Angels 2nd Half Scenarios
July 18, 2025 - Written by Jacob Firmage
Photo Credit : @Angels - X
This piece like most of mine is not based on any statistics. Isn’t based off of much beyond looking at the schedule and coming up with what I think happens with the rest of the Angels season. I took a poll of the Inside Halos writers and asked, what would it take for the Angels to make the playoffs. The winning vote went for 84-86 gams won. So for the sake of this, let’s go on the high end and aim for 86 wins. A tall task considering this team only won 63 games last season. A 23 win improvement would be nothing short of remarkable. It is a tall task considering the Angels have amongst the worst run differentials in the MLB.
Let’s start with the worst case scenario. The Angels while improving on the overall season, play closer to the level of their run differential. Putting on my negative glasses I had the remaining schedule play out as such.
At PHI At NYM Vs SEA Vs TEX Vs CHW Vs TB At DET
1-2 0-3 1-3 1-2 2-1 1-2 1-2
Vs LAD At A's Vs CIN Vs CHC At TEX At HOU At KC
0-3 3-0 1-2 0-3 1-2 1-3 1-2
Vs A's Vs MIN At SEA At MIL At COL Vs KC Vs HOU
2-1 2-1 1-3 1-2 2-1 2-1 1-2
In this scenario the Angels come out of the gate ice cold. They go 25-41 in the second half. They move on from the guys with one year remaining in Kenley Jansen, Luis Rengifo, Yoan Moncada, Tyler Anderson and potentially listen on players with multiple years of control. This scenario like mentioned is the least exciting, but still adds 9 wins to last years total and adds some more prospects to the farm. Hopefully leading to further improvement next season as well as deepening the roster long term. They flip veterans most fans would agree should be moved regardless of how the second half starts and reset ahead of the offseason. This likely would be the end of the Perry Minasian time as General Manager and next season a fresh front office and coaching staff begin as the Angels young core seems to be near ready to push further for a playoff spot.
In a more fun scenario, the over a decade drought of playoffs ends and the Angels make their way back into the playoffs. They come out of the break primed and ready to roll. They look to improve both in the short term and long term adding along the lines of a Mitch Keller, Raisel Iglesias, potentially an outfield bat such as Cedric Mullins to stabalize the roster. Maybe they swing higher for more upside and look to Luis Robert Jr.
At PHI At NYM Vs SEA Vs TEX Vs CHW Vs TB At DET
2-1 2-1 2-2 2-1 3-0 2-1 1-2
Vs LAD At A's Vs CIN Vs CHC At TEX At HOU At KC
2-1 3-0 1-2 1-2 1-2 2-2 2-1
Vs A's Vs MIN At SEA At MIL At COL Vs KC Vs HOU
3-0 2-1 1-3 1-2 2-1 3-0 1-2
Coming out of the gates hot and 8-4 ahead of the trade deadline the Halos add to the roster significantly as they can and go 39-27 in the second half. We see Mike Trout back in the playoffs along with the young core. We add Keller to a quality rotation, but further deplete the farm, hoping some of the prep arms drafted this year along with the AZL/DSL rosters boost the system back up in the next few years. It is a dream. Despite still having their inconsistent ups and downs, the ups are good enough to give this team a chance to win for Ron.
That was fun wasn’t it? I was surprised when I started this I didn’t look into how many wins they needed to get to playoffs. I wanted to go through the rest of the season and just guess what I thought could happen. Maybe they are in the playoffs maybe they are awful. I didn’t want to be aiming for anything. I was pleasantly surprised.
At PHI At NYM Vs SEA Vs TEX Vs CHW Vs TB At DET
1-2 2-1 2-2 2-1 3-0 1-2 1-2
Vs LAD At A's Vs CIN Vs CHC At TEX At HOU At KC
2-1 2-1 1-2 0-3 1-2 1-3 2-1
Vs A's Vs MIN At SEA At MIL At COL Vs KC Vs HOU
3-0 2-1 1-3 1-2 2-1 3-0 1-2
It was oddly similar to the playoff scenario. They instead of scorching hot, come out around what they’ve been this season. 7-6 record leads them to be right where they are now, a few games out of the wildcard. Game or so under .500. They don’t buy and don’t sell, necessarily. They Move on from the likes of Rengifo, Kyle Hendricks and depending on the offer Jansen in an effort to get the young guys more reps. They still look to add some level of major league talent with more control than a Mullins or Iglesias and see what happens. They go 34-32 to have an impressive 1 year turn around adding 18 wins and being at .500 to end the season.
It isn’t sexy, or fun, nor will it get the attention the Royals/Tigers got last season for incredible turn arounds. But it feels real. It feels possible. In a way all three of these scenarios seem like they could happen. Time will tell, but tomorrow on the 18th of July, Angels baseball will be back on our screens and we can continue to have hope. This team would only be able to go 16-50 to match how poor of a record they had last year. They have improved. Now we get to see how much they have improved, and if this young core is ready for the next step like they say they are. Hopefully we get to say goodnight to this postseason drought.
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