Here there be, well, something, but it ain’t dragons.
Prospects
For the previous installments in this series: Angels pitching here, Angels position players here.
I’ve had many disparaging things to say about the pride of Orange County, and while I do have personal rooting interest against them, it should be noted that my words on their pitching staff on Monday, like Kate and Jake’s musings on the position player group a day ago, are focused on the current club, while this is an organization that is in transition. Following the departure of Shohei Ohtani, an Angels club which consistently pushed its farm system and finances in on attempting to compete around Ohtani and Trout is in year two of navigating the strange lacuna they’ve drifted into. While they’re ill-regarded in the 2025 season by projections, what does the future hold for Anaheim? We’ll dig into the farm, starting with what the national perspective is on their next wave.
Organizational System Rankings
Baseball America: 30th
Baseball Prospectus: 30th
Oh. Oh dear. While I do write for BP on prospects including their High-A affiliate in Tri-Cities, I had no direct influence on that ranking, nor BA’s appraisal, nor the mid-2024 update from FanGraphs that had Anaheim at 30th as well heading into the season’s end. To give the maximal possible credit to the Halos, their strategy has been divergent from the sport’s orthodox, promoting prospects at pace to desperately augment their big league club imminently, shifting from a 2010s emphasis on massive tools and upside to a proximity-prioritization that’s eschewed upside for perceived MLB-readiness. That’s meant graduation from prospectdom for folks like SS Zach Neto, RHP Ben Joyce, RHP Jack Kochanowicz, and 1B Nolan Schanuel, the foremost of whom at least has been an unequivocal success for Anaheim’s scouting.
What still remains in the system is a preponderance of players likely to hit the big leagues in 2025 or 2026, if not having already debuted late last year, but many question marks between them and a solid foundation. Anaheim is in the 2018 Seattle Mariners state, still boasting a number of bona fide big leaguers and a glut of passable cheap depth pieces that might’ve mattered to a club with peak healthy Trout, Ohtani, and Rendon/Pujols. Now, however, they’re grimacing into their own reflection like Terry Richmond in Rebel Ridge, waiting for a triage treatment they know will hurt like hell.
Top-100 Prospects by Major Lists
In Anaheim’s system are a few prospects of Top 100 list caliber. Dana was discussed in the Pitching article so I won’t rehash him heavily. He’s divisive in his simplicity, a precocious innings eater I fought for to make the BP list but can understand the hesitation on. The best player in the system to me is Moore, and you could find shell-shocked pitchers from the SEC up to the Double-A Southern League who’d tell you the same. He’s got massive power for a 2B/3B, and while he did strike out more in the pros, I believe more time to acclimate will allow him to improve those numbers. Already a bit unwieldy as a defender despite solid foot speed, I’m not sure he’ll rob M’s hitters every time he comes to T-Mobile Park, but he will put some sweat on the palms of their pitching staff.
Klassen headlines a collection of high-minors arms that the Angels either drafted or acquired in the past few years, but a track record that’s more Sounder Train than Empire Builder is likely to keep the fireballer in the minors longer than a few other members of the Angels staff. Still, his fastball-curveball combo is impressive, but with subpar command I wouldn’t be surprised to see his impact coming alongside Joyce in high-leverage bullpen work ultimately over a rotation role.
Beyond Klassen are a number of other arms who’ve either debuted or are on the cusp. LHP Sam Aldegheri is a southpaw whose Italian heritage is a charming companion story to a decent four-pitch mix that has to be precisely located thanks to low-90s velocity. RHP Sam Bachman was a first round pick in 2021’s Oops, All Pitchers draft, and while he’s sat around 97 in the bullpen as a big leaguer, he struggled coming off injury in 2024 in the upper minors. He’ll be a starter this year, giving Anaheim a decent amount of young pitching depth, but little of it proven.
Most of the system beyond this is either recent draftees or international signees with a ways to go, with two predominant exceptions. First is OF Nelson Rada, an undersized, max effort sparkplug who scoots around the outfield like it’s the back of his hand. Despite entering 2025 at just age-19, in Angels fashion he’ll be repeating Double-A, where he ran well but struggled to generate a lick of power. Rada doesn’t run quite like Jarrod Dyson, but that’s the archetype to anticipate in the next year or two now that Mike Trout has officially cleared out of center field. The other player is the focus our final section of this article:
Name to Know for 2025 – OF Matthew Lugo
Lugo is a personal favorite, acquired at the trade deadline from the Boston Red Sox for Luis Garcia at the same time that Aldegheri and Klassen came over from Philadelphia for Carlos Estevez. Shoutout to Denise for sniping him back in 2019 when our staff selected a now-fascinating collection of players. Lugo’s swing has developed more uppercut as his body has developed more muscle, moving the smooth-handed infielder off shortstop and out into the outfield. I’m not certain his tools couldn’t have stuck on the dirt, but he makes for a smooth and strong-throwing grass-patroller. His power and contact combo are not so potent that the 23 year old has clawed his way back into top prospect consideration like he once was as a top-tier teenager from Puerto Rico, however I could see a Taylor Ward-like slow burn into capability that would be a thorn in Seattle’s sides.
In a division of rather ill-regarded farm systems, save Seattle’s, Anaheim takes the cake. Or perhaps they take no cake? Or the cake is bad? The metaphor is tangential. I’ve waxed as glowingly as possible on the handful of players I see something in, and make no mistake, there are big leaguers in this bunch. However, a No. 4 starter, a power-hitting 2B/3B who might move off the dirt quickly, and a smorgasbord of pitching depth isn’t going to be the first impediment to Seattle’s attempts to take charge of the American League West.