For the first time in site history, our annual preview of the Seattle Mariners’ opponents in the American League West can be done from a mountaintop perch. Looking down upon the rest of the division, the reigning AL West champions will hang their first division title banner in the rafters since 2001, and are well-positioned for a repeat campaign. But none of the division will be keen to see Seattle repeat, so knowledge of the enemy will be vital.
In this series, we’ll break down each AL West foe into
four articles: Position Players, Pitching Staff, Farm/Future, and a compact version of our annual If It All Goes Right/Wrong articles with the lens of each opponent. Working up from the bottom of the division, we begin this week with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, who finished in last place in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 1973-74. They began the season with minimal expectations externally, but veteran manager Ron Washington hoped to light a fire under his motley crew. Instead, Washington’s health limited him to just 74 games (36-38), before things came off the rails in the back half of the year under Ray Montgomery.
Angels owner Arte Moreno went to the well for a personal acquaintance, signing longtime big league backstop Kurt Suzuki, who concluded his big league career with two seasons in Anaheim in 2021-22 and had been serving as a special assistant to general manager Perry Minasian (no relation to staff writer Isabelle) since then. No stranger to comments and actions reminding fans that MLB owners are dangerously detached from reality on a daily basis, Moreno kicked off spring training with a five course meal of his own foot this week by noting “winning is not in their top five” regarding the priorities he sees from fans coming to the ballpark. The comments did not go over well with current or former players in the Angels organization, nor with the MLB Players Union who are preparing to be locked out by Moreno and his peers following the 2026 season. Under that pallor, let’s consider the 2025 club before assessing what lies ahead.
The 2025 Angels had one of the worst position player assemblages in MLB, with a .225/.298/.397 line as a club and 92 wRC+, minimal speed on the bases, and a 6.9 fWAR (27th in MLB) that was not remotely nice. It was ghastly by process as well, with the highest strikeout rate in a full season by a team in MLB history at 27.1%. On the other side of things, Anaheim boasted the worst defense in the league by most advanced metrics, including an atrocious -54 Outs Above Average and -52 Fielding Run Value. They even racked up 97 errors, 5th-most in MLB, to make sure no one could claim a misunderstood deftness.
If you want the 2025 Angels encapsulated, this clip may be the best consolidation. Trailing the eventual 3rd NL Wild Card Cincinnati Reds 3-1 in the 8th at home, journeyman Carson Fulmer gives up a line drive to light-hitting Cincy 3B Ke’Bryan Hayes. Luis Rengifo, playing out of position in center field due to the club’s effort to protect Mike Trout by reducing his defensive workload and having him stick to RF and DH, botches the read abysmally. In a lost season, still having found fresh fodder for embarrassment, Rengifo jogs despairingly after the ball, allowing Hayes a triple.
So what have they done to address the situation?
Notable Transactions
Out: OF Taylor Ward, INF Luis Rengifo, INF Kevin Newman, 1B/OF LaMonte Wade Jr.
In: OF Josh Lowe, INF Vaughn Grissom, INF Adam Frazier, INF Nick Madrigal, INF Jeimer Candelario, 1B/OF Trey Mancini
Italics = Minor League Deals with Spring Training Invite
While Newman and Wade were actually gone before the 2025 season concluded, Ward and Rengifo are the major departures from the club. The second-best OF from Fresno State drafted in the mid-to-early 2010s, Ward stood out as one of the only Angels draftees from that era to be afforded the chance to mature and debut with the club and become a consistent performer. Shipped off on a gamble for Baltimore Orioles snake-bitten RHP Grayson Rodriguez, Anaheim has filled his spot with Lowe. The erstwhile Ray has a potent power-speed combo, but has been unable to string together enough contact to make good on his tools.
Rengifo’s departure is a sigh of relief for Seattle, who excelled in terrorizing his former club, but his 2025 was a huge slip after several productive utility years as well. He’ll see his role replaced in part by Grissom, best known as the astoundingly ineffective return the Boston Red Sox received for ace LHP Chris Sale. He’s struggled to hit in the bigs in limited time, but is only 25.
The Lineup
Much of what Anaheim has done is de facto “one in, one out” maneuvers this winter, leaving question as to how much more can really be expected. They brought back Moncada in free agency, along with Chris Taylor on a minors deal. Trout will be moving back to center field following the club’s limit being hit with the defensive misadventures of Adell and various fillers. Jorge Soler continuing to see his name on the lineup card with anything other than DH next to it is a policy failure, and yet mitigating Trout’s health is a necessity for this roster to have any real punch. Between them and O’Hoppe’s difficulties behind the dish, it’s likely this club will continue to whiff at the plate and in the field at an alarming rate.
The defining trait of Anaheim’s approach in recent years has been hyper-aggression with their top prospects, a philosophy that leads a broader trend following MLB’s shrinking of the minor leagues. The swift debuts of Neto, Schanuel, and Moore have yielded mixed results, but it’s inaccurate to say it’s been a failure. Neto is a bona fide star, one of three young shortstops in the AL West frustratingly potent on otherwise aging and/or undercooked rosters. If there is a player who could be a centerpiece for the next contending Halos squad, he stands at shortstop presently.
Schanuel, by contrast, has simply become what was mostly assessed at draft time. He’s deft with the bat, avoiding punchouts and making strong swing decisions. But without top tier foot speed or base stealing acumen, Schanuel is stuck at the cold corner hitting like a second baseman. In that spot is Moore, whose blistering hot pro debut in Double-A Rocket City in 2024 is a textbook case of the harm staring at a big set of numbers in a small sample size can do to a player’s expectations. Moore came out more pedestrian in 2025, and looked at times both capable and overmatched in his big league debut. Much like Cole Young for the M’s, there’s ample cause for expectations of more in Moore as soon as 2026, but without a starburst this looks like a lineup made to let the youngsters season and the oldsters try and swat some bombs.
With payroll down significantly, LAA is LAAooking at another tough year in Orange County. More veterans across the roster should offer some stability compared to other last place clubs. The young talent on their roster in large part got extended opportunities a season ago, however, and the dismal showings from Kyren Paris, Matthew Lugo, and others contributed to their moribund ways. From here to heaven is a mighty long way.
