AngelsWin.com

PHOENIX — The Angels’ offseason is about to shift into high gear.
The Angels have been quietly working behind the scenes while the playoffs were underway for the past month, but with the start of the GM Meetings this week, they can begin more actively tackling a long list of to-do items.
The most important issues, of course, are hiring a manager and beginning the process of trying to retain Shohei Ohtani.
Since the Angels declined the option for Phil Nevin to return as manager, there have been plenty of rumored candidates but the Angels have not confirmed anyone who has been interviewed.
Buck Showalter, who worked with General Manager Perry Minasian when he began his baseball career with the Texas Rangers, has been widely assumed to be one of the top candidates. However, the Angels could have hired him already if he was their No. 1 choice.
Once the Angels have a manager, they’ll have to fill out the coaching staff. Matt Wise has already reportedly left his job as Angels pitching coach to become the bullpen coach for the Chicago White Sox.
As for Ohtani, the Angels will make him a qualifying offer of $20.325 million, and Ohtani will reject it. All of that is a formality, having no bearing on the Angels’ chances of signing him.
The Angels have been able to negotiate with Ohtani throughout the season, but beginning Monday at 2 p.m. PT, Ohtani can negotiate with the other 29 teams.
If Ohtani’s history is any guide, he could make a relatively quick decision in free agency. When he first came to the major leagues in 2017, he began meeting with teams on a Monday and he picked the Angels on Friday.
He agreed to a $30 million arbitration deal in October 2022, about four months before a typical arbitration deal would be reached.
Certainly, the Angels and the other teams that are pursuing Ohtani would love to have his answer as soon as possible because a salary of $40 million to $50 million per year will have an impact on the rest of the roster.
Beyond the Ohtani question, the Angels need a little of everything.
Their current rotation includes Patrick Sandoval, Reid Detmers, Griffin Canning, Chase Silseth and Tyler Anderson. Without Ohtani in the rotation – even if he re-signs, he can’t pitch until 2025 because he had elbow surgery – the Angels could go with a five-man rotation.
Although each of the five has shown promise in the past couple of years, the Angels could use more depth to cover themselves in case of injuries or poor performance.
The top free agent starters are Japanese right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, right-handers Aaron Nola, Jordan Montgomery, Marcus Stroman and Sonny Gray and left-hander Blake Snell.
The Angels also need help for a bullpen that is currently just Carlos Estevez, who had a terrible second half, and a cast of unproven young pitchers. Left-hander Josh Hader and right-hander Jordan Hicks are the best relievers available. Typically the free agent reliever market is a crapshoot, with a team just as likely to find quality for $3 million as $10 million.
Among position players, the Angels have a reasonable answer at every position on the field. Like last year, though, they could use some versatility to provide depth wherever they spring a leak. Last year they picked up Brandon Drury and Gio Urshela because both could play multiple positions. This time around, a player like Cody Bellinger or Justin Turner could fit that bill.
View the full article

Shohei Ohtani was voted the American League Outstanding Player in the Players’ Choice Awards, which are determined by a vote of major league players.
Ohtani, who officially became a free agent on Thursday morning, completed his third straight historic season with the Angels in 2023, hitting a league-leading 44 home runs while batting .304 with a 1.066 OPS. He also compiled a 3.14 ERA in 132 innings as a pitcher.
Ohtani is the favorite to win his second American League MVP award in three years. That award will be announced on Nov. 16. The three finalists will be announced on Monday.
Ohtani was also named a finalist for the American League Silver Slugger at designated hitter on Thursday.

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Shohei Ohtani was voted the American League Outstanding Player in the Players’ Choice Awards, which are determined by a vote of major league players.
Ohtani, who officially became a free agent on Thursday morning, completed his third straight historic season with the Angels in 2023, hitting a league-leading 44 home runs while batting .304 with a 1.066 OPS. He also compiled a 3.14 ERA in 132 innings as a pitcher.
Ohtani is the favorite to win his second American League MVP award in three years. That award will be announced on Nov. 16. The three finalists will be announced on Monday.
Ohtani was also named a finalist for the American League Silver Slugger at designated hitter on Thursday.

Related Articles
Los Angeles Angels | Dodgers figure to be at center of things during ‘Winter of Ohtani’ Los Angeles Angels | Alexander: Here’s what the Dodgers should do to prepare for 2024 Los Angeles Angels | Angels seek answers to significant injury issues View the full article

Game 1 of the World Series between the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks was, according to one headline, “the least-watched World Series game in recorded history.” Like many headlines, this one contained a nugget of truth but did not convey the whole story.
Tracing this particular slice of history, one must begin in 1969. That’s when average television ratings were first recorded. To understand the difference between average viewership then and now, start on Saturday, Oct. 11, 1969, the date of the first World Series game played in the Nielsen era.
Staging a prime-time sports telecast on that particular Saturday night meant, for rights-holder NBC, bumping off “The Andy Williams Show,” “Adam-12,” and “Saturday Night at the Movies.” It meant pitting your World Series broadcast against Jackie Gleason and Lawrence Welk and, well, nothing else, because there were only three networks at the time.
Did the strategy work? We’ll never know. The game began in the afternoon, long before prime time. And yet, Mike Cuellar’s complete game victory over the New York Mets still drew more viewers than the Rangers’ 11-inning win over the D-backs.
The record-low ratings beg a common question: So what?
The answer is nuanced and, hopefully, points to a future in which more and better World Series broadcast options exist for more fans. It’s also a litmus test for your opinion of the game of baseball. Your answer to “so what?” will tend to sort you into one of four camps.
Camp 1: Those who have no intention of watching the World Series under any circumstances.
Camp 2: Those who have every intention of watching the World Series because they’re diehard fans of baseball, or the teams involved.
Camp 3: Those who used to watch the World Series but for whatever reason no longer do so.
Camp 4: Those whose rooting interest is primarily financial, because you are a primary stakeholder for MLB, a major network, or one of its business partners.
Camps 1 and 2 are the constants. Camp 3 has the full and complete attention of Camp 4. People in Camp 3 are often opinionated. They’re quick to share their idea of how baseball “should” be played – ideas that might lead to such novel experiments as moving back the pitcher’s mound in the Atlantic League, or pitch clock ads featuring Bryan Cranston.
Really, though, Camp 4 should be listening to Camp 5. Camp 5 is younger than Camp 3. It hasn’t lived long enough to view the World Series through the lens of ratings, and we should hope they never become so jaded. Camp 5 is a lot like Rob Holub’s students at the University of New Haven.
“If I talk about baseball in my class, freshmen and sophomores know who Jomboy is,” Holub said, “but they can’t afford a cable subscription. (They watch) small clips that catch your attention.”
Holub, an adjunct faculty member of the Pompea College of Business for Sport Management, has a good reason to be jaded himself. He grew up a fan of the New York sports teams and was aghast when the MSG Network (regional broadcaster of New York’s Knicks, Rangers, Islanders, Giants, and others) disappeared from his Optimum cable package and moved to a pay-per-view model charging $10 per game.
For baseball, Holub could purchase YES, the Yankees’ regional network, for $240/year. But that package would not get him access to the World Series because those games were exclusive to Fox’s linear television channel. (Not a particular problem for a Yankees fan this year, of course.) For older millennial cord-cutters and non-cord-cutters alike, the cost of watching baseball has become prohibitive.
“I’m 37 and I’d rather watch Jomboy for 4 minutes,” Holub said. “I watched 10 minutes of (Game 2) the other night and fell asleep. Jomboy’s breakdown of someone getting tagged out on the batting glove was riveting.”
Ironically, an August 1969 cover of TV Guide asked the question, “Will Soaring Costs Knock Sports off TV?”
Finally, we have the answer: yes, in part.
Holub believes that’s where the interesting, nuanced part of the so-what-if-ratings-are-down question comes into play. It doesn’t mean that baseball is dying.
He contrasted Fox’s approach to this postseason with ESPN’s approach to football, where the Manning brothers and Pat McAfee have provided popular “alternative broadcasts.” In some cases, Holub believes, the “alternative” broadcasts have been more successful than the “primary” linear offerings.
“I’d much rather watch Brockmire call a game than Joe Buck,” he said.
TruTV and Max toyed with an alternative broadcast format during the National League Championship Series. Host Alanna Rizzo moderated a group discussion among Albert Pujols, Pedro Martinez, Yonder Alonso, Nestor Cortes and other players and former players alike. It was conversational. It ignored the play-by-play that anyone could observe for themselves on screen. It was easy to tune in and out. Unfortunately, it wasn’t available during the World Series.
Of course, that’s my own bias, and therein lies another litmus test. Some will view the suffering World Series ratings as the fault of the decline of the starting pitcher. Others will point to the teams involved, and the general lack of household names on either the Diamondbacks or Rangers. Or bat flips. Or John Smoltz’s commentary. Whatever you don’t like, blame that.
The death of cultural monoliths (like, say, “The Andy Williams Show”) is well-chronicled. Who can blame someone who simply enjoys having the television on in the background for choosing one of a hundred things other than the World Series when their options number in the triple digits? Heck, you could even have watched Game 1 of the 1969 World Series last Friday if that was your cup of tea. It’s on YouTube in its entirety.
But the networks are still married to old-school metrics, like Nielsen ratings, as a direct connection to advertising revenue. Holub believes the notion of spreading out a number of alternate game broadcasts over multiple corporate properties is the key to future success. Why expect one failing product to generate 10 million viewers when 10 products can give you one million viewers each? Or so the thinking goes.
In 2021, ESPN extended its contract with the NFL through 2033. Fox only holds the World Series rights through 2028. The need to cultivate more viewers over a 12-year period is enough to inspire more experimentation, Holub believes – hence the Manningcasts, he said.
If you’re in Camp 3 and you believe baseball is dying, that’s fine. Just don’t use the World Series ratings as definitive proof.
“I don’t think baseball is dying,” Holub said. “Interest is changing because society-wise we just have so many more options for what to do with our time.”
View the full article

When Major League Baseball and the MLB Players’ Association compromised on an expanded 12-team playoff field, it came with a rather consequential side effect: five days off at the end of the regular season for the two best teams in each league.
That downtime didn’t stop the Houston Astros from beating the Minnesota Twins in the American League Division Series, but it did seem to neuter the Dodgers, Atlanta Braves and Baltimore Orioles in their respective series. They combined to go 1-9 in the division series round after each team won at least 100 games in the regular season.
In the aftermath of their losses, it was interesting to hear the principals from each team try to reconcile their regular-season dominance with their postseason faceplants.
“I mean, we thought we did everything possible during the delay, recreated things the best we could,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said shortly after his team was eliminated by the Philadelphia Phillies.
“We tried to simulate a lot of at-bats Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, because there’s no question that five days off affects hitters’ timing,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said at his annual end-of-season press conference on Tuesday. “Now if getting enough at-bats leading up to that keeps that timing in place, obviously we didn’t do a good enough job.”
The Dodgers opened one of their three intrasquad games to fans and reporters. Of the 11 pitchers who faced their teammates that day, all 11 saw action on a major league mound during the 2023 season. The quality of pitching the Dodgers’ hitters faced during their five-day layoff wasn’t an issue. Neither, perhaps, was the quantity of at-bats they took.
From the press box at least, the problem appeared to be one of intensity.
Half of the Dodgers’ players wore white jersey tops, the other half blue, but occasionally a blue player would bat for the white squad. Some innings lasted three outs, some four, others five. A smattering of fans in the lower deck of seats in left field helped fill the air with noise. By the end of the game, you could hardly blame fans for focusing more on two screens above the bleachers showing the Arizona Diamondbacks’ wild-card game against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Taking a baseball player out of the routine he performs 162 times a year is anathema to intensity. From the beginning of April until the end of September, there are only game days or non-game days. One brings a degree of intensity. The other does not. There’s simply no way around that.
“Our goal next year is to win the division and have those five days off again,” Friedman said. “It’s two years into this (postseason) format. We don’t concern ourselves too much with what’s optimal, what’s ideal. It doesn’t really matter. It is what it is. For us, it’s about how to operate the best we can within it.”
Here’s an idea for the two top-seeded teams in each league: Fill your five off-days with practice games. Keep the number of at-bats and quality of opposing pitchers high. Only next time, make sure it’s a game of consequence for one of the two teams on the field.
How?
As it turns out, Oct. 2-7 wasn’t a game day for nearly every professional baseball team on the planet. That includes the champions of each of the four independent “partner leagues” of MLB: the Atlantic League, the American Association, the Frontier League and the Pioneer League.
The Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks cut it close. On Oct. 1, they defeated los Caimanes Barranquilla, the top team in Colombia’s professional league, to close out the Baseball Champions League Americas tournament in Mexico. The next day, they flew home.
How practical would it have been for Fargo-Moorhead to divert its journey through, say, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Baltimore or Houston for a few days? Very, said Joshua Schaub, the commissioner of the American Association.
“We’re more than willing to get on a plane to play an MLB team,” he said.
An American Association team typically travels “29 or 30 people” on a road trip, Schaub said. He estimated it would cost no more than $15,000 to fly them all into any major airport. That’s pocket change for an MLB team.
The caliber of competition in the AA isn’t entirely major-league quality, but it’s not far off. Fargo’s leadoff hitter was Dillon Thomas, who as recently as last season was in the major leagues with the Angels. There are a few pitchers in the league who can touch 100 mph, Schaub said, “but usually they sit 92 or faster.” Control isn’t such an issue that hitters would be left ducking for cover.
Want the independent ballers to raise their intensity for an exhibition game? Invite scouts. Schaub said there were 52 in attendance at the Baseball Champions League Americas tournament.
“Guys play their (butts) off to get picked up by a scout in attendance,” he said.
The Atlantic League postseason also ends just in time for MLB’s wild-card round. The league selects players to an All-Star team too, but unlike the American Association they don’t stage a game – practically begging for an excuse to get the All-Stars on the field. This season, Atlantic League teams could have filled a pitching staff with 10 former major leaguers from their season-ending rosters.
“Having a member of the Atlantic League play an exhibition game or series against an MLB club preparing for the postseason would be a concept that we would be very willing to discuss,” Atlantic League president Rick White said. “There could be a number of options, whether a current club or a collection of top players, and the logistics would need to be worked out. But as a concept, we would be open to the idea. I can promise you that any collection of the Atlantic League’s top players would certainly be a worthy opponent for any club preparing for the postseason. Of course, any such discussion would be subject to the approval of Major League Baseball.”
To participate in a three-game exhibition series after the regular season, the current Collective Bargaining Agreement only requires that players get permission from their team and the commissioner. Staging an early-October series against a team full of indy ball opponents with something at stake, in theory, should not be a tough sell to players. It was the Players’ Association who first raised concerns about the effects of a five-day layoff during CBA negotiations before ultimately agreeing to an expanded 12-team postseason.
Four independent “partner leagues” and four postseason teams struggling with a five-day layoff seems like a perfect marriage. Of course, no marriage is perfect. The caliber of play in the Frontier and Pioneer leagues isn’t as high as the American Association or Atlantic League. The specifics would have to be ironed out.
Even if the exhibition games don’t perfectly simulate a game-day experience for the major league players, it should raise their level of intensity by a notch. Given the limitations of a 12-team playoff field, that should be the goal of every team facing the blessed curse of a five-day layoff.
View the full article

When Major League Baseball and the MLB Players’ Association compromised on an expanded 12-team playoff field, it came with a rather consequential side effect: five days off at the end of the regular season for the two best teams in each league.
That downtime didn’t stop the Houston Astros from beating the Minnesota Twins in the American League Division Series, but it did seem to neuter the Dodgers, Atlanta Braves and Baltimore Orioles in their respective series. They combined to go 1-9 in the division series round after each team won at least 100 games in the regular season.
In the aftermath of their losses, it was interesting to hear the principals from each team try to reconcile their regular-season dominance with their postseason faceplants.
“I mean, we thought we did everything possible during the delay, recreated things the best we could,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said shortly after his team was eliminated by the Philadelphia Phillies.
“We tried to simulate a lot of at-bats Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, because there’s no question that five days off affects hitters’ timing,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said at his annual end-of-season press conference on Tuesday. “Now if getting enough at-bats leading up to that keeps that timing in place, obviously we didn’t do a good enough job.”
The Dodgers opened one of their three intrasquad games to fans and reporters. Of the 11 pitchers who faced their teammates that day, all 11 saw action on a major league mound during the 2023 season. The quality of pitching the Dodgers’ hitters faced during their five-day layoff wasn’t an issue. Neither, perhaps, was the quantity of at-bats they took.
From the press box at least, the problem appeared to be one of intensity.
Half of the Dodgers’ players wore white jersey tops, the other half blue, but occasionally a blue player would bat for the white squad. Some innings lasted three outs, some four, others five. A smattering of fans in the lower deck of seats in left field helped fill the air with noise. By the end of the game, you could hardly blame fans for focusing more on two screens above the bleachers showing the Arizona Diamondbacks’ wild-card game against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Taking a baseball player out of the routine he performs 162 times a year is anathema to intensity. From the beginning of April until the end of September, there are only game days or non-game days. One brings a degree of intensity. The other does not. There’s simply no way around that.
“Our goal next year is to win the division and have those five days off again,” Friedman said. “It’s two years into this (postseason) format. We don’t concern ourselves too much with what’s optimal, what’s ideal. It doesn’t really matter. It is what it is. For us, it’s about how to operate the best we can within it.”
Here’s an idea for the two top-seeded teams in each league: Fill your five off-days with practice games. Keep the number of at-bats and quality of opposing pitchers high. Only next time, make sure it’s a game of consequence for one of the two teams on the field.
How?
As it turns out, Oct. 2-7 wasn’t a game day for nearly every professional baseball team on the planet. That includes the champions of each of the four independent “partner leagues” of MLB: the Atlantic League, the American Association, the Frontier League and the Pioneer League.
The Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks cut it close. On Oct. 1, they defeated los Caimanes Barranquilla, the top team in Colombia’s professional league, to close out the Baseball Champions League Americas tournament in Mexico. The next day, they flew home.
How practical would it have been for Fargo-Moorhead to divert its journey through, say, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Baltimore or Houston for a few days? Very, said Joshua Schaub, the commissioner of the American Association.
“We’re more than willing to get on a plane to play an MLB team,” he said.
An American Association team typically travels “29 or 30 people” on a road trip, Schaub said. He estimated it would cost no more than $15,000 to fly them all into any major airport. That’s pocket change for an MLB team.
The caliber of competition in the AA isn’t entirely major-league quality, but it’s not far off. Fargo’s leadoff hitter was Dillon Thomas, who as recently as last season was in the major leagues with the Angels. There are a few pitchers in the league who can touch 100 mph, Schaub said, “but usually they sit 92 or faster.” Control isn’t such an issue that hitters would be left ducking for cover.
Want the independent ballers to raise their intensity for an exhibition game? Invite scouts. Schaub said there were 52 in attendance at the Baseball Champions League Americas tournament.
“Guys play their (butts) off to get picked up by a scout in attendance,” he said.
The Atlantic League postseason also ends just in time for MLB’s wild-card round. The league selects players to an All-Star team too, but unlike the American Association they don’t stage a game – practically begging for an excuse to get the All-Stars on the field. This season, Atlantic League teams could have filled a pitching staff with 10 former major leaguers from their season-ending rosters.
“Having a member of the Atlantic League play an exhibition game or series against an MLB club preparing for the postseason would be a concept that we would be very willing to discuss,” Atlantic League president Rick White said. “There could be a number of options, whether a current club or a collection of top players, and the logistics would need to be worked out. But as a concept, we would be open to the idea. I can promise you that any collection of the Atlantic League’s top players would certainly be a worthy opponent for any club preparing for the postseason. Of course, any such discussion would be subject to the approval of Major League Baseball.”
To participate in a three-game exhibition series after the regular season, the current Collective Bargaining Agreement only requires that players get permission from their team and the commissioner. Staging an early-October series against a team full of indy ball opponents with something at stake, in theory, should not be a tough sell to players. It was the Players’ Association who first raised concerns about the effects of a five-day layoff during CBA negotiations before ultimately agreeing to an expanded 12-team postseason.
Four independent “partner leagues” and four postseason teams struggling with a five-day layoff seems like a perfect marriage. Of course, no marriage is perfect. The caliber of play in the Frontier and Pioneer leagues isn’t as high as the American Association or Atlantic League. The specifics would have to be ironed out.
Even if the exhibition games don’t perfectly simulate a game-day experience for the major league players, it should raise their level of intensity by a notch. Given the limitations of a 12-team playoff field, that should be the goal of every team facing the blessed curse of a five-day layoff.
View the full article

When Major League Baseball and the MLB Players’ Association compromised on an expanded 12-team playoff field, it came with a rather consequential side effect: five days off at the end of the regular season for the two best teams in each league.
That downtime didn’t stop the Houston Astros from beating the Minnesota Twins in the American League Division Series, but it did seem to neuter the Dodgers, Atlanta Braves and Baltimore Orioles in their respective series. They combined to go 1-9 in the division series round after each team won at least 100 games in the regular season.
In the aftermath of their losses, it was interesting to hear the principals from each team try to reconcile their regular-season dominance with their postseason faceplants.
“I mean, we thought we did everything possible during the delay, recreated things the best we could,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said shortly after his team was eliminated by the Philadelphia Phillies.
“We tried to simulate a lot of at-bats Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, because there’s no question that five days off affects hitters’ timing,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said at his annual end-of-season press conference on Tuesday. “Now if getting enough at-bats leading up to that keeps that timing in place, obviously we didn’t do a good enough job.”
The Dodgers opened one of their three intrasquad games to fans and reporters. Of the 11 pitchers who faced their teammates that day, all 11 saw action on a major league mound during the 2023 season. The quality of pitching the Dodgers’ hitters faced during their five-day layoff wasn’t an issue. Neither, perhaps, was the quantity of at-bats they took.
From the press box at least, the problem appeared to be one of intensity.
Half of the Dodgers’ players wore white jersey tops, the other half blue, but occasionally a blue player would bat for the white squad. Some innings lasted three outs, some four, others five. A smattering of fans in the lower deck of seats in left field helped fill the air with noise. By the end of the game, you could hardly blame fans for focusing more on two screens above the bleachers showing the Arizona Diamondbacks’ wild-card game against the Milwaukee Brewers.
Taking a baseball player out of the routine he performs 162 times a year is anathema to intensity. From the beginning of April until the end of September, there are only game days or non-game days. One brings a degree of intensity. The other does not. There’s simply no way around that.
“Our goal next year is to win the division and have those five days off again,” Friedman said. “It’s two years into this (postseason) format. We don’t concern ourselves too much with what’s optimal, what’s ideal. It doesn’t really matter. It is what it is. For us, it’s about how to operate the best we can within it.”
Here’s an idea for the two top-seeded teams in each league: Fill your five off-days with practice games. Keep the number of at-bats and quality of opposing pitchers high. Only next time, make sure it’s a game of consequence for one of the two teams on the field.
How?
As it turns out, Oct. 2-7 wasn’t a game day for nearly every professional baseball team on the planet. That includes the champions of each of the four independent “partner leagues” of MLB: the Atlantic League, the American Association, the Frontier League and the Pioneer League.
The Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks cut it close. On Oct. 1, they defeated los Caimanes Barranquilla, the top team in Colombia’s professional league, to close out the Baseball Champions League Americas tournament in Mexico. The next day, they flew home.
How practical would it have been for Fargo-Moorhead to divert its journey through, say, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Baltimore or Houston for a few days? Very, said Joshua Schaub, the commissioner of the American Association.
“We’re more than willing to get on a plane to play an MLB team,” he said.
An American Association team typically travels “29 or 30 people” on a road trip, Schaub said. He estimated it would cost no more than $15,000 to fly them all into any major airport. That’s pocket change for an MLB team.
The caliber of competition in the AA isn’t entirely major-league quality, but it’s not far off. Fargo’s leadoff hitter was Dillon Thomas, who as recently as last season was in the major leagues with the Angels. There are a few pitchers in the league who can touch 100 mph, Schaub said, “but usually they sit 92 or faster.” Control isn’t such an issue that hitters would be left ducking for cover.
Want the independent ballers to raise their intensity for an exhibition game? Invite scouts. Schaub said there were 52 in attendance at the Baseball Champions League Americas tournament.
“Guys play their (butts) off to get picked up by a scout in attendance,” he said.
The Atlantic League postseason also ends just in time for MLB’s wild-card round. The league selects players to an All-Star team too, but unlike the American Association they don’t stage a game – practically begging for an excuse to get the All-Stars on the field. This season, Atlantic League teams could have filled a pitching staff with 10 former major leaguers from their season-ending rosters.
“Having a member of the Atlantic League play an exhibition game or series against an MLB club preparing for the postseason would be a concept that we would be very willing to discuss,” Atlantic League president Rick White said. “There could be a number of options, whether a current club or a collection of top players, and the logistics would need to be worked out. But as a concept, we would be open to the idea. I can promise you that any collection of the Atlantic League’s top players would certainly be a worthy opponent for any club preparing for the postseason. Of course, any such discussion would be subject to the approval of Major League Baseball.”
To participate in a three-game exhibition series after the regular season, the current Collective Bargaining Agreement only requires that players get permission from their team and the commissioner. Staging an early-October series against a team full of indy ball opponents with something at stake, in theory, should not be a tough sell to players. It was the Players’ Association who first raised concerns about the effects of a five-day layoff during CBA negotiations before ultimately agreeing to an expanded 12-team postseason.
Four independent “partner leagues” and four postseason teams struggling with a five-day layoff seems like a perfect marriage. Of course, no marriage is perfect. The caliber of play in the Frontier and Pioneer leagues isn’t as high as the American Association or Atlantic League. The specifics would have to be ironed out.
Even if the exhibition games don’t perfectly simulate a game-day experience for the major league players, it should raise their level of intensity by a notch. Given the limitations of a 12-team playoff field, that should be the goal of every team facing the blessed curse of a five-day layoff.
View the full article

Perhaps the moment that best summed up the 2023 Angels was the first inning of their game Sept. 7, when Luis Rengifo was swinging a bat in the on-deck circle.
And he got injured.
Rengifo left the game and was later diagnosed with a ruptured biceps tendon, adding his name to a mind-boggling list. The Angels placed 34 players on the injured list this season, a total of 42 times, which was the third-highest total in the majors.
Although general manager Perry Minasian and former manager Phil Nevin went out of their way to say that the Angels still should have withstood the injuries better, there is no escaping the fact that the injuries played a large part in their disappointing 73-89 record.
Minasian said Tuesday that searching for an answer to the injuries would be a part of his “autopsy” of the entire organization.
“We have to try,” Minasian said. “One of the biggest things, if you look at our season from a trajectory standpoint, is when we were healthy, we were a pretty competitive club. … We’ll take a deep dive into all the medical and ask ourselves why and what can we do to prevent that and go from there.”
Assessing the staff
Minasian, however, just completed an overhaul of the staff prior to last season, hiring five new people.
The Angels have three athletic trainers, led by Mike Frostad, who is in his second year in the organization. Matt Biancuzzo also joined the Angels last year, while Eric Munson just completed his seventh year. Longtime head athletic trainer Rick Smith, who has been with the Angels in various capacities since 1978, also still assists at home games.
Head strength and conditioning coach Matt Tenney joined the Angels in 2022. Assistant Adam Auer just completed his fifth season working in the majors with the Angels, after being in the minors.
The Angels also have two physical therapists – Marc Ocegura and Robbie Williams – who each joined the organization in 2022. Massage therapist Yoichi Terada has spent 13 years with the Angels.
Angels staff members are not permitted to talk to the media.
The players are, though, and they agree that the training and strength and conditioning staffs aren’t the problem.
Five veteran players – all questioned because they had the reference point of being with at least two other teams – were asked to assess the Angels’ training and strength and conditioning staffs. They were each offered anonymity so they could speak freely.
All five said the Angels staff was, at worst, the same as other places they’d played, and at best, even better.
“Honestly, when it comes to the training staff and the medical staff, I think it’s probably better than a lot of places I’ve seen and heard,” said outfielder Randal Grichuk, who is with his fourth big-league organization. “So (the blame) is definitely not there.”
Left-hander Tyler Anderson (six teams), infielder Brandon Drury (seven), catcher Chad Wallach (three) and outfielder Brett Phillips (five) agreed with Grichuk’s assessment.
“I think they’re good actually,” Anderson said. “The strength coaches are good. They do a really good job of communicating with the training staff.”
Drury added: “Strength and conditioning and medical has been awesome this year. If you look back at our injuries, it has nothing to do with anything in the gym, anything you could do in the training room.”
Assessing the injuries
Injuries, of course, can’t be assessed without acknowledging their differences. Someone getting hit in the face by a pitch (Taylor Ward) is nothing like a pitcher blowing out his ulnar collateral ligament (Shohei Ohtani) or an outfielder straining his oblique (Jo Adell).
The latter category, the soft tissue injuries, would seemingly be the most preventable.
The injured list database at FanGraphs includes descriptions for each transaction, allowing the soft tissue injuries to be filtered out from the impact injuries or the pitcher arm injuries.
Start with all oblique, calf, hamstring, groin, lat, abdomen and quad strains, and then add neck and back injuries that include the words “strain” or “tightness.” Using that standard, the Angels had 12 of those injuries this season, which was tied for fifth most in the majors. The average was 7.6 per team.
In 2022, which was the first year for the current medical staff together, the Angels had only four, which was tied for 22nd in the majors. The average was 7.0. In 2021, the Angels had 11, tied for 11th most. The average was 9.8.
Among those soft tissue injuries, the most perplexing were the oblique injuries. The Angels tied for second in the majors with five oblique injuries in 2023. They had only one in 2022 and none in 2021.
The caveat with the other soft tissue injuries, however, is those descriptions are likely going to be attached when an injury is, say, exaggerated for the sake of roster management. If a pitcher without options needs a break, either because of workload or performance, it’s easy to find some “hamstring” or “groin” tightness.
At least five of the Angels’ injured list placements this year were mostly about roster management, and all were given soft tissue descriptions, a source said.
In terms of all injuries, the Angels had the third most this year, but it hasn’t been a trend. In 2022, the Angels ranked 20th in the majors in total injured list uses, with 29. The major-league average was 32.7. The Angels were also below average in 2021, with 33. The major league average was 40.7.
So what about this year?
“It happens,” Wallach said. “Injuries are part of the game. You see it with every team every year. Some teams are healthier than others, but unfortunately injuries are part of the game.”
Assessing the roster
One theory is that the Angels simply have more older players. They ranked seventh in the majors in terms of oldest average position players, according to Baseball-Reference. The Angels pitchers, who were healthier, were the ninth youngest.
The Angels used the injured list for pitchers 18 times, which was just about the major-league average of 16.6 in 2023. And that includes the roster-management “injuries.” The Angels were below average in pitching injuries in 2022 and 2021.
All of this may also just come down to two individuals: Mike Trout and Anthony Rendon.
Trout, 32, suffered a calf injury that cost him most of the season in 2021 and a back injury that knocked him out for five weeks in 2022. Trout said he “hired a lot of people” to develop a new training regimen for him to keep him healthy in 2023. The Angels also had a strict routine of days off for Trout, in particular avoiding having him play following long flights, because those were times he’d been hurt before.
It all seemed to work. Trout said he felt as good as he had in years. Then he broke his hand.
Trout’s rehab from a fractured hamate took longer than expected. It was a matter of pain tolerance, and Trout said he was in too much pain.
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Trout has played 49% of the Angels’ games and Rendon has played 30% of the games over the last three seasons. Their combined salaries were more than $70 million each season.
“There’s no secret here; we need Mike Trout and we need Anthony Rendon,” Minasian said. “We need those guys to play more. They know that. It’s something that we’ve talked about. They’re going to go in the offseason and they’re going to do everything they can in their power to be ready to go next year. They understand what they mean to this club, and how productive they can be on and off the field.”
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In his sixth Major League season with the Angels, the 29-year-old has compiled a 10-5 record with a 3.14 ERA (132 IP – 46 ER) and 167 strikeouts in 23 pitching starts, while holding opponents to a .184 average (85/463). As a hitter, he had 102 runs scored, 26 doubles, eight triples, 44 home runs, 95 RBI, 91 walks, 20 stolen bases and a 1.066 OPS.
Below are some additional accomplishments this season:
THE HITTER
Ranks in Top Four in the American League in home runs (44; 1st), total bases (325; 1st), extra-base hits (78; 1st), slugging (.654; 1st), OBP (.412; 1st), OPS (1.066; 1st), intentional walks (21; 2nd), triples (8; 3rd), runs (102; T-3rd), walks (91; T-4th), and batting average (.304; 4th). Recorded second career 40+ HR season (hit 46 HR in 2021) and was the first player in the Majors to reach the 40 HR mark in 2023. Third player in Angels history with multiple 40+ HR seasons, joining Troy Glaus (2000 & 2001) and Mike Trout (2015, 2019 & 2022). Third player all-time to record an extra-base hit, walk and run scored in six straight games (June 12-17)...The only other players to do so are Babe Ruth (7 straight games in 1921) and Barry Bonds (6 straight games in 1997). Only player in the Majors to tally 6+ triples and 34+ HR this season (third consecutive year as the only player to do so). THE PITCHER
Leads the A.L. (min. 130 IP) with a .184 (85/463) opponent batting average. Finished year with an active streak of 20.2 consecutive innings pitched without allowing an earned run. Allowed one-or-fewer earned runs in 13 of 23 starts. Pitched first career complete game and first shutout on July 27 at Detroit in Game 1 of a doubleheader…Held Tigers to one hit and three walks with eight strikeouts. In addition to leading the league in opponent batting average, ranked among American League leaders at the time of his final start in strikeouts per 9.0 innings (11.39; 2nd), whiff rate (30.9%; 2nd), ERA (3.14; 3rd), WHIP (1.06; 4th), strikeouts (167; 5th), winning percentage (.667; T5th) and wins (10; T8th). TWO-WAY
Recorded 10+ pitching wins and 30+ HR for a second consecutive season. Babe Ruth (1918) is the only other player with 10+ wins and 10+ HR. In 23 games as the Angels starting pitcher, batted .372 (29/78) with three doubles, two triples, seven home runs and 15 RBI. Seven HR in games pitched tied for the second-most in a season all-time (Wes Ferrell – 9 HR in games pitched for Cleveland in 1931). Made nine pitching starts while also leading the Majors in home runs as a batter. Finished one hit shy of hitting for the cycle in three different pitching starts. Served as the Angels starting designated hitter in all of his pitching starts. ALL-STAR
Selected to the All-Star Game as both a pitcher and position player for a third consecutive season. Only player in MLB history to be selected as an All-Star as both a position player and a pitcher. Was the American League’s leading vote-getter in Phase 1 of fan voting and joined Rod Carew (1979) and Trout (2019) as Angels players to lead the A.L. in fan voting. Joined Hall of Famer David Ortiz (2011-13) as the only players to receive three straight fan elections at designated hitter. AWARDS AND HONORS
2023 Angels MVP Award (third straight year voted by teammates as Angels MVP). Two-time American League Player of the Month (June & July). Three-time American League Player of the Week (June 12-18, June 26-July 2 & July 24-30). SHO OFF
Would join Troy Glaus (2000) as the only Angels players to finish a season as the American League home run leader Finished the season with the most popular player jersey in MLB based on sales from MLBShop.com On June 27 vs. White Sox, became the first A.L. player to hit multiple home runs and have 10+ pitching strikeouts in the same game since Cleveland’s Pedro Ramos on July 31, 1963 (Game 2) vs. Angels First player in MLB history with 15+ SB & 40+ HR through his team’s first 114 games On July 27 at Detroit, became first player ever to pitch a complete game shutout in one game of a doubleheader and hit a home run in the other (hit two homers in the nightcap after tossing a shutout in Game 1) Leads the Major Leagues with a 10.1 bWAR this season (the next highest A.L. total belongs to Gerrit Cole – 7.4) From June 12-15 at Texas, became the third player since 1901 with 4+ home runs and 7+ walks in a four-game series, joining Detroit’s Hank Greenberg (Sept. 18-19, 1940 vs. Philadelphia A’s) and Pittsburgh’s Ralph Kiner (Aug. 3-5, 1951 vs. Phillies)  
**Research provided by Elias Sports Bureau, STATS, ESPN Stats & Info, Baseball Reference, Sportradar, Fangraphs and MLB**
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ANAHEIM — The last victory of the Angels season was an especially poignant one for a guy who wasn’t even around to witness most of what has gone wrong this year.
Veteran right-hander Carson Fulmer, who wasn’t in the majors with the Angels until last weekend, pitched five scoreless innings to get the victory in the Angels’ 7-3 victory over the Oakland A’s in the season finale on Sunday.
Fulmer, 29, last pitched in the majors in 2021. He was out of baseball entirely for the first two months of this season, before the Angels signed him to a minor league deal.
“It means the world to me,” Fulmer said of the opportunity the Angels gave him. “I was on the couch three months ago, and debating whether I was going to play again or not. It definitely means a lot. This is big for my career, big for my family.”
Fulmer got the start in Sunday’s game, and Manager Phil Nevin said he only planned to get him one time through the lineup. Fulmer was pitching well so he let him go five.
“That was a really cool deal today,” Nevin said of Fulmer getting the victory.
THE HOME RUN KING
Shohei Ohtani officially became the first player born in Japan to lead either the American or National leagues in homers, finishing with 44. Adolis Garcia of the Texas Rangers was second in the AL with 39.
“It’s quite an honor and I’m humbled when you think about the great players that have come before me that have played MLB from Japan,” Ohtani said in a statement released by the Angels. “Thank you to my teammates, coaching staff and fans that helped me to achieve this goal.”
Ohtani has not spoken to the media since Aug. 9, following his penultimate start of the season. He did not speak after his Aug. 23 start, which was the game in which he hurt his elbow.
Ohtani was in the dugout throughout the games on Saturday and Sunday, and he was in the clubhouse exchanging hugs and handshakes with his teammates after Sunday’s game.
DRAFT STATUS
The Angels finished the season with the seventh worst record in the majors, but their draft position in 2024 won’t be determined until the lottery is held at the Winter Meetings.
The top six selections will be determined by lottery. All of the non-playoff teams are included except the Washington Nationals, who aren’t eligible because they had a lottery pick last year and are designated as a “large market team” by MLB’s revenue sharing rules.
NOTES
One of the players who lived up to expectations was infielder Brandon Drury, who hit a pair of homers in the final game to finish with 26. He posted an OPS of .803. Drury, 31, is signed for $8.5 million next season. …
The Angels finished with an attendance of 2,640,575, which was an average of 32,599. That ranked 12th in the majors. The attendance was up 7% from last year, but significantly down from the Angels streak of 17 straight years of drawing 3 million, prior to the pandemic. …
First baseman Nolan Schanuel did not play in the season finale. He has reached base safely in the first 29 games of his big league career, tied for the third longest streak in history. The streak will remain intact next season, according to the Angels. The major league record is 47 games, set by Seattle Mariners first baseman Alvin Davis in 1984.
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ANAHEIM — The last victory of the Angels season was an especially poignant one for a guy who wasn’t even around to witness most of what has gone wrong this year.
Veteran right-hander Carson Fulmer, who wasn’t in the majors with the Angels until last weekend, pitched five scoreless innings to get the victory in the Angels’ 7-3 victory over the Oakland A’s in the season finale on Sunday.
Fulmer, 29, last pitched in the majors in 2021. He was out of baseball entirely for the first two months of this season, before the Angels signed him to a minor league deal.
“It means the world to me,” Fulmer said of the opportunity the Angels gave him. “I was on the couch three months ago, and debating whether I was going to play again or not. It definitely means a lot. This is big for my career, big for my family.”
Fulmer got the start in Sunday’s game, and Manager Phil Nevin said he only planned to get him one time through the lineup. Fulmer was pitching well so he let him go five.
“That was a really cool deal today,” Nevin said of Fulmer getting the victory.
THE HOME RUN KING
Shohei Ohtani officially became the first player born in Japan to lead either the American or National leagues in homers, finishing with 44. Adolis Garcia of the Texas Rangers was second in the AL with 39.
“It’s quite an honor and I’m humbled when you think about the great players that have come before me that have played MLB from Japan,” Ohtani said in a statement released by the Angels. “Thank you to my teammates, coaching staff and fans that helped me to achieve this goal.”
Ohtani has not spoken to the media since Aug. 9, following his penultimate start of the season. He did not speak after his Aug. 23 start, which was the game in which he hurt his elbow.
Ohtani was in the dugout throughout the games on Saturday and Sunday, and he was in the clubhouse exchanging hugs and handshakes with his teammates after Sunday’s game.
DRAFT STATUS
The Angels finished the season with the seventh worst record in the majors, but their draft position in 2024 won’t be determined until the lottery is held at the Winter Meetings.
The top six selections will be determined by lottery. All of the non-playoff teams are included except the Washington Nationals, who aren’t eligible because they had a lottery pick last year and are designated as a “large market team” by MLB’s revenue sharing rules.
NOTES
One of the players who lived up to expectations was infielder Brandon Drury, who hit a pair of homers in the final game to finish with 26. He posted an OPS of .803. Drury, 31, is signed for $8.5 million next season. …
The Angels finished with an attendance of 2,640,575, which was an average of 32,599. That ranked 12th in the majors. The attendance was up 7% from last year, but significantly down from the Angels streak of 17 straight years of drawing 3 million, prior to the pandemic. …
First baseman Nolan Schanuel did not play in the season finale. He has reached base safely in the first 29 games of his big league career, tied for the third longest streak in history. The streak will remain intact next season, according to the Angels. The major league record is 47 games, set by Seattle Mariners first baseman Alvin Davis in 1984.
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Barrett Kent is a throwback to the old days of Angels pitching development; back when big bodied, durable stalwarts headed this rotation into yearly playoff contention. His makeup and build call back to the likes of Jered Weaver, John Lackey, and Garrett Richards who all solidified themselves as top arms across the league out of the Angels system. The hard-throwing 18 year old Kent comes into the organization out of Texas while very much sporting a Texas sized fastball. His go to offering already reaches heights of up to 97 mph with ease and with command beyond that of a fresh high school graduate. Kent was drafted in the 8th round despite having all the talents of a veritable first or second round pick, this sentiment being echoed by the Angels as they saw fit to pay him a bonus in line with that of a top pick in order to woo him away from his Arkansas commitment. The Angels foresight in securing his talents by any means necessary will prove vindicated as Kent develops into a league leading, front line starter for the big league club.
Kent brings into the organization all the promises of a rotation leading ace and then some. His advanced feel for his high quality pitch mix, which features both a two and four seam fastball alongside a slider and curveball/changeup, will easily earmark him for a big league role. Kent prefers to feature his fastball, which is seen as a “plus-plus” pitch thanks to high velocity and quality ride powered by an ease in command. His two-seamer is utilized moreso as a sinker given the quality sinking break on the pitch which Kent will regularly work in the bottom half of the zone. His curveball is also seen as a high-plus swing and miss offering which the young pitcher regularly throws for strikes, though by his own admission it is more of a “back pocket” type offering. His slider seems to be his go to secondary at the moment while he also continues to develop his change-up, a pitch which Kent admits has been a solid weapon against lefty hitters.
“I throw a four seam, two seam, curveball, slider and change up. I like to attack with the four seam, I throw that about 90% of the time. I like to go in and out, then come back with my slider, that's kind of my secondary pitch. I've learned a new change up that's been really playing well, especially on left handed hitters. The curveball is kind of my least favorite pitch but I'll go out there and throw it whenever they call it on it”
Inconsistency issues coming out of his senior year saw a bit of a dip in Kent's stock, mostly due to a fluctuation in velocity on his fastball, which eventually pushed him to the 8th round. Kent would admit himself that he felt “flat” on the mound and saw himself more attuned to throwing hard rather than pitching. Adjustments going forward saw Kent revitalize his draft stock through stellar Draft League showings which ultimately saw him go to the Angels on a massive steal of a draft pick. Had Barrett Kent chosen to fulfil his commitment to Arkansas he would have easily set himself up for a first round selection in the coming years with the Angels likely never having a shot at the potentially franchise altering talents of Barrett Kent. The Angels have been a historically bad drafting team coming into this decade, but with GM Perry Minasian hitting on pick after pick fortunes will soon change as prospects like Barrett Kent prove to be the difference maker in the Angels successes going forward.
This past year saw Kent get his feet only slightly wet with experience as he threw 8.2 innings with the organization out of the draft across the Rookie and Low A levels. His short time this year saw him log 10 Ks with no runs allowed across 4 hits, and while it is as short as sample sizes get it is still promising to see such effectiveness after a long season of work through high school and draft league. More often than not you don’t see pitchers until the year after they’re drafted with organizations looking to keep their arm as fresh as possible for the first full year of work. It is extremely encouraging to see Kent hit the ground running right out of the draft as he display the levels of effectiveness he has so far. Next season will more clearly spell the story of Kent’s developmental track, but from what we’ve seen there is a legitimate high stamina power arm worth getting excited about. There is enough versatility in his repertoire to give him breathing room around his high-powered fastball, and with the quality of his secondary being as solid as it is there exists a strong promise of dynamic, Major League quality innings waiting in the future.  
“I don't want people to think of me as just a young guy. I want to be known as the guy that's gonna go out there, compete for the team and get the win whenever I need to. The team will give me the freshman jokes here and there, but they've really been a huge help. They've been huge walking me through [professional baseball], I’ve been learning a lot with (manager) Dave Stapleton. Hopefully next year when I get a full season I come out here ready to go.”
Kent's advanced feel for control will put him ahead of the prospect pack immediately entering 2024, and with the quality of his stuff he will likely be a quick riser within the system. Next season will see Kent take the beginning steps of coming into form as a professional, learning the routine and habits while familiarizing his muscle memory with the flow necessary to sustained professional success. As we’ve seen with multiple Angel prospects this past year such as Walbert Urena, the Angels are not shy about giving their teenaged pitchers Major League workloads. Urena was one of the most used pitchers across the Cal League and just one of fifteen pitchers to throw for more than 90 innings on the year, all at the age of 19. It is not unreasonable to assume that Barrett Kent will receive the same treatment as he will also be 19 heading into 2024. I don’t think he’ll be throwing 90+ pitches a start out of the gate, we’ll likely see a 2nd half ramp that will test him with those 90+ pitch outings once he proven himself in the first half. We haven’t seen enough to totally pencil him in for an MLB ETA, though 2026/2027 will likely be when Kent receives a full time starting role with the Angels. There is a shot that 2025 can see Major League work for the young star but that all depends on the quality of his 2024 season. All in all, Kent projects as a frontline starter, likely an ace, with a much needed durability and efficiency that will see him regularly pitch deep into games, and with a good bit of luck we will see him as a playoff regular for years to come as an Angel. 
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Barrett Kent is a throwback to the old days of Angels pitching development; back when big bodied, durable stalwarts headed this rotation into yearly playoff contention. His makeup and build call back to the likes of Jered Weaver, John Lackey, and Garrett Richards who all solidified themselves as top arms across the league out of the Angels system. The hard-throwing 18 year old Kent comes into the organization out of Texas while very much sporting a Texas sized fastball. His go to offering already reaches heights of up to 97 mph with ease and with command beyond that of a fresh high school graduate. Kent was drafted in the 8th round despite having all the talents of a veritable first or second round pick, this sentiment being echoed by the Angels as they saw fit to pay him a bonus in line with that of a top pick in order to woo him away from his Arkansas commitment. The Angels foresight in securing his talents by any means necessary will prove vindicated as Kent develops into a league leading, front line starter for the big league club.
Kent brings into the organization all the promises of a rotation leading ace and then some. His advanced feel for his high quality pitch mix, which features both a two and four seam fastball alongside a slider and curveball/changeup, will easily earmark him for a big league role. Kent prefers to feature his fastball, which is seen as a “plus-plus” pitch thanks to high velocity and quality ride powered by an ease in command. His two-seamer is utilized moreso as a sinker given the quality sinking break on the pitch which Kent will regularly work in the bottom half of the zone. His curveball is also seen as a high-plus swing and miss offering which the young pitcher regularly throws for strikes, though by his own admission it is more of a “back pocket” type offering. His slider seems to be his go to secondary at the moment while he also continues to develop his change-up, a pitch which Kent admits has been a solid weapon against lefty hitters.
“I throw a four seam, two seam, curveball, slider and change up. I like to attack with the four seam, I throw that about 90% of the time. I like to go in and out, then come back with my slider, that's kind of my secondary pitch. I've learned a new change up that's been really playing well, especially on left handed hitters. The curveball is kind of my least favorite pitch but I'll go out there and throw it whenever they call it on it”
Inconsistency issues coming out of his senior year saw a bit of a dip in Kent's stock, mostly due to a fluctuation in velocity on his fastball, which eventually pushed him to the 8th round. Kent would admit himself that he felt “flat” on the mound and saw himself more attuned to throwing hard rather than pitching. Adjustments going forward saw Kent revitalize his draft stock through stellar Draft League showings which ultimately saw him go to the Angels on a massive steal of a draft pick. Had Barrett Kent chosen to fulfil his commitment to Arkansas he would have easily set himself up for a first round selection in the coming years with the Angels likely never having a shot at the potentially franchise altering talents of Barrett Kent. The Angels have been a historically bad drafting team coming into this decade, but with GM Perry Minasian hitting on pick after pick fortunes will soon change as prospects like Barrett Kent prove to be the difference maker in the Angels successes going forward.
This past year saw Kent get his feet only slightly wet with experience as he threw 8.2 innings with the organization out of the draft across the Rookie and Low A levels. His short time this year saw him log 10 Ks with no runs allowed across 4 hits, and while it is as short as sample sizes get it is still promising to see such effectiveness after a long season of work through high school and draft league. More often than not you don’t see pitchers until the year after they’re drafted with organizations looking to keep their arm as fresh as possible for the first full year of work. It is extremely encouraging to see Kent hit the ground running right out of the draft as he display the levels of effectiveness he has so far. Next season will more clearly spell the story of Kent’s developmental track, but from what we’ve seen there is a legitimate high stamina power arm worth getting excited about. There is enough versatility in his repertoire to give him breathing room around his high-powered fastball, and with the quality of his secondary being as solid as it is there exists a strong promise of dynamic, Major League quality innings waiting in the future.  
“I don't want people to think of me as just a young guy. I want to be known as the guy that's gonna go out there, compete for the team and get the win whenever I need to. The team will give me the freshman jokes here and there, but they've really been a huge help. They've been huge walking me through [professional baseball], I’ve been learning a lot with (manager) Dave Stapleton. Hopefully next year when I get a full season I come out here ready to go.”
Kent's advanced feel for control will put him ahead of the prospect pack immediately entering 2024, and with the quality of his stuff he will likely be a quick riser within the system. Next season will see Kent take the beginning steps of coming into form as a professional, learning the routine and habits while familiarizing his muscle memory with the flow necessary to sustained professional success. As we’ve seen with multiple Angel prospects this past year such as Walbert Urena, the Angels are not shy about giving their teenaged pitchers Major League workloads. Urena was one of the most used pitchers across the Cal League and just one of fifteen pitchers to throw for more than 90 innings on the year, all at the age of 19. It is not unreasonable to assume that Barrett Kent will receive the same treatment as he will also be 19 heading into 2024. I don’t think he’ll be throwing 90+ pitches a start out of the gate, we’ll likely see a 2nd half ramp that will test him with those 90+ pitch outings once he proven himself in the first half. We haven’t seen enough to totally pencil him in for an MLB ETA, though 2026/2027 will likely be when Kent receives a full time starting role with the Angels. There is a shot that 2025 can see Major League work for the young star but that all depends on the quality of his 2024 season. All in all, Kent projects as a frontline starter, likely an ace, with a much needed durability and efficiency that will see him regularly pitch deep into games, and with a good bit of luck we will see him as a playoff regular for years to come as an Angel. 
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[interview translated from Spanish; interpreted by 66ers infielder Jeremy Arocho]
When speaking with Nelson Rada, the Angels 3rd ranked prospect [MLB.com], the one thing that immediately makes itself present is his obvious and apparent maturity. You wouldn’t know the young professional is only 18 with the way he speaks about himself and his experiences in professional baseball. Rada has already far surpassed all expectations coming into 2023, where at seasons beginning he was an unheralded 17 year old Rada now stands as arguably the most exciting prospect within the system. His advanced plate approach and contact ability alongside a league best ability to steal bags screams shades of a Braves-esque talent trajectory. As much as credit is due to Rada, an equal amount should be paid to the Angels organization for having both the confidence and courage to start him in Low A at the age of 17 while also developing him through a healthy and productive season. Rada is very much a player you can build a franchise around and with the Angels beginning to feature multiple guys with that pedigree (O’Hoppe, Neto, Schanuel, Joyce etc.) it is reasonable to consider the idea that this organization is closing in on one of the most promising roster cores in franchise history. 
Rada is a prototypical Perry pick in all the best ways possible. His batter’s eye is incredibly advanced for someone of his age, having put up 73 walks to 98 strikeouts in 2023, all across an eye popping 540 PA’s. That plate appearance total is enough to have lead the entire Cal League through 2023, and with multiple league leading numbers such as stolen bases, runs, and hits it becomes obvious that his talent level is far above his current age. The fact that he can already manage a Major League workload while still requiring some physical development is a testament to the outfielder’s natural durability and drive. It’s one thing to see an advanced hitter like Nolan Schanuel break into Major League quality form at 21, but to see a 17 year old do it in their first Low A season is near unprecedented for this organization. There exists a stark level of excitement for Rada’s future, and should his power ability mature with his physicality there is a very strong chance we could see Rada develop into a league leading talent at the Major League level very soon.
“I want to thank God for giving me a healthy season, I had a great season. It started with the coaching staff, but you just got to keep working; keep working, finish healthy, and get a ring. I worked a lot with Dave Stapleton(manager). Every single day when I show up to the park I work. You never know when it will be your last day [at the park].”
It is fair to assume Rada will start 2024 in Low A given his young age and limited experience outside of rookie ball thus far. However, considering that Perry and company saw fit to start Rada in Low A at 17 you have to wonder if they’ll take another shot and start Rada in High A come 2024, or even Double A to kick off the year. Given that Rada’s only real need is physical development we may see his track tick ahead of the clock should he fill into form this coming winter. He is currently listed at 5’10, 160lbs, though I’m sure an updated end of season tally would have him a few pounds stronger. The real question regarding Rada’s development is not if he will develop into Major League form, but when, and that “when” may be sooner than people think. As long as he grows into his physicality his bat will continue to translate through every level of play, it is unlikely major mechanical tweaks will be needed to ensure he taps into further power. At this point it is a matter of time and patience, though with the level of work ethic the young Rada has showcased this year it is reasonable to believe he will outpace his developmental track as long as he remains consistent and true to himself.
Should he find himself in Double A early 2024 and should he continue tearing up Minor League pitching there really is nothing keeping him from big league debut. Nowadays you want kids facing Major League pitching as soon as possible, we’ve seen it time and time again with Angel prospects who spend up to half a decade in the Minors before struggling immensely with Major League adjustments. It would be prudent to ensure Rada continues to see higher quality pitching as soon as he is ready for it come 2024. I’m not going to timetable him at a 2024 call up given the speculation over multiple factors we have yet to see fulfilled, but as things stand he already blazes a torrential path to the bigs. A 2024 MLB debut would require a few factors to go in Rada's favor, namely roster spots opening up at the bigs by way of injury or severe underperformance. The Angels outfield situation does present a massive question mark next year; should Mike Trout start the season an Angel there would be no guarantee he could stay healthy an entire season, and with the corners also up for debate (LF less so with Taylor Ward encumbered in the position) there is enough wiggle room to present Rada as a late season option should his performance put him in position for such.
“I'm going to work on my body when I get back home. I won’t change anything I’ve been doing, I had a great season, everything has been working for me. This offseason I’ll focus on my body and getting ready for next year.”
Nelson Rada is the Angels best opportunity to develop a superstar of their own since Mike Trout first came up with the organization. This is not an effort to compare Rada with Trout’s talents as these are both distinctly different players, but what Rada can do in similarity is emulate the dynamic impact Trout brought to the Angels when he first arrived on the scene. Rada is an explosive, dynamic player whose presence in the lineup improves its standing tenfold, and with the state of the Angels big league team it very well may take tenfold to get them competing for a playoff spot again. This teams lack of consistent, reliable on base threats hammered them as they played deep into the 2023 season, making it quite apparent that the Angels cannot rely on a package of feast or famine hitters going forward. Fortunes do appear more favorable with talents such as Nolan Schanuel and his elite on base ability heading the lineup in 2024. If you pencil Schanuel in between a developed, late-season Nelson Rada and Trout you suddenly have one of the more explosive top three the Angels have had since their 2009 playoff run. You want Rada leading off so you can leverage his stolen base ability for all it's worth, but even if you decide to pencil him in second having him back to back with Schanuel would be massive. Unfortunately we likely wont see that lineup in full effect until 2025, 2026 at worst, and by then you cannot guarantee Trout will be the same lock he was for most of his career. That topic is worth an entire discussion itself, but at the very least the Angels will have options going forward with their young core featuring O'Hoppe, Neto, Schanuel, Rada, and hopefully Adell among others. Nelson Rada looks to be the best Trout replacement going forward given his ability to anchor a lineup with his dynamic, across the board play and given his looks as a talented defensive center fielder there really is little stopping him from establishing himself as the next big Angel of the future. His superstardom is a story that will tell itself as time goes along, and while the future is never certain there is still a journey to enjoy as Rada grows from a freshly signed 16 year out of Venezuela into the spark of hope he has become for the Angels future. 
 
 
 
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By Ryan Falla, AngelsWin.com Columnist 
The Angels have given fans very little to look forward to at the big league level, yet if you look deeper into the organization you will find the beginnings of some truly special stuff within this organization. One of the many bright spots in the Angels near future is pitcher Walbert Ureña, the 19 year flamethrower recently entering the organization as part of the 2020-2021 international free agent class. Despite being just 19 years of age Ureña has already has arguably the best pure fastball in the organization (aside from Ben Joyce) with scouts grading his go to pitch at a 70 on the 20-80 scale. His fastball is already developed to the point of devastation, and with a solid secondary to back it up Ureña has serious potential to make waves across the league as a big league pitcher with the Los Angeles Angels. There is little that stands in the way of success for Ureña, all that is left is a little bit of patience as he puts together the final touches on what will be a special Major League career.

As mentioned before, Ureña came into the organization out of the 2020-2021 international free agent class and made his debut with the Angels organization out of Rookie Ball in 2022. Through his debut Rookie Ball season Ureña flashed serious potential as he cobbled together 45 strikeouts off of his 37.1 innings of work at 18 years of age. The right hander throws a combination of fastball/sinker/changeup/slider with the changeup being his go-to on the secondary, the pitch itself having enough life to generate actual swings and misses. The sinker is something Ureña and the Angels have been developing this past season as he furthers his ability to generate outs by way of contact. Stamina is also a big focus for the right hander as he’s made multiple appearances that have seen him pitch at least 7 innings three separate times with 10 of his appearances on the year going for 5+ IP. His biggest workload on the year was a 7 IP start against Visalia (Aug.26th) which saw him throw 96 pitches in a no runs, two hit affair ultimately culminating in a win. Ureña was one of the most used pitchers in the Cal League with the 19 year old ranking top 10 in the Cal League across total pitches thrown (1,695 pitches) with the highest total being 2,170 by Seattle’s Shaddon Peavyhouse. 
The Angels current philosophy sees their prospect pitchers undertaking big league workloads while still developing in the minors as multiple Low A pitchers ranked at the top of the Cal League regarding pitch usages. Teammates Leonard Garcia and Jorge Marcheco each saw similar workloads with all three seeing over 90 IP on the season, a mark tallied by just 15 pitchers throughout the entire Cal League. Impressively enough, the trio combined to throw less than 60 pitches in an outing six times across the 61 total outings between the three of them with Ureña himself throwing less than 60 pitches in a start just once on the year. Out of all pitchers who threw more than 90 IP in the Cal League Ureña had the third best HR allowed rate as he’d given up just five on the year. He was Top 5 in Ground Ball percentage (50.4%) while ranking third in Line Drive rate (15.4%). To see the 19 year old Ureña consistently limit the hard hits while managing a big league workload offers plenty of excitement regarding his future development.
Ureña will head into the winter with a focus on physical development as his body grows into maturity. The young star currently sits at 170lbs whilst standing at six foot even. Despite still having strength to grow into Ureña still comfortably tops out in the high 90’s with touches of 100+ and has shown an ability to maintain his velocity as he goes deep into games. As things stand Ureña’s raw pitch mix is so good that even a moderate step forward in command consistency and physical development will take him leaps and bounds beyond the rest of his class. While you don’t want to rush anyone’s development there is a strong chance Ureña could break into the big leagues very young. There are some who believe he could end up relieving for the Angels rather than start when all development is said and done, regardless Ureña projects as an impact arm no matter what role he pitches in. Should the Angels 2023 track record of devastating league injury woes continue into 2024 Ureña could see an early big league debut as a reliever late next year, otherwise you can expect to see the young starter break through come 2025/2026. There are many special things happen in the lower rungs of the Angels organization, Ureña himself being a big part, and should the big league squad tire out your passions for baseball look no further than the kids down in the Minor Leagues who are truly doing something special. There is a lot to love about baseball, and there still is a lot to love about the Angels, perhaps it’s difficult to see now, but in time the fruits of these prospects labor will blossom into something truly magical.
Check out my fellow colleague Taylor Blake Ward's interview with Walbert last week. 
 

By Ryan Falla, AngelsWin.com Columnist 
The Angels have given fans very little to look forward to at the big league level, yet if you look deeper into the organization you will find the beginnings of some truly special stuff within this organization. One of the many bright spots in the Angels near future is pitcher Walbert Ureña, the 19 year flamethrower recently entering the organization as part of the 2020-2021 international free agent class. Despite being just 19 years of age Ureña has already has arguably the best pure fastball in the organization (aside from Ben Joyce) with scouts grading his go to pitch at a 70 on the 20-80 scale. His fastball is already developed to the point of devastation, and with a solid secondary to back it up Ureña has serious potential to make waves across the league as a big league pitcher with the Los Angeles Angels. There is little that stands in the way of success for Ureña, all that is left is a little bit of patience as he puts together the final touches on what will be a special Major League career.

As mentioned before, Ureña came into the organization out of the 2020-2021 international free agent class and made his debut with the Angels organization out of Rookie Ball in 2022. Through his debut Rookie Ball season Ureña flashed serious potential as he cobbled together 45 strikeouts off of his 37.1 innings of work at 18 years of age. The right hander throws a combination of fastball/sinker/changeup/slider with the changeup being his go-to on the secondary, the pitch itself having enough life to generate actual swings and misses. The sinker is something Ureña and the Angels have been developing this past season as he furthers his ability to generate outs by way of contact. Stamina is also a big focus for the right hander as he’s made multiple appearances that have seen him pitch at least 7 innings three separate times with 10 of his appearances on the year going for 5+ IP. His biggest workload on the year was a 7 IP start against Visalia (Aug.26th) which saw him throw 96 pitches in a no runs, two hit affair ultimately culminating in a win. Ureña was one of the most used pitchers in the Cal League with the 19 year old ranking top 10 in the Cal League across total pitches thrown (1,695 pitches) with the highest total being 2,170 by Seattle’s Shaddon Peavyhouse. 
The Angels current philosophy sees their prospect pitchers undertaking big league workloads while still developing in the minors as multiple Low A pitchers ranked at the top of the Cal League regarding pitch usages. Teammates Leonard Garcia and Jorge Marcheco each saw similar workloads with all three seeing over 90 IP on the season, a mark tallied by just 15 pitchers throughout the entire Cal League. Impressively enough, the trio combined to throw less than 60 pitches in an outing six times across the 61 total outings between the three of them with Ureña himself throwing less than 60 pitches in a start just once on the year. Out of all pitchers who threw more than 90 IP in the Cal League Ureña had the third best HR allowed rate as he’d given up just five on the year. He was Top 5 in Ground Ball percentage (50.4%) while ranking third in Line Drive rate (15.4%). To see the 19 year old Ureña consistently limit the hard hits while managing a big league workload offers plenty of excitement regarding his future development.
Ureña will head into the winter with a focus on physical development as his body grows into maturity. The young star currently sits at 170lbs whilst standing at six foot even. Despite still having strength to grow into Ureña still comfortably tops out in the high 90’s with touches of 100+ and has shown an ability to maintain his velocity as he goes deep into games. As things stand Ureña’s raw pitch mix is so good that even a moderate step forward in command consistency and physical development will take him leaps and bounds beyond the rest of his class. While you don’t want to rush anyone’s development there is a strong chance Ureña could break into the big leagues very young. There are some who believe he could end up relieving for the Angels rather than start when all development is said and done, regardless Ureña projects as an impact arm no matter what role he pitches in. Should the Angels 2023 track record of devastating league injury woes continue into 2024 Ureña could see an early big league debut as a reliever late next year, otherwise you can expect to see the young starter break through come 2025/2026. There are many special things happen in the lower rungs of the Angels organization, Ureña himself being a big part, and should the big league squad tire out your passions for baseball look no further than the kids down in the Minor Leagues who are truly doing something special. There is a lot to love about baseball, and there still is a lot to love about the Angels, perhaps it’s difficult to see now, but in time the fruits of these prospects labor will blossom into something truly magical.
Check out my fellow colleague Taylor Blake Ward's interview with Walbert last week. 
 

By Ryan Falla, AngelsWin.com Columnist
There is no more difficult job in baseball than heading the Angels organization as the General Manager. Short on staff necessary to encompass the responsibilities of an entire organization, Perry Minasian tirelessly carries the responsibilities of success on his shoulders as he guides the Angels through a disastrous season, the few bright spots in this Shakespearean tragedy coming through the effectiveness of Minasian’s drafting strategies and ability to spot elevated talent in young ballplayers. We’ve spent an entire season harping on the various failures of ownership, the shortcomings on the behalf of medical and training, and the general failure of player performance, and rightfully so. Many of these failures can be attributed to a neglected, decaying organizational infrastructure that does little promote player excellency, yet despite these internal failures that existed long before Perry Minasian our GM has gone above and beyond to bring in young athletes with the grit and gumption to rise above these mediocrities and create within themselves a bright future for Angel fans. 
“There's common traits you look for, abilities are obviously one of them. There's got to be a little bit of actual self-motivation to get the most out of your ability. Internal makeup and what makes you tick, we talk about all the time. We want players that wake up thinking about it, go to bed, thinking about it, obsess about it. We have a great group here of talented young players that have come from all different places and are different ages. When you watch this particular club play [Inland Empire 66ers] the effort levels are outstanding. That's something we've talked about and implemented. We created an expectation that to play here there has to be that type of effort.”
Key word: self-motivation. From a fan perspective it seems as if the Angels have been populated with athletes lacking motivation, without naming names you can easily recount certain veteran players that bring this effect to mind. On the other hand, however, we've witnessed the excellence of future stars such as Logan O’Hoppe/Zach Neto/Ben Joyce/Nolan Schanuel etc., all by way of Perry Minasian. Going beyond what we've seen at the Majors, seeping all the way down to the Minor League Levels, is a brand new system for success implemented piece by piece through the wunderkind of Minasian’s carefully crafted youth-movement. Perry brings a wealth of experience to the ballclub, himself having come from celebrated systems whose successes were built almost entirely on the quality of youth nurtured in the lowest levels of those organizations. This is not just some throwaway experiment by a GM grasping at straws, this is a level headed, deliberate process enacted by an experienced auteur whose executive habits have been molded by winning organizations.
“Building a young core is really, really important. That's something we've talked about and harped on since I've walked in the door. I've been a part of some pretty good organizations. I was in Texas; we had Teixeira, Blaylock, Young and Kinsler. Being in Atlanta with Austin Riley, Ronald Acuna Jr., Ozzie Albies, Max Fried, I can go on and on. That’s something we're trying to establish here. We've had some significant breakthroughs this season that we're excited about. It's the makeup of each guy, they've committed to being as good as they can be. They have high expectations, they enjoy winning, they hate losing, which is really, really important.”
It is not enough to just love winning, you have to hate losing. Sometimes it doesn't feel as all of the Angels big league crop hates losing enough to make a difference. You can look into the Angels dugout after games to see who truly hates these losing ways, and I can tell you right now it isn't as many of them as it should be. Coincidentally enough, the few players on this team that speak out against the losing culture that has permeated this club happen to be the young Minasian acquisitions.  The success of the Low A Inland Empire 66ers on the 2023 season speaks for itself, what was before a bottom of the barrel MiLB team has just recently come into form as a perennial playoff contender. That may not mean much to those who would dismiss this as “minor league baseball”, but the fact is winning organizations are built from the bottom up, not the top down. There is nothing more important to developing a winning culture than to instill it in the lower prospect classes as they rise through the organization together, the key word being together.  A core that learns how to win together and carries that all the way to the Majors will breed big league success. With the work Perry has done crafting an incredibly talented prospect core you can be positive the Angels will cultivate a winning culture at the big league level soon, current free agent signings be damned. All it requires is a little more patience, though it appears as if owner Arte Moreno, and a select few Angel fans, are dangerously short on this ever important virtue.
“Not every player is the same. There's certain guys that can handle certain things and there's certain guys that need a little more time. Nelson [Rada] was somebody we just felt like was up for the challenge being one of the younger players in this league. We felt like mentally he was able to handle it and physically, he was gifted enough to play here and compete day in and day out. He's gone beyond our expectations this season and put together a pretty good year”
Perhaps the show at the big league level is as ugly as it gets, but the very core foundations of this organization are evolving into a form that is better than it has ever been. What was once before an organization that whiffed on draft after draft and carried virtually no presence on the international market is now loaded with talent procured through both avenues. International signings such as Nelson Rada and Denzer Guzman look to offer the future Angels a Braves-esque core with the two young prospects (18 and 19 respectively) capable of carrying playoff caliber clubs off the quality of their expansive athletic talent. Reinforcements are coming from every faucet of possibility in which a GM could derive reinforcements from, and to suggest the Angels should move on from Perry would be to suggest cutting off the greatest talent stream the Angels have seen since their World Series days. Trout and Ohtani may be the greatest talents the Angels, and all of baseball by extension, have ever seen, but they on their own cannot equal the quality of an entire talent stream spanning the whole diamond. 
“There's just certain injuries you can't prevent. Whatever it may be, call it luck, whatever, but there are some that maybe you can and those are the ones that we really take a look at to study. The injuries this year have given a lot of opportunity to players that maybe would have not have that opportunity to come out and play,  I think that will show up in the years to come with their development. Maybe I've never seen a team go through what we've gone through from an injury sample, but I've seen teams with injuries and you try to do the best you can to learn from it. Try to establish where we are as far as how do we keep our players on the field.”
Judging Perry entirely based on the failures of veteran athletes such as Tyler Anderson or Hunter Renfroe is a disservice to the work he’s done building this club from the ground up. Of course this is not to dismiss the shortcomings of current free agent signings or veteran trades, but to overlook the damage Arte’s neglectful attitude has done to the success bearing pillars holding up the big league club is a disservice to the work Perry has done in reversing Artes failures as an owner. Winning culture is not built on the free agency market, it is cultivated internally, and I don’t need to remind Angel fans the immense breath of fresh air that Zach Neto and Logan O’Hoppe have brought to the growing culture of this club. They are only the first of many winning attitudes coming to reinforce the Angels, and while we may be a season or two away from fully seeing the rewards of Perry's hard work to boot him now before his plan enters fruition would truly set this franchise back. Many have harped on the point that not trading Ohtani has set this club back a decade, and while there may be a nugget of truth in that statement the biggest blow to this clubs future chance at success would be booting the one man who has successfully implemented the process of singlehandedly reversing the Angels losing culture. A single player can be replaced, no matter how good they are, if you give attention to the talent across the entire diamond, something that Perry Minasian excels at. What has gone wrong this season has been far out of Perry's hands; whether it's by underperforming athletes toiling under a less than stellar coaching staff or ownership forcing trades to deplete the farm system, and what has gone right this season can be solely accredited to his efforts as a General Manager. It has been a long and tiring season, and fans are bound to lash out at whatever source they feel may ail their injuries, but to point a finger at the one man who has single handedly constructed a new path towards success for the Angels is to play in Arte Moreno's inability to accept responsibility for his failures. The last thing we as fans need to do is feed in Moreno's belief that the problem exists outside of himself. 
Here is the full interview transcript of the interview with Perry Minasian. 
PERRY 
A lot of it depends on where the player is, right? How old they are, what level of competition they played against and all those things. I think there's common traits that you look for, abilities is obviously one of them. You need to have a certain level of ability to play here and compete on a daily basis. There's got to be a little bit of actual self-motivation to get the most out of your ability.
So just like the internal makeup and what makes you tick, we talk about that all the time. We want players that wake up thinking about it, go to bed thinking about it, obsess about it, and make it as important to them as it is to us. We have a great group here of talented young players that have come from all different places and are different ages, but when you watch this particular club play the effort levels are outstanding. That's something we've talked about and implemented and created an expectation, that, to play here there has to be that type of effort.
R.FALLA
Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's really interesting because Angel fans have had a tough time with GMs that don't really draft young talent that can break through the majors. But you really have an eye for that with your drafting strategies.
I'm curious, how are you able to tell that a player is closer to the major league level than not? 
PERRY
A lot of it comes down to what's inside, right? There's depending on where you're picking and it's understanding what that player can handle mentally more so than physically. There's a lot of gifted players, especially in this past draft, when you look at the first five players taken, seven players taken, really all the way through the first round, a lot of talented players that have a chance to have significant ceilings and help their clubs. But the thing for us, it goes back to makeup and the mentality, we're looking for baseball players that play a winning brand of baseball that are really intelligent. Everybody makes mistakes, right? So we want the guys that, they make the mistake, they learn from it and move on, they don't let it fester and you don't continue to see the same mistake over and over.
So I think that's a really huge attribute we look for day in and day out, our scouting staff has done an outstanding job; Tim McIlvaine, Matt Swanson, Derek Watson on the pro side, you know. You're only as good as your people to a certain extent. Internationally, Brian Parker and what his staff has done, when you look at a Nelson Rada and Joel Hurtado, who is pitching today, there's some exciting players here that that have bright futures.
R.FALLA
Yeah, exactly. I know you mentioned Nelson Rada and you also got Denzer Guzman, they come in really young and you know, it's one thing to draft a guy like Nolan Shanuel who's 21 and advanced, but how are you able to see the advancedness in a seventeen-year-old?
PERRY
It's certain people, not everybody is the same right? Not every player is the same. There's certain guys that can handle certain things and there's certain guys that need a little more time. Nelson was somebody we just felt was up for the challenge, being one of the younger players in this league, and we felt mentally he was able to handle it and physically he was gifted enough to play here and compete day in and day out. He's gone beyond our expectations this season and put together a pretty good year.
R.FALLA
Just a couple more quick questions. So the Angels this year have been bringing up a lot of players really young and they've been hitting the mark. you got Zach Neto, Shanuel and Ben Joyce. So how are you able to tell when a player is able to make that jump from the minors to the majors?
PERRY
That's probably the most difficult thing to decide, most times than not the player will tell you, whether it's a certain series over the course of the year or a certain event or a certain conversation that they're ready for the challenge, and sometimes it doesn't always work, right?
You bring somebody up, they don't necessarily perform great, you go back down and then the second chance they get they take off. So that's really, really important to identify and you know, for us building a young core is really, really important and that's something we've talked about and harped on since I've walked in the door. I've been a part of some pretty good organizations. I was in Texas; we had Mark [Teixeira], Hank Blaylock, Michael Young, and Ian Kinsler, a really good group of young players. Being in Atlanta; Austin Riley, Ronald Acuna Jr, Ozzie Albies, Max Fried, I can go on and on. We had some really good players in Toronto too. Something we're trying to establish here and we've had some significant breakthroughs this season we're excited about. I think the most exciting thing about our young group of players is, obviously there's a certain level of talent that people get a chance to see but it's the makeup of each guy, they've committed to being as good as they can be. They have high expectations, they enjoy winning, the hate losing, which is really, really important.
R.FALLA
So how as a GM how do you overcome the roster difficulties that you've been having with the Angels? Tons of injuries that are super hard to get through. But what is on your plate when it comes to getting through something like that?
PERRY
Yeah, being in this game as long as I have, one of the advantages of that is having a lot of different experiences. maybe I've never seen a team go through what we've gone through from an injury standpoint, but I've seen teams with injuries and you try to do the best you can to learn from it and try and establish where we are as far as how do we keep our players on the field. There’s just certain injuries you can't prevent. But there are some that maybe you can and those are the ones that we really take a look at to study. But the injuries we've had this year have given a lot of opportunity to players that maybe would not have had that opportunity to come out and play. I think will show up in the years to come with their development.
R.FALLA
That was the Angels GM. I appreciate your time. Thank you.

By Ryan Falla, AngelsWin.com Columnist
There is no more difficult job in baseball than heading the Angels organization as the General Manager. Short on staff necessary to encompass the responsibilities of an entire organization, Perry Minasian tirelessly carries the responsibilities of success on his shoulders as he guides the Angels through a disastrous season, the few bright spots in this Shakespearean tragedy coming through the effectiveness of Minasian’s drafting strategies and ability to spot elevated talent in young ballplayers. We’ve spent an entire season harping on the various failures of ownership, the shortcomings on the behalf of medical and training, and the general failure of player performance, and rightfully so. Many of these failures can be attributed to a neglected, decaying organizational infrastructure that does little promote player excellency, yet despite these internal failures that existed long before Perry Minasian our GM has gone above and beyond to bring in young athletes with the grit and gumption to rise above these mediocrities and create within themselves a bright future for Angel fans. 
“There's common traits you look for, abilities are obviously one of them. There's got to be a little bit of actual self-motivation to get the most out of your ability. Internal makeup and what makes you tick, we talk about all the time. We want players that wake up thinking about it, go to bed, thinking about it, obsess about it. We have a great group here of talented young players that have come from all different places and are different ages. When you watch this particular club play [Inland Empire 66ers] the effort levels are outstanding. That's something we've talked about and implemented. We created an expectation that to play here there has to be that type of effort.”
Key word: self-motivation. From a fan perspective it seems as if the Angels have been populated with athletes lacking motivation, without naming names you can easily recount certain veteran players that bring this effect to mind. On the other hand, however, we've witnessed the excellence of future stars such as Logan O’Hoppe/Zach Neto/Ben Joyce/Nolan Schanuel etc., all by way of Perry Minasian. Going beyond what we've seen at the Majors, seeping all the way down to the Minor League Levels, is a brand new system for success implemented piece by piece through the wunderkind of Minasian’s carefully crafted youth-movement. Perry brings a wealth of experience to the ballclub, himself having come from celebrated systems whose successes were built almost entirely on the quality of youth nurtured in the lowest levels of those organizations. This is not just some throwaway experiment by a GM grasping at straws, this is a level headed, deliberate process enacted by an experienced auteur whose executive habits have been molded by winning organizations.
“Building a young core is really, really important. That's something we've talked about and harped on since I've walked in the door. I've been a part of some pretty good organizations. I was in Texas; we had Teixeira, Blaylock, Young and Kinsler. Being in Atlanta with Austin Riley, Ronald Acuna Jr., Ozzie Albies, Max Fried, I can go on and on. That’s something we're trying to establish here. We've had some significant breakthroughs this season that we're excited about. It's the makeup of each guy, they've committed to being as good as they can be. They have high expectations, they enjoy winning, they hate losing, which is really, really important.”
It is not enough to just love winning, you have to hate losing. Sometimes it doesn't feel as all of the Angels big league crop hates losing enough to make a difference. You can look into the Angels dugout after games to see who truly hates these losing ways, and I can tell you right now it isn't as many of them as it should be. Coincidentally enough, the few players on this team that speak out against the losing culture that has permeated this club happen to be the young Minasian acquisitions.  The success of the Low A Inland Empire 66ers on the 2023 season speaks for itself, what was before a bottom of the barrel MiLB team has just recently come into form as a perennial playoff contender. That may not mean much to those who would dismiss this as “minor league baseball”, but the fact is winning organizations are built from the bottom up, not the top down. There is nothing more important to developing a winning culture than to instill it in the lower prospect classes as they rise through the organization together, the key word being together.  A core that learns how to win together and carries that all the way to the Majors will breed big league success. With the work Perry has done crafting an incredibly talented prospect core you can be positive the Angels will cultivate a winning culture at the big league level soon, current free agent signings be damned. All it requires is a little more patience, though it appears as if owner Arte Moreno, and a select few Angel fans, are dangerously short on this ever important virtue.
“Not every player is the same. There's certain guys that can handle certain things and there's certain guys that need a little more time. Nelson [Rada] was somebody we just felt like was up for the challenge being one of the younger players in this league. We felt like mentally he was able to handle it and physically, he was gifted enough to play here and compete day in and day out. He's gone beyond our expectations this season and put together a pretty good year”
Perhaps the show at the big league level is as ugly as it gets, but the very core foundations of this organization are evolving into a form that is better than it has ever been. What was once before an organization that whiffed on draft after draft and carried virtually no presence on the international market is now loaded with talent procured through both avenues. International signings such as Nelson Rada and Denzer Guzman look to offer the future Angels a Braves-esque core with the two young prospects (18 and 19 respectively) capable of carrying playoff caliber clubs off the quality of their expansive athletic talent. Reinforcements are coming from every faucet of possibility in which a GM could derive reinforcements from, and to suggest the Angels should move on from Perry would be to suggest cutting off the greatest talent stream the Angels have seen since their World Series days. Trout and Ohtani may be the greatest talents the Angels, and all of baseball by extension, have ever seen, but they on their own cannot equal the quality of an entire talent stream spanning the whole diamond. 
“There's just certain injuries you can't prevent. Whatever it may be, call it luck, whatever, but there are some that maybe you can and those are the ones that we really take a look at to study. The injuries this year have given a lot of opportunity to players that maybe would have not have that opportunity to come out and play,  I think that will show up in the years to come with their development. Maybe I've never seen a team go through what we've gone through from an injury sample, but I've seen teams with injuries and you try to do the best you can to learn from it. Try to establish where we are as far as how do we keep our players on the field.”
Judging Perry entirely based on the failures of veteran athletes such as Tyler Anderson or Hunter Renfroe is a disservice to the work he’s done building this club from the ground up. Of course this is not to dismiss the shortcomings of current free agent signings or veteran trades, but to overlook the damage Arte’s neglectful attitude has done to the success bearing pillars holding up the big league club is a disservice to the work Perry has done in reversing Artes failures as an owner. Winning culture is not built on the free agency market, it is cultivated internally, and I don’t need to remind Angel fans the immense breath of fresh air that Zach Neto and Logan O’Hoppe have brought to the growing culture of this club. They are only the first of many winning attitudes coming to reinforce the Angels, and while we may be a season or two away from fully seeing the rewards of Perry's hard work to boot him now before his plan enters fruition would truly set this franchise back. Many have harped on the point that not trading Ohtani has set this club back a decade, and while there may be a nugget of truth in that statement the biggest blow to this clubs future chance at success would be booting the one man who has successfully implemented the process of singlehandedly reversing the Angels losing culture. A single player can be replaced, no matter how good they are, if you give attention to the talent across the entire diamond, something that Perry Minasian excels at. What has gone wrong this season has been far out of Perry's hands; whether it's by underperforming athletes toiling under a less than stellar coaching staff or ownership forcing trades to deplete the farm system, and what has gone right this season can be solely accredited to his efforts as a General Manager. It has been a long and tiring season, and fans are bound to lash out at whatever source they feel may ail their injuries, but to point a finger at the one man who has single handedly constructed a new path towards success for the Angels is to play in Arte Moreno's inability to accept responsibility for his failures. The last thing we as fans need to do is feed in Moreno's belief that the problem exists outside of himself. 
Here is the full interview transcript of the interview with Perry Minasian. 
PERRY 
A lot of it depends on where the player is, right? How old they are, what level of competition they played against and all those things. I think there's common traits that you look for, abilities is obviously one of them. You need to have a certain level of ability to play here and compete on a daily basis. There's got to be a little bit of actual self-motivation to get the most out of your ability.
So just like the internal makeup and what makes you tick, we talk about that all the time. We want players that wake up thinking about it, go to bed thinking about it, obsess about it, and make it as important to them as it is to us. We have a great group here of talented young players that have come from all different places and are different ages, but when you watch this particular club play the effort levels are outstanding. That's something we've talked about and implemented and created an expectation, that, to play here there has to be that type of effort.
R.FALLA
Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's really interesting because Angel fans have had a tough time with GMs that don't really draft young talent that can break through the majors. But you really have an eye for that with your drafting strategies.
I'm curious, how are you able to tell that a player is closer to the major league level than not? 
PERRY
A lot of it comes down to what's inside, right? There's depending on where you're picking and it's understanding what that player can handle mentally more so than physically. There's a lot of gifted players, especially in this past draft, when you look at the first five players taken, seven players taken, really all the way through the first round, a lot of talented players that have a chance to have significant ceilings and help their clubs. But the thing for us, it goes back to makeup and the mentality, we're looking for baseball players that play a winning brand of baseball that are really intelligent. Everybody makes mistakes, right? So we want the guys that, they make the mistake, they learn from it and move on, they don't let it fester and you don't continue to see the same mistake over and over.
So I think that's a really huge attribute we look for day in and day out, our scouting staff has done an outstanding job; Tim McIlvaine, Matt Swanson, Derek Watson on the pro side, you know. You're only as good as your people to a certain extent. Internationally, Brian Parker and what his staff has done, when you look at a Nelson Rada and Joel Hurtado, who is pitching today, there's some exciting players here that that have bright futures.
R.FALLA
Yeah, exactly. I know you mentioned Nelson Rada and you also got Denzer Guzman, they come in really young and you know, it's one thing to draft a guy like Nolan Shanuel who's 21 and advanced, but how are you able to see the advancedness in a seventeen-year-old?
PERRY
It's certain people, not everybody is the same right? Not every player is the same. There's certain guys that can handle certain things and there's certain guys that need a little more time. Nelson was somebody we just felt was up for the challenge, being one of the younger players in this league, and we felt mentally he was able to handle it and physically he was gifted enough to play here and compete day in and day out. He's gone beyond our expectations this season and put together a pretty good year.
R.FALLA
Just a couple more quick questions. So the Angels this year have been bringing up a lot of players really young and they've been hitting the mark. you got Zach Neto, Shanuel and Ben Joyce. So how are you able to tell when a player is able to make that jump from the minors to the majors?
PERRY
That's probably the most difficult thing to decide, most times than not the player will tell you, whether it's a certain series over the course of the year or a certain event or a certain conversation that they're ready for the challenge, and sometimes it doesn't always work, right?
You bring somebody up, they don't necessarily perform great, you go back down and then the second chance they get they take off. So that's really, really important to identify and you know, for us building a young core is really, really important and that's something we've talked about and harped on since I've walked in the door. I've been a part of some pretty good organizations. I was in Texas; we had Mark [Teixeira], Hank Blaylock, Michael Young, and Ian Kinsler, a really good group of young players. Being in Atlanta; Austin Riley, Ronald Acuna Jr, Ozzie Albies, Max Fried, I can go on and on. We had some really good players in Toronto too. Something we're trying to establish here and we've had some significant breakthroughs this season we're excited about. I think the most exciting thing about our young group of players is, obviously there's a certain level of talent that people get a chance to see but it's the makeup of each guy, they've committed to being as good as they can be. They have high expectations, they enjoy winning, the hate losing, which is really, really important.
R.FALLA
So how as a GM how do you overcome the roster difficulties that you've been having with the Angels? Tons of injuries that are super hard to get through. But what is on your plate when it comes to getting through something like that?
PERRY
Yeah, being in this game as long as I have, one of the advantages of that is having a lot of different experiences. maybe I've never seen a team go through what we've gone through from an injury standpoint, but I've seen teams with injuries and you try to do the best you can to learn from it and try and establish where we are as far as how do we keep our players on the field. There’s just certain injuries you can't prevent. But there are some that maybe you can and those are the ones that we really take a look at to study. But the injuries we've had this year have given a lot of opportunity to players that maybe would not have had that opportunity to come out and play. I think will show up in the years to come with their development.
R.FALLA
That was the Angels GM. I appreciate your time. Thank you.

By Ryan Falla, AngelsWin.com Columnist
There is no more difficult job in baseball than heading the Angels organization as the General Manager. Short on staff necessary to encompass the responsibilities of an entire organization, Perry Minasian tirelessly carries the responsibilities of success on his shoulders as he guides the Angels through a disastrous season, the few bright spots in this Shakespearean tragedy coming through the effectiveness of Minasian’s drafting strategies and ability to spot elevated talent in young ballplayers. We’ve spent an entire season harping on the various failures of ownership, the shortcomings on the behalf of medical and training, and the general failure of player performance, and rightfully so. Many of these failures can be attributed to a neglected, decaying organizational infrastructure that does little promote player excellency, yet despite these internal failures that existed long before Perry Minasian our GM has gone above and beyond to bring in young athletes with the grit and gumption to rise above these mediocrities and create within themselves a bright future for Angel fans. 
“There's common traits you look for, abilities are obviously one of them. There's got to be a little bit of actual self-motivation to get the most out of your ability. Internal makeup and what makes you tick, we talk about all the time. We want players that wake up thinking about it, go to bed, thinking about it, obsess about it. We have a great group here of talented young players that have come from all different places and are different ages. When you watch this particular club play [Inland Empire 66ers] the effort levels are outstanding. That's something we've talked about and implemented. We created an expectation that to play here there has to be that type of effort.”
Key word: self-motivation. From a fan perspective it seems as if the Angels have been populated with athletes lacking motivation, without naming names you can easily recount certain veteran players that bring this effect to mind. On the other hand, however, we've witnessed the excellence of future stars such as Logan O’Hoppe/Zach Neto/Ben Joyce/Nolan Schanuel etc., all by way of Perry Minasian. Going beyond what we've seen at the Majors, seeping all the way down to the Minor League Levels, is a brand new system for success implemented piece by piece through the wunderkind of Minasian’s carefully crafted youth-movement. Perry brings a wealth of experience to the ballclub, himself having come from celebrated systems whose successes were built almost entirely on the quality of youth nurtured in the lowest levels of those organizations. This is not just some throwaway experiment by a GM grasping at straws, this is a level headed, deliberate process enacted by an experienced auteur whose executive habits have been molded by winning organizations.
“Building a young core is really, really important. That's something we've talked about and harped on since I've walked in the door. I've been a part of some pretty good organizations. I was in Texas; we had Teixeira, Blaylock, Young and Kinsler. Being in Atlanta with Austin Riley, Ronald Acuna Jr., Ozzie Albies, Max Fried, I can go on and on. That’s something we're trying to establish here. We've had some significant breakthroughs this season that we're excited about. It's the makeup of each guy, they've committed to being as good as they can be. They have high expectations, they enjoy winning, they hate losing, which is really, really important.”
It is not enough to just love winning, you have to hate losing. Sometimes it doesn't feel as all of the Angels big league crop hates losing enough to make a difference. You can look into the Angels dugout after games to see who truly hates these losing ways, and I can tell you right now it isn't as many of them as it should be. Coincidentally enough, the few players on this team that speak out against the losing culture that has permeated this club happen to be the young Minasian acquisitions.  The success of the Low A Inland Empire 66ers on the 2023 season speaks for itself, what was before a bottom of the barrel MiLB team has just recently come into form as a perennial playoff contender. That may not mean much to those who would dismiss this as “minor league baseball”, but the fact is winning organizations are built from the bottom up, not the top down. There is nothing more important to developing a winning culture than to instill it in the lower prospect classes as they rise through the organization together, the key word being together.  A core that learns how to win together and carries that all the way to the Majors will breed big league success. With the work Perry has done crafting an incredibly talented prospect core you can be positive the Angels will cultivate a winning culture at the big league level soon, current free agent signings be damned. All it requires is a little more patience, though it appears as if owner Arte Moreno, and a select few Angel fans, are dangerously short on this ever important virtue.
“Not every player is the same. There's certain guys that can handle certain things and there's certain guys that need a little more time. Nelson [Rada] was somebody we just felt like was up for the challenge being one of the younger players in this league. We felt like mentally he was able to handle it and physically, he was gifted enough to play here and compete day in and day out. He's gone beyond our expectations this season and put together a pretty good year”
Perhaps the show at the big league level is as ugly as it gets, but the very core foundations of this organization are evolving into a form that is better than it has ever been. What was once before an organization that whiffed on draft after draft and carried virtually no presence on the international market is now loaded with talent procured through both avenues. International signings such as Nelson Rada and Denzer Guzman look to offer the future Angels a Braves-esque core with the two young prospects (18 and 19 respectively) capable of carrying playoff caliber clubs off the quality of their expansive athletic talent. Reinforcements are coming from every faucet of possibility in which a GM could derive reinforcements from, and to suggest the Angels should move on from Perry would be to suggest cutting off the greatest talent stream the Angels have seen since their World Series days. Trout and Ohtani may be the greatest talents the Angels, and all of baseball by extension, have ever seen, but they on their own cannot equal the quality of an entire talent stream spanning the whole diamond. 
“There's just certain injuries you can't prevent. Whatever it may be, call it luck, whatever, but there are some that maybe you can and those are the ones that we really take a look at to study. The injuries this year have given a lot of opportunity to players that maybe would have not have that opportunity to come out and play,  I think that will show up in the years to come with their development. Maybe I've never seen a team go through what we've gone through from an injury sample, but I've seen teams with injuries and you try to do the best you can to learn from it. Try to establish where we are as far as how do we keep our players on the field.”
Judging Perry entirely based on the failures of veteran athletes such as Tyler Anderson or Hunter Renfroe is a disservice to the work he’s done building this club from the ground up. Of course this is not to dismiss the shortcomings of current free agent signings or veteran trades, but to overlook the damage Arte’s neglectful attitude has done to the success bearing pillars holding up the big league club is a disservice to the work Perry has done in reversing Artes failures as an owner. Winning culture is not built on the free agency market, it is cultivated internally, and I don’t need to remind Angel fans the immense breath of fresh air that Zach Neto and Logan O’Hoppe have brought to the growing culture of this club. They are only the first of many winning attitudes coming to reinforce the Angels, and while we may be a season or two away from fully seeing the rewards of Perry's hard work to boot him now before his plan enters fruition would truly set this franchise back. Many have harped on the point that not trading Ohtani has set this club back a decade, and while there may be a nugget of truth in that statement the biggest blow to this clubs future chance at success would be booting the one man who has successfully implemented the process of singlehandedly reversing the Angels losing culture. A single player can be replaced, no matter how good they are, if you give attention to the talent across the entire diamond, something that Perry Minasian excels at. What has gone wrong this season has been far out of Perry's hands; whether it's by underperforming athletes toiling under a less than stellar coaching staff or ownership forcing trades to deplete the farm system, and what has gone right this season can be solely accredited to his efforts as a General Manager. It has been a long and tiring season, and fans are bound to lash out at whatever source they feel may ail their injuries, but to point a finger at the one man who has single handedly constructed a new path towards success for the Angels is to play in Arte Moreno's inability to accept responsibility for his failures. The last thing we as fans need to do is feed in Moreno's belief that the problem exists outside of himself. 
Here is the full interview transcript of the interview with Perry Minasian. 
PERRY 
A lot of it depends on where the player is, right? How old they are, what level of competition they played against and all those things. I think there's common traits that you look for, abilities is obviously one of them. You need to have a certain level of ability to play here and compete on a daily basis. There's got to be a little bit of actual self-motivation to get the most out of your ability.
So just like the internal makeup and what makes you tick, we talk about that all the time. We want players that wake up thinking about it, go to bed thinking about it, obsess about it, and make it as important to them as it is to us. We have a great group here of talented young players that have come from all different places and are different ages, but when you watch this particular club play the effort levels are outstanding. That's something we've talked about and implemented and created an expectation, that, to play here there has to be that type of effort.
R.FALLA
Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's really interesting because Angel fans have had a tough time with GMs that don't really draft young talent that can break through the majors. But you really have an eye for that with your drafting strategies.
I'm curious, how are you able to tell that a player is closer to the major league level than not? 
PERRY
A lot of it comes down to what's inside, right? There's depending on where you're picking and it's understanding what that player can handle mentally more so than physically. There's a lot of gifted players, especially in this past draft, when you look at the first five players taken, seven players taken, really all the way through the first round, a lot of talented players that have a chance to have significant ceilings and help their clubs. But the thing for us, it goes back to makeup and the mentality, we're looking for baseball players that play a winning brand of baseball that are really intelligent. Everybody makes mistakes, right? So we want the guys that, they make the mistake, they learn from it and move on, they don't let it fester and you don't continue to see the same mistake over and over.
So I think that's a really huge attribute we look for day in and day out, our scouting staff has done an outstanding job; Tim McIlvaine, Matt Swanson, Derek Watson on the pro side, you know. You're only as good as your people to a certain extent. Internationally, Brian Parker and what his staff has done, when you look at a Nelson Rada and Joel Hurtado, who is pitching today, there's some exciting players here that that have bright futures.
R.FALLA
Yeah, exactly. I know you mentioned Nelson Rada and you also got Denzer Guzman, they come in really young and you know, it's one thing to draft a guy like Nolan Shanuel who's 21 and advanced, but how are you able to see the advancedness in a seventeen-year-old?
PERRY
It's certain people, not everybody is the same right? Not every player is the same. There's certain guys that can handle certain things and there's certain guys that need a little more time. Nelson was somebody we just felt was up for the challenge, being one of the younger players in this league, and we felt mentally he was able to handle it and physically he was gifted enough to play here and compete day in and day out. He's gone beyond our expectations this season and put together a pretty good year.
R.FALLA
Just a couple more quick questions. So the Angels this year have been bringing up a lot of players really young and they've been hitting the mark. you got Zach Neto, Shanuel and Ben Joyce. So how are you able to tell when a player is able to make that jump from the minors to the majors?
PERRY
That's probably the most difficult thing to decide, most times than not the player will tell you, whether it's a certain series over the course of the year or a certain event or a certain conversation that they're ready for the challenge, and sometimes it doesn't always work, right?
You bring somebody up, they don't necessarily perform great, you go back down and then the second chance they get they take off. So that's really, really important to identify and you know, for us building a young core is really, really important and that's something we've talked about and harped on since I've walked in the door. I've been a part of some pretty good organizations. I was in Texas; we had Mark [Teixeira], Hank Blaylock, Michael Young, and Ian Kinsler, a really good group of young players. Being in Atlanta; Austin Riley, Ronald Acuna Jr, Ozzie Albies, Max Fried, I can go on and on. We had some really good players in Toronto too. Something we're trying to establish here and we've had some significant breakthroughs this season we're excited about. I think the most exciting thing about our young group of players is, obviously there's a certain level of talent that people get a chance to see but it's the makeup of each guy, they've committed to being as good as they can be. They have high expectations, they enjoy winning, the hate losing, which is really, really important.
R.FALLA
So how as a GM how do you overcome the roster difficulties that you've been having with the Angels? Tons of injuries that are super hard to get through. But what is on your plate when it comes to getting through something like that?
PERRY
Yeah, being in this game as long as I have, one of the advantages of that is having a lot of different experiences. maybe I've never seen a team go through what we've gone through from an injury standpoint, but I've seen teams with injuries and you try to do the best you can to learn from it and try and establish where we are as far as how do we keep our players on the field. There’s just certain injuries you can't prevent. But there are some that maybe you can and those are the ones that we really take a look at to study. But the injuries we've had this year have given a lot of opportunity to players that maybe would not have had that opportunity to come out and play. I think will show up in the years to come with their development.
R.FALLA
That was the Angels GM. I appreciate your time. Thank you.

Taylor Blake Ward caught up with two young starting pitchers for the Inland Empire 66ers on the eve of game one of the Low-A California League Playoffs. 
Angels pitching prospect and most recent 2023 eighth-round pick, Barrett Kent, sits down to chat about the draft process and his up-and-down spring that turned into a successful professional debut and then Angels pitching prospect Walbert Urena shares what he believes turned his 2023 season around while utilizing his sinker more effectively and reining in his mechanics, while also sharing a note about touching 102 miles-per-hour.
Check out our interviews below. Enjoy! 
 
View the full article

SEATTLE — If Logan O’Hoppe and Reid Detmers can perform next year the way they are finishing this one, the Angels will have a better shot at playing meaningful games next September.
O’Hoppe blasted two home runs and Detmers pitched seven innings in the Angels’ 8-5, 11-inning victory over the Seattle Mariners on Monday night.
Detmers has a 3.00 ERA in his last 30 innings, and O’Hoppe has hit four homers in his last four games.
After the teams exchanged two-run homers in the 10th – Brandon Drury for the Angels and Julio Rodriguez for the Mariners – the Angels broke the game open in the 11th.
Randal Grichuk drove in the first run with a single. Another scored on an error by third baseman Eugenio Suarez, and then Nolan Schanuel drove in the third run with a single. Jimmy Herget worked the bottom of the inning to finish the Angels’ fourth victory in five games since they ended their six-game losing streak last week.
For O’Hoppe, it was the first multi-homer game of his career. He hit a three-run homer in the second and a solo shot in the fourth, tying the score after the Angels gave up three runs in the first. He also doubled in the ninth inning.
O’Hoppe had been in a .143 slump over a 10-game stretch through last Thursday, when he said he was “disgusted” with his performance at the plate. O’Hoppe was still working his way back after missing four months rehabbing from shoulder surgery, and he said he was still trying to get back the feeling he had before he was hurt in April.
In the four games since, O’Hoppe is 7 for 15 with four homers.
His homers on Monday erased the quick deficit from Detmers’ shaky first inning. Detmers allowed three first-inning runs, and then nothing else, with seven strikeouts and no walks.
It was a solid outing, but more impressive than the final result was the way he adapted to get there.
Detmers gave up three first-inning hits – including a two-run homer – on his slider, so he essentially scrapped the pitch for the rest of the night, in favor of his changeup, just as he had done last week.
Detmers ended up throwing a career-high 27 changeups, accounting for 25% of his 108 pitches. Prior to last week’s start, Detmers was throwing his changeup less than 3% of the time this season.
Detmers threw 19% changeups while allowing one earned run in 6⅓ innings last week.
The slider, which had been his best out pitch for much of the time over the previous two seasons, was clearly not working when he gave up singles to the first two hitters of the game on the pitch, then a two-run homer to Cal Raleigh.
Suddenly, Detmers was down 3-0 after just 10 pitches.
After that, though, Detmers retired 11 in a row. He got into a potential jam when Rodriguez led off with a double in the sixth, but he escaped that with two strikeouts and some questionable Mariners baserunning. Rodriguez tried to go to third on a ground ball to shortstop Zach Neto, who threw him out.
More to come on this story.
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SEATTLE — If Logan O’Hoppe and Reid Detmers can perform next year the way they are finishing this one, the Angels will have a better shot at playing meaningful games next September.
O’Hoppe blasted two home runs and Detmers pitched seven innings in the Angels’ 8-5, 11-inning victory over the Seattle Mariners on Monday night.
Detmers has a 3.00 ERA in his last 30 innings, and O’Hoppe has hit four homers in his last four games.
After the teams exchanged two-run homers in the 10th – Brandon Drury for the Angels and Julio Rodriguez for the Mariners – the Angels broke the game open in the 11th.
Randal Grichuk drove in the first run with a single. Another scored on an error by third baseman Eugenio Suarez, and then Nolan Schanuel drove in the third run with a single. Jimmy Herget worked the bottom of the inning to finish the Angels’ fourth victory in five games since they ended their six-game losing streak last week.
For O’Hoppe, it was the first multi-homer game of his career. He hit a three-run homer in the second and a solo shot in the fourth, tying the score after the Angels gave up three runs in the first. He also doubled in the ninth inning.
O’Hoppe had been in a .143 slump over a 10-game stretch through last Thursday, when he said he was “disgusted” with his performance at the plate. O’Hoppe was still working his way back after missing four months rehabbing from shoulder surgery, and he said he was still trying to get back the feeling he had before he was hurt in April.
In the four games since, O’Hoppe is 7 for 15 with four homers.
His homers on Monday erased the quick deficit from Detmers’ shaky first inning. Detmers allowed three first-inning runs, and then nothing else, with seven strikeouts and no walks.
It was a solid outing, but more impressive than the final result was the way he adapted to get there.
Detmers gave up three first-inning hits – including a two-run homer – on his slider, so he essentially scrapped the pitch for the rest of the night, in favor of his changeup, just as he had done last week.
Detmers ended up throwing a career-high 27 changeups, accounting for 25% of his 108 pitches. Prior to last week’s start, Detmers was throwing his changeup less than 3% of the time this season.
Detmers threw 19% changeups while allowing one earned run in 6⅓ innings last week.
The slider, which had been his best out pitch for much of the time over the previous two seasons, was clearly not working when he gave up singles to the first two hitters of the game on the pitch, then a two-run homer to Cal Raleigh.
Suddenly, Detmers was down 3-0 after just 10 pitches.
After that, though, Detmers retired 11 in a row. He got into a potential jam when Rodriguez led off with a double in the sixth, but he escaped that with two strikeouts and some questionable Mariners baserunning. Rodriguez tried to go to third on a ground ball to shortstop Zach Neto, who threw him out.
More to come on this story.
Related Articles
Los Angeles Angels | Angels’ Shohei Ohtani misses 8th straight game with sore oblique Los Angeles Angels | Angels beat Guardians, welcome reinforcements Los Angeles Angels | Angels’ Shohei Ohtani has ‘realistic chance’ to play in Seattle Los Angeles Angels | O’Hoppe finds his stroke, helps spark Angels to win over Guardians Los Angeles Angels | Shohei Ohtani sits out again as Angels lose Luis Rengifo (biceps) for season View the full article

SEATTLE — At least Shohei Ohtani was in the lineup for about an hour this time.
After missing a week with oblique tightness, Ohtani was back in the Angels’ lineup when it was first released, but then he was scratched after he went through his pregame routine. Manager Phil Nevin said Ohtani hit in the cage and didn’t feel ready.
“I don’t necessarily think it’s a setback, he just still has some soreness in there when he lets it go,” Nevin said. “He didn’t think he would have that today, but when he got in there, he did.
“Where that puts us as far as tomorrow? I don’t know. Is he gonna come here and try it again? I don’t know. Those are conversations that he and I are going to have. Yesterday he was very confident that he would feel fine enough to play today and then it just didn’t happen.”
Monday was the eighth consecutive game that Ohtani has been out, and there are only 17 games remaining.
His continued absence raises the question of whether Ohtani will go on the injured list, possibly ending his season.
“Not at this point,” Nevin said.
Nevin said if the Angels get through this series without Ohtani playing, “something like that (the IL) may come up in a conversation. It’s getting to that point, but he feels confident that it’s any day now. He wants to play. That’s the key.”
Ohtani, who is done pitching for the season, is facing a procedure at some point to repair his torn ulnar collateral ligament.
SUAREZ RETURNS
Left-hander Jose Suarez was activated after being on the injured list since May 8 with a shoulder strain. Suarez had a setback over the summer and as of August, he was still not even facing hitters. Suarez said he pitched four games in Arizona, which was enough for the Angels to be confident in bringing him back as a reliever.
“We were very happy with what his numbers had gotten to, with his velocities and shapes and things like that, obviously the things that everybody looks at,” Nevin said.
Suarez had a 9.62 ERA in six starts before he went on the injured list. Nevin said they believe part of the problem was the injury and also he had some mechanical issues.
Suarez is 25 and he’s just a year removed from posting a 3.86 ERA over 207⅓ innings in 2021-22. He’s going to be arbitration-eligible this winter.
The Angels optioned right-hander Gerardo Reyes to create a spot for Suarez.
NOTES
Right-hander Chase Silseth (concussion) will not be ready to pitch by Wednesday, which is the next time the Angels need a starter. “There’s just little minor things that are still affecting him a little bit,” Nevin said. “He’s building up his workouts. He’s building up his bullpens. Nothing that anybody feels is an alarming thing. To go out and make a start and go five, six innings or whatever you anticipate going, he’s got to get through his workouts, got to get through everything without any sort of discomfort and any uneasiness. We’re certainly going to wait until that happens.” …
Outfielder Mickey Moniak (back) is going to need at least the rest of this series off before he might be ready to play, Nevin said. …
First baseman C.J. Cron (back) began doing baseball activity on the field, including taking batting practice, on Monday. Cron said he would like to make it back this season. “Just for my mental health, going into the offseason having played a few games and knowing I’m good, I think is going to go a long way,” Cron said. …
Right-hander Chris Rodriguez (shoulder) has been moved to Triple-A Salt Lake in his rehab assignment. Rodriguez pitched an inning at Class-A Inland Empire on Sunday, his first game in more than two years. “It’s really neat to see him back,” Nevin said. “He’s been through a lot, fought through a lot. The shoulder is tough to come back from. It’s a long rehab process.” …
Outfielder Jo Adell (oblique) has reported to Salt Lake, but he’s not yet ready to play in games. For now, he’s simply doing the rehab there that he had been doing in Arizona. “Where that puts him on a timetable for this year, I’m not sure if he’s going to be able to get in a game yet,” Nevin said. “We’ll see how the next few days in Salt Lake go for him.” …
Shortstop Zach Neto returned to the Angels’ lineup on Monday, and he’s expected to start just about every game the rest of the season. That means Kyren Paris will get some work at other positions, including second base and the outfield, Nevin said.
UP NEXT
Angels (LHP Patrick Sandoval, 7-12, 4.31) vs. Mariners (RHP Bryan Woo, 2-4, 4.50), Tuesday, 6:40 p.m., T-Mobile Park, Bally Sports West, 830 AM
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ANAHEIM — The promise of Shohei Ohtani being back in the lineup had gone on for nearly a week. The Angels were waiting on the two-way star to be able to swing the bat without pain, a streak that extended for seven games as he nursed a sore right oblique.
He was not in uniform again Sunday for the series finale against the Cleveland Guardians, but that could end Monday when the Angels travel to Seattle for a three-game series against the Mariners. Manager Phil Nevin said there is a “realistic chance” of seeing Ohtani playing.
“He feels better today again,” Nevin said. “I know he’s going to take some swings later. I would say today probably.”
Pressed to define “realistic”, Nevin said, “There’s a good chance that he feels he’s good tomorrow and will play.
“Today’s the day where he feels pretty good. He hasn’t swung yet, but like I said, he felt a lot better doing that.”
Ohtani had been a constant in the lineup all season even after tearing the ulnar collateral ligament in his right arm. He missed just two games earlier in the season.
JOYCE, NETO RETURN
Right-hander Ben Joyce was back in the locker room, quietly preparing for Sunday’s game when Angels teammate Logan O’Hoppe gave him a noisy welcome.
“Benny’s back!” O’Hoppe shouted.
Joyce, along with Zack Neto, returned from rehab assignments before Sunday’s series finale against the Cleveland Guardians. And not only was he back in uniform, but Joyce was also back on the mound in Sunday’s 2-1 victory against Cleveland.
The Angels had placed Joyce on the 60-day injured list back in July with ulnar neuritis in his throwing arm and he was all too happy to rejoin his teammates.
“It’s tough anytime you are not able to play and have to be on the sidelines,” Joyce said. “It’s been a longer process than I would have liked, but it’s good to be back now and get through all the hurdles in the recovery process and be back with the team.
“Being back here is all I really wanted.”
Nevin said that he would take it slow with Joyce’s return, limiting his outings until he’s comfortable and doesn’t experience any lingering discomfort.
“We want to make sure he’s feeling right. We’re excited to see him back on the map here,” Nevin said.
Joyce was eager to get back to throwing in a big-league game situation after spending time with the Single-A Inland Empire club, where he struck out one batter and gave up a hit this week in his first appearance in nearly three months. He also tossed a perfect inning.
“I feel good. I wouldn’t have said I was ready if I didn’t feel I could give it all I have,” Joyce said. “I feel 100 percent now. I think I will be able to continue the rest of the year and work in the offseason.”
In corresponding moves, outfielder Trey Cabbage and left-hander Kolton Ingram were optioned to Triple-A Salt Lake following Saturday’s game.
PHILLPS GETS HIS SHOT
Center fielder Brett Phillips had been waiting for this moment all season, to parade through the dugout with the kabuto on his head. The samurai warrior helmet is worn by players who hit home runs.
He finally got his chance when he blasted his first home run of the season in Saturday’s 6-2 victory, a solo shot over the right field wall for his first homer since July 17, 2022.
What was the experience like?
“It was heavy. Real heavy, (but) it felt good,” Phillips said of the kabuto.
Phillips said what felt even better was contributing to the victory.
“It was encouraging with the way this year has gone,” said Phillips, who spent 66 games for Triple-A  Salt Lake City. “Now, I’m just taking advantage of an opportunity down the stretch here. Any chance you get to help contribute to a big league win it’s always good.”
 UP NEXT
Angels (LHP Reid Detmers (3-10, 4.82 ERA) at Seattle RHP Logan Gilbert (13-5, 3.61 ERA), Monday, 6:40 p.m. Bally Sports West, 830 AM
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OAKLAND — Griffin Canning has strung together two strong outings, and the Angels haven’t won either one of them.
Canning gave up two runs in six innings, but the Angels lost 2-1 to the Oakland A’s on Saturday afternoon, dropping the first two in a series against the team with the most losses in the majors.
Last Sunday, Canning gave up two runs in seven innings of a loss to the New York Mets. The bullpen gave up a one-run, eighth-inning lead in that one. This time, the Angels hitters couldn’t even get the bullpen a lead.
The Angels loaded the bases with one out in the first inning and managed just one run, when Luis Rengifo hit a popup to shallow left and shortstop Nick Allen stumbled after making the catch.
In the seventh, the Angels had a chance at a rally, but pinch-runner Andrew Velazquez was caught stealing third with no outs. Shohei Ohtani then hit a popout with two on, and Brandon Drury hit a flyout to end the inning.
The only two runs that Canning allowed came on a 1-and-2 hanging changeup to Brent Rooker, who drilled a two-run homer in the fourth inning.
Canning struck out seven and didn’t walk any, allowing just four hits. He struck out the final three batters he faced, going through the middle of the Oakland order in the sixth inning.
Canning has a 4.30 ERA through a career-high 104-2/3 innings, with 18 starts and two relief appearances.
After missing a season and a half with a back injury, Canning has clearly re-established himself as a potential piece of the future rotation.
More to come on this story.
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