What Is Christian Moore’s Major League Potential?
February 12, 2025 - Written by Cade Lalim
What a moment for Christian Moore 😮
— MLB (@MLB) June 21, 2025
His first Major League home run is a game-tying 411-foot BLAST 💥 pic.twitter.com/OAkAjdKXLa
As Spring Training is getting underway, Angels young second baseman Christian Moore will have to battle it out in camp to earn an opening day starting job.
We saw Moore play in 53 games in 2025 and the results were underwhelming. He posted a batting average of .198 with a .655 OPS. He totaled 12 extra base hits, including 7 home runs.
Moore has an excellent track record as he tore up the minor leagues during the back-half of the 2024 season, and helped lead the University of Tennessee’s baseball team to the College World Series twice in 2023 and 2024. So what is Moore’s full potential at the major league level?
College Results
Moore played three seasons at the University of Tennessee. Across three seasons, he played in 186 games and made 761 plate appearances. He had a .338 batting average with a 1.144 OPS. Note than in college, batting average and OPS is generally a lot higher than in pro ball. He showed power, hitting a total of 61 home runs, 34 of which came in his junior season in 2024.
Moore got on base at a .447 clip. His ability to draw a good amount of walks was a big contributor. During his three year stretch at Tennessee, Moore drew walks at a 15.1% rate. He also didn’t strike out at a concerning rate, and only got fanned 20.2% of the time.
When it came to defense, he spent most of his innings at second base. He spent a total of 139 games there. He logged eight games at shortstop and did see a small sample of games in the outfield. He spent three in left and one in center.
Minor League Journey
The Los Angeles Angels drafted Moore with the 8th overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft. He made his affiliated debut later that summer where he spent time in Single-A and Double-A.
Moore’s quick two game stop with the Single-A Inland Empire 66ers went very well. He made 12 plate appearances and collected six hits, including two doubles and a home run. He also drew a walk and didn’t record any strikeouts. That quick two-game stint with Inland Empire was enough for the Angels to promote him to Double-A Rocket City.
Moore saw success again at Double-A, but also had to adjust to a higher level of pitching. He spent 98 games with Rocket City and posted a .322 batting average and a .911 OPS. He hit five home runs, but the strikeouts started to show as expected. He had a strikeout rate of 29.6%, but still drew walks at an average 8.2% clip.
In 2025, the Angels elected to start him in the minors to begin the season.. He spent his first 34 games of his first full professional season with the Rocket City Trash Pandas. Moore definitely didn’t see the results he expected. He hit for a .234 average and a .665 OPS. His strikeout rate remained high at 27.4% and he only hit one homer.
Moore got promoted to Triple-A Salt Lake on May 20. The Pacific Coast League is known to be hitter friendly and it definitely showed in Moore’s case. He began to show power again, and his results looked a lot better.
Underwhelming Major League Showing
Moore got the call to the show on June 13th. It would be the first of three stints on the Angels major league roster, as a result of injuries and minor league options.
Moore played in 53 games and didn’t really ever find a rhythm. He hit for a .198 average with a .654 OPS. He didn’t make good contact and when he did, he only averaged an exit velocity of 88.9 mph. His batted ball metrics were pretty weak except for his above average 38.2 launch angle sweet-spot%. His bat speed was solid at 72.7 mph. He collected 13 extra-base hits, including seven home runs.
He really struggled with strikeouts and they came at a 33.7% rate. A big factor for that is because he whiffed at 36.9% of pitchers which is not good. He showed good discipline and only chased out of the zone 23.9% of the time, while drawing walks at a solid 10.3% rate.
His fielding wasn’t amazing and he showed not to have that strong of an arm. His arm strength of 78.1 mph ranked in the 15th percentile. He had a fielding run value of -1, and had -2 outs above average. Moore will likely spend most of his time at second base.
Future Outlook
After watching Moore play at the major league level in 2025, nothing really stood out, but I’d expect that to change. When he fully develops, he’ll definitely be a threat in the lineup and could definitely be an all star candidate.
I really think Moore will be a big power threat down the road and will be capable of hitting 25-30 homers per season. At best I’d expect his batting average to sit between .250 and .270 with a middle .800’s OPS. The strikeouts will probably be a part of his game going forward, but it could be dampened if he can continue to draw walks like he did last year with the Angels.
He’s got a bright future with so much more talent to show. He joins a young and developing Angels core of Zach Neto, Nolan Schanuel, Jose Soriano, Grayson Rodriguez, and many others.
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