Angels 2025 Characteristics: 3 Tools They Possess & 3 Suggestions to Improve
January 14, 2025 - Written by Zac Holladay
When healthy, Grayson has the stuff to lead this rotation, not sit in the SP 3-4 slot like he will in 2026
— Baseball Unstitched Podcast (@BaseUnstitched) January 7, 2026
Rodriguez is still one of the higher upside pitchers in baseball when he is actually healthy. He has still not tossed over 125 IP in a full season, but if he can it means… pic.twitter.com/ZUnQsEC8ez
It is officially a brand new season for the Angels which opens another door to infinite possibilities. This season is another chance to reign successfully amongst the division and the league. While this team isn’t a playoff team on paper, there are still possibilities, at the moment, for the team to improve and increase their skill and talent in certain areas. The trade market and free agency are both very much open as there are plenty of talented guys up for grabs. As of January 14th, notable names like Kyle Tucker, Bo Bichette, Zac Gallen, Framber Valdez, and Cody Bellinger remain unsigned. With these guys still available and the trade market always open, the league has some major deals to be made before spring training officially starts.
As for the Angels, they are looking to upgrade a few positions, including third base and outfield, the starting rotation, and the bullpen can always improve. What they have added so far has made for a decent group of depth and “breakout hopefuls”. A trio of experienced relievers hauled in within the last month consist of Kirby Yates, Drew Pomeranz, and Jordan Romano to add to a very young bullpen. The two starters acquired this offseason, Alek Manoah and Grayson Rodriguez, have had sparks of success, but haven’t been able to consistently replicate said success. And as for the offense, we traded for a young, former highly touted prospect middle infielder in Vaughn Grissom. Not a ton of recent experience, but hopefully this is just the beginning for the Angels and their General Manager, Perry Minasian, this offseason.
Productive Tools
With the roster that stands as of January 14th, 2026, the Angels have a ton of holes and minimal successful tools. But one of the main things that the Angels are extremely exceptional at is hitting homers. In 2025, the Halos hit a stupendous 226 home runs to place 4th in the league. To then counter that number, the Angels only scored 673 runs, placing 25th in the league. It is proven that a large number of the runs driven in in 2025 by the Angels were scored via home runs. And while home runs are flashy and provide instant offense, especially for the Angels, it isn’t a recipe for success when relying on home runs to win you ballgames. But, overall, their power numbers will help them to gain notice around the league that they won’t miss mistake pitches. This team has no problem when it comes to smashing the ball out of the park.
Despite the Angels reputation of their roster being beat up by injuries year after year, a comfortable majority of their mainstay players were healthy and flourishing. 7 of the starting offensive 9 played 115+ games in 2025 and all 5 starters started over 20 games. The broken expectation brings in a whole new expectation to the club as their young, promising core can stay on the field every year and put up productive seasons. And with multiple seasons of control for most of them, health is a factor that would be extremely essential for their future.
Stepping away from the deep statistics, this Angels team knows how to battle back. 40 games in 2025 did they come back from behind to secure a victory, which tied for 7th in the league and 3rd in the American League. They have secretly always been a great team when it comes to making a comeback which gives the fanbase something to hope for when coming to the ballpark.
Rooms For Improvement
Unfortunately, the weaknesses outweigh the strengths with this team as there are tons of tools that let them down to lose all 90 games. The most obvious struggle for these Halos is the pitching. The development of the pitching has had little to no success with very few exceptions. There is definitely potential with a ton of guys, but the numbers just don’t help that case at all. The walks are a big problem and always have been with this franchise in which they lead the league in (620). Finishing off hitters was just not their strong suit as giving up multiple runs after leading in the count was a massive failure throughout the pitching as a whole. Could this lead to a different approach to hitters for the whole team? An increase in fastballs or breaking balls? With former Texas Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddux taking over the position for Anaheim, a big change is expected for the pitchers. And with this welcoming of Maddux to the team, there is a big weight on his shoulders to do well and influence the pitchers. His role on this Angels team is extremely important as his past success could be the key to a successful 2026 Angels season.
Counteracting from the Angels impressive power performance in 2025, their overall plate discipline was extremely disappointing. Their offensive approach was below average as their swing and miss was a significant problem. A league leading 1627 strikeouts is a very discouraging number, especially when you add the lack of walks to the resume (484- 8th worst). Almost all the main hitters this season had a strikeout percentage over 25%. These numbers need to be tamed for at least half the players in the lineup. It is normal for every team to have a few guys with weak discipline, but a full lineup of those will not lead to a successful team. Maybe learning and studying the basic fundamentals of the game and implementing “small ball”. This team has too much talent to waste on just showcasing their power and occasional defense.
One of the most controversial tactics in sports history will soon be the Angels decision to call up the prospects from the minors very early in their pro career. But is it a good decision? So far it has turned out pretty well as a majority of the lineup has broken out as the identity of the team. And even though it has worked out for the team, it leaves little to no one in their farm. If they call up every minor leaguer with a smidge of talent, it will just diminish the value of their system. The Angels need to discern whether a player really needs to come up to the Majors or to maintain their reps back in AA or AAA. One reason for it could be that the team needs all the talent it needs to grow as a winning team, but making such sudden decisions to call up players so quickly will not treat the farm well at all.
The new year should bring this team room to reflect on how exactly this team can succeed. While succeeding doesn’t exactly mean this year, it isn’t always immediate and probably won’t be immediate with this team. A decent haul of new players will have to be made in the coming weeks for this team to even sniff a possible playoff-caliber team. But rushing and forcing this team to express their talent perfectly won’t get the team anywhere. On the other hand, there is no reason this team shouldn’t be a good team. They have what it takes to be good but certain changes will need to be made to make them better. Utilizing their tools and improving on their selected weaknesses is the only way the Angels will experience improvement. As for success statistically, we will have to see.
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