was a tale of two players last season.

Jo Adell started the year as the Angels center fielder. As camp opens in Tempe, Jo Adell is the most likely candidate to be the Angels starting center fielder on Opening Day 2026. Blessed with incredible power and overall athleticism, Adell smashed 37 home runs last season while playing 89 games in center field.

His glove gave up a lot of his value as The Fielding Bible charged him with -13 defensive runs saved. Flip over to baseball-reference and it an even uglier -22. Jo had more negative runs saved than all but three players and he did so in less than 70% of the innings of anyone in that trio.

On the other side of the spectrum was Bryce Teodosio. His batting average of .203 and on base percentage of .248 was pretty close to Clayton Kershaw's career .222 and .244 in those categories. The good news is Kershaw will waltz into the Hall of Fame in five years. The bad news is he was a pitcher.

However, Teodosio was great with the glove and earned +7 defensive runs saved in a little over 400 innings. In fact, he earned one more DRS in center field than Harrison Bader. Over the course of a full season Teodosio was on track to amass an amazing 25 DRS.

Ideally we could meld the two and have a slick fielder power hitting outfielder. In basketball a coach would go offense/defense with these two. But in baseball that isn't possible. For now the Angels are hoping Adell's smooth stride can result in improved defense and he can live up to his prospect hype.

The other MLB level options are not inspiring.

While Minasian has mentioned Mike Trout playing some center field this year that remains to be seen. Given his injury history and remaining contract the Angels will likely be very cautious with him. Some late game innings or maybe a couple of starts is the most we're likely going to see from him.

Josh Lowe was brought over in trade from Tampa Bay and has some center field experience. But not much and none last year. His high water mark is 14 games played there in 2023.

I'm not sure if Jorge Soler deserves a mention in a center field rundown, but he is on the roster and should play on the grass as little as possible. If Soler is in center field at any point this season, the Angels are either purposely tanking or manager Kurt Suzuki has gone full Ippe minus the fraud.

Two intriguing options will be in camp.

Wade Meckler was claimed off waivers from the Giants on January 7th and is on the Angels 40 man roster. He's a burner with plus speed who has posted strong on base percentages but has no power. Last year Meckler put up a great .390 on base percentage in AAA but an equally horrid .370 slugging percentage. In the hitter friendly Pacific Coast League, a slugging percentage that starts with a 3 is noteworthy for a bad reason.

The Angels ranked near the bottom of baseball in both defense and on base percentage, so Meckler could help in two critical areas. The lack of pop is a huge concern, though, and likely means he's competing with Teodosio for the final bench spot.

Nelson Rada is quite likely Denard Span 2.0 or something similar. At the age of 19 he posted a .380 on base percentage at AA Rocket City then improved that to .433 at AAA Salt Lake City. Like Meckler, Rada has not demonstrated power and he has a career .339 slugging percentage in over 1500 minor league at bats.

Rada did increase his slugging notably in the thin air of Salt Lake City. Whether that was due to improvement as a hitter or the super thin air of the PCL will be somewhat revealed in Tempe. Scouts praise his glove and believe he will be an excellent center fielder. But the bat needs to be at least respectable or big league hitters will attack him and reduce his great walk rate.

It is a jumbled group to be fair. Minasian has painted himself into a corner by having four corner outfielders on the roster but nobody with the defensive chops for center field. If one of Rada or Meckler seizes the job out of camp, Lowe will move to the bench.

The smart money is on Jo Adell to be the Angels opening day center fielder. Nelson Rada has a legitimate chance to change that with a good showing in Tempe followed by a month or two of success in AAA. Meckler and Teodosio are likely fighting for one bench spot in Tempe.

An outfield alignment of Trout in left, Adell in center, and Lowe in right is likely the plan. The second most used version will flip Lowe to left and put Soler in right on nights Trout is the designated hitter. Defensively, either alignment should be rated near the bottom of MLB and do the pitchers no favors. Offensively it is a power over contact profile that will produce some tape worth home runs in between lots of K's.