Collin Snider is with Chicago looking to recapture what he had two seasons ago with Seattle. Currently in camp with the Cubs, the 30-year-old right-hander was a pleasant surprise for the Mariners in 2024, logging a 1.94 with a 27.8% strikeout rate over 42 relief outings comprising 41-and-two-thirds innings. Last year was a different story. Hampered by a flexor strain and unable to get back on track, Snider struggled to the tune of a 5.47 ERA across 24 appearances in the majors, then posted an even uglier 8.06 ERA across 25 games with Triple-A Tacoma. Cut loose by Seattle in November, he subsequently inked a deal with the Cubs in December.

Despite the dismal results, Snider wasn’t without suitors. He had options — every team can use more pitching — and in the case of the Cubs, he also had connections. Tyler Zombro, the NL Central club’s Vice President of Pitching Strategy, previously worked at Tread Athletics, where Snider trained in previous offseasons. As the erstwhile Vanderbilt Commodore put it, “That really steered my decision. I like the way the pitching development is here.”

Asked about his poor 2025 performance, Snider pointed to how his injury contributed to bad mechanical habits that resulted in a drop in velocity, as well as “pitch shapes that weren’t the same.” He knew what was happening, but correcting it was another matter.

“I was very rotational, throwing too side-to-side, whereas I need to be north-south,” Snider said. “Side-to-side made the velo go down, because I couldn’t get behind the baseball. I was aware of what was going on, but I didn’t know why I was doing it, or how to make the adjustment quickly. It ended up being one of those things where I needed the offseason to straighten it out.”

Snider averaged 92.5 mph with his four-seamer last season, whereas in the prior two years that number was 94.2 and 95.3. His sweeper was also impacted by his delivery being out of sync. Read the rest of this entry »

Tyler Bremner is the top prospect in what is widely viewed as a below-average Los Angeles Angels system. Drafted second overall last summer out of UC Santa Barbara, the 21-year-old right-hander is anything but below average — and that is especially true when it comes to his signature offering. Bremner boasts one of the best changeups of any prospect, in any organization. Factor in a fastball that sits mid-90s and touches 98, and you can see why my colleague Brendan Gawlowski referred to Bremner as “the draft’s most big league-ready player.”

Premium strike-throwing is another of Bremner’s attributes. As Gawlowski pointed out in his January write-up, the 6-foot-2, 195-pound San Diego native not only averaged fewer than 2.5 walks per nine innings across three collegiate seasons, he also “missed a ton of bats.” His draft-year strikeout rate was a heady 35.8%.

Bremner discussed his high-spin changeup, his sometimes-sinking four-seamer, and what he’s been learning in big league camp, prior to a recent game at Tempe Diablo Stadium.

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David Laurila: I’ve read that you have a 70-grade changeup. What can you tell me about it?

Tyler Bremner: “I’ve kind of had the same grip since high school. I wouldn’t say it’s the most conventional grip. It’s a circle change, but I’m sliding down from the two-seam, so my middle and ring fingers are both on the horseshoe. I also like to tuck my pinky under it. That’s maybe a little unconventional, I guess. Not many people tuck their pinky like that.

“The grip is one thing, but there is also how you throw it. I’ve been blessed with being able to pronate the ball pretty well. For me, it’s not about trying to kill spin. I’m basically making it spin hard the other way, so I get that diving action. My arm speed also helps make it look like a heater. At the end of the day, you can have a changeup that moves a lot, but if it comes out in a way that hitters can pick it up — they can see the circle, or the spin is different than the fastball — then it’s not going to be as effective as one that isn’t as nasty. A changeup plays well if it is deceptive off the heater, so I’m really just trying to keep the arm speed and make it look like a fastball.”

Laurila: How much does your changeup spin? Read the rest of this entry »

Alek Manoah was emerging as one of the best young pitchers in baseball when I first talked to him for FanGraphs in April 2022. Pitching for the Toronto Blue Jays at the time, he boasted a record of 12-2 and 3.05 ERA across 23 starts dating back to his major league debut the previous May. And he was only getting better. By season’s end, the burly right-hander not only was 25-9 with a 2.60 ERA, but he also had allowed just 221 hits over 308 1/3 innings across 51 career starts. A star in the making at age 24, he finished third in that year’s American League Cy Young Award voting.

As Blue Jays fans know all too well, things proceeded to go south. The Homestead, Florida native stumbled through a tumultuous 2023 in which his command and velocity dipped, and things got even worse the following year. Burdened by shoulder and elbow woes, Manoah ended up having surgery to repair his ulnar collateral ligament in June 2024. Recovery wasn’t exactly smooth. He tossed just 38 1/3 innings last season, none of them in the majors.

His once-prosperous Toronto tenure also came to an end, as did a brief stint with another organization. Claimed off waivers by the Atlanta Braves in late September, Manoah subsequently signed a free-agent deal with the Los Angeles Angels in December. He is now in the early stages of what might be deemed the Alek Manoah Reclamation Project. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, after Angels owner Arte Moreno finished his annual state of the team discussion with reporters, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register and Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com published several quotes from the conversation. Between settling with Tyler Skaggs’ family over the wrongful death suit, not having a television partner for the upcoming season, and cutting payroll after eight straight losing seasons, there was a lot to cover. Several of Moreno’s quotes raised eyebrows, but the one that caught the most headlines concerned his description of a fan survey. He was simply trying to explain that he is focused on making sure the fan experience is a good one, but it came out very wrong.

“The number one thing fans want is affordability,” Moreno said. “They want affordability. They want safety, and they want a good experience when they come to the ballpark. Believe it or not, winning is not in their top five… The moms want to be able to afford to bring the kids. Moms make about 80% of the decisions. They want to be able to bring their kids and be affordable and they want safety and they want to have a good experience, so they get all the entertainment stuff or whatever. The purists, you know, it’s just straight winning.”

It wasn’t exactly inspiring to hear the owner of a baseball team come dangerously close to accusing fans of zealotry for just wanting their team to finish above .500 for the first time since 2015. After avoiding local media for years, Moreno started giving these spring training state of the team appearances in 2023. His answers are not always well received, and time tends not to do them any favors. In 2023, Moreno said, “You can’t start losing $50 to $100 million a year and keep the business,” then two years later, he said the team was doing just that, claiming it would “probably lose $50 million to $60 million, minimum.” In 2023, he said, “I always look at the fans. What are we doing to make sure the fans have a great experience and the fans are proud of the team that we put on the field?” Now he says winning is not even a top-five priority for the fans. Read the rest of this entry »

Below is an analysis of the prospects in the farm system of the Los Angeles Angels. Scouting reports were compiled with information provided by industry sources as well as my own observations. This is the sixth year we’re delineating between two anticipated relief roles, the abbreviations for which you’ll see in the “position” column below: MIRP for multi-inning relief pitchers, and SIRP for single-inning relief pitchers. The ETAs listed generally correspond to the year a player has to be added to the 40-man roster to avoid being made eligible for the Rule 5 draft. Manual adjustments are made where they seem appropriate, but we use that as a rule of thumb.

A quick overview of what FV (Future Value) means can be found here. A much deeper overview can be found here.

All of the ranked prospects below also appear on The Board, a resource the site offers featuring sortable scouting information for every organization. It has more details (and updated TrackMan data from various sources) than this article and integrates every team’s list so readers can compare prospects across farm systems. It can be found here. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week was one of the busiest of the offseason so far, with Kyle Tucker taking his talents to Chavez Ravine and Bo Bichette heading to the Mets. Given those glitzy headlines, it was easy to miss an annual rite of winter: a weird, zero-sum-feeling trade that didn’t need to be a three-teamer but was anyway because the Rays got involved. The particulars: The Rays sent Josh Lowe to the Angels, the Angels sent Brock Burke to the Reds, and Tampa Bay got Gavin Lux from Cincinnati and prospect Chris Clark from the Halos.

The first thing that drew my eye in this trade is that the two hitters are at least superficially similar: lefties with enormous platoon splits and no real defensive home. Lux has a career 99 wRC+; Lowe 101. They get to those marks in extremely different ways, though, and I think that’s as good of an entry point into analyzing this swap as any.

Lowe is an archetypical lefty power bat, and the Angels simply don’t have anyone like that. Last year was easily Lowe’s worst as a pro on a rate basis, and he also spent a month and a half on the IL. But his 11 homers would have been the second-most by an Angels lefty, behind Nolan Schanuel’s 12 in 150-ish more plate appearances (Yoán Moncada also hit 12 lefty homers, but he left in free agency). Overall, the Angels were 29th in baseball in home runs hit by lefties, with 34 for the entire team put together. Read the rest of this entry »

The following article is part of Jay Jaffe’s ongoing look at the candidates on the BBWAA 2026 Hall of Fame ballot. For a detailed introduction to this year’s ballot, and other candidates in the series, use the tool above; an introduction to JAWS can be found here. For a tentative schedule, see here. All WAR figures refer to the Baseball Reference version unless otherwise indicated.

Daniel Murphy was not a home run hitter. Over the course of a 12-year major league career that was interrupted by knee injuries, he reached double digits in just seven seasons, topping 20 homers just twice. Like Howie Kendrick — another Jacksonville-born second baseman debuting on this Hall of Fame ballot, one who even played on the same team as Murphy in 2017–18 — the lefty-swinging, righty-throwing Murphy was known for his exceptional bat-to-ball ability. And like Kendrick, he went on a memorable, power-driven October run and won NLCS MVP honors. In 2015, he set a record by homering in six straight postseason games, carrying the Mets to their first pennant in 15 years. While it didn’t culminate in a championship, it earned him an indelible spot in postseason history; without that run, he probably wouldn’t even be on this ballot.

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Daniel Thomas Murphy was born on April 1, 1985 in Jacksonville, Florida, the oldest of three children of Tom and Sharon Murphy. Tom taught kindergarten while Sharon sold insurance (in one amusing anecdote, an 11-year-old Murphy declared he wanted to be “an insurance person” for his school yearbook). Younger brother Jonathan (b. 1990) was a 19th-round pick by the Twins in 2012 and spent three seasons as an outfielder in their minor league system. Read the rest of this entry »

The following article is part of Jay Jaffe’s ongoing look at the candidates on the BBWAA 2026 Hall of Fame ballot. For a detailed introduction to this year’s ballot, and other candidates in the series, use the tool above; an introduction to JAWS can be found here. For a tentative schedule, see here. All WAR figures refer to the Baseball Reference version unless otherwise indicated.

In their backyard baseball fantasies and daydreams, what kid hasn’t imagined hitting a late-inning home run to win a playoff game, or even Game 7 of the World Series? Howie Kendrick lived that dream not once but twice during the 2019 postseason, capped by a homer that sent the Washington Nationals on their way to their first championship in franchise history. What’s more, his October run (which also included NLCS MVP honors) topped off a storybook rise from humble beginnings that included a complicated family situation growing up and an amateur career that took place in almost complete obscurity.

“The more I learned about him, he starts telling me about how no schools wanted him, how it was really hard to stay confident,” former Angels teammate Torii Hunter, who mentored Kendrick upon joining the Angels in 2008, recalled in ’19. “I just kept thinking: This guy could have really fallen through the cracks.”

What put Kendrick on the map was his legendary bat-to-ball ability. Though he never won the major league batting title that was expected of him while hitting for a .358 average during his time in the minors, he carved out an impressive 14-year career, earning All-Star honors and helping his teams make the playoffs eight times.

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Howard Joseph Kendrick III was born on July 12, 1983 in Jacksonville, Florida. He never knew his father, and because his mother, Belinda Kendrick, was a staff sergeant serving overseas in the United States Army, he and his two sisters grew up in the care of his maternal grandmother, Ruth Woods, in Callahan, Florida, a two-stoplight town of less than 1,000 people near the Georgia border. All 12 of Woods’ children, and their children, lived in the area as well. Read the rest of this entry »

For the 22nd consecutive season, the ZiPS projection system is unleashing a full set of prognostications. For more information on the ZiPS projections, please consult this year’s introduction, as well as MLB’s glossary entry. The team order is selected by lot, and the next team up is the Los Angeles Angels.

Batters

Zach Neto is really good. That is all. Let’s just move on with our lives.

[…]

[…]

OK, before I get the “Dan.” message in our company Slack, I’ll regretfully talk more about the Angels. They weren’t the worst team in baseball in 2025, nor will they be in 2026, but I think they’ve become the least interesting team in baseball. At this point, they’re a bit like when you hear for the first time about some TV show on the Hallmark or Roku Channel starring someone you vaguely recall from 1998 and find out that not only the TV show exists, but that it’s been on for a decade and there are like 110 episodes. The White Sox and Rockies have won a lot fewer games than the Angels in recent years, but being terrible is, on some level, interesting. The Angels were a mediocre team with peak Mike Trout and peak Shohei Ohtani, so it’s perhaps not surprising that with Trout in steep decline, and Ohtani gone, they’re having trouble getting into contention.

ZiPS is as optimistic about Neto as Steamer is, and he’s likely the best player on the team now. Trout did finally have a full, healthy-adjacent season in 2025, but he did so mostly as a designated hitter, with the lowest wRC+ of his career (120). He turns 35 in August, and I am increasingly pessimistic about whether there are any vintage Trout seasons left in the tank

Elsewhere, ZiPS struggles to see upside. Catcher would be among the most plausible places to see some improved performance, but the Apostrophe Boyz, Logan O’Hoppe and Travis d’Arnaud, were both absolutely dreadful last year, and this projection already represents a pretty sizable bounce back. Nolan Schanuel makes good contact, but a first baseman that doesn’t hit for much power or maintain high batting averages is going to struggle to have much value.

The Angels have designated hitters playing both corners. One, Jorge Soler, looks very much like he’s approaching the end. The other, Jo Adell, erupted for 37 home runs, which was nice, but it was one of the lowest impact near-40-homer seasons in history because he didn’t do much else all that well. Vaughn Grissom and Christian Moore rank very highly in the projected WAR rankings for the Angels, but that is more a reflection of the quality of their teammates rather than an indication that they’re due for a breakout performance.

One player who does violate this theme is Nelson Rada. A lot will come down to just how well his defense plays in center field long term, and he has little power, but he did perform quite well in the high minors for a player still in his teens. ZiPS actually thinks he may very well be the team’s best option in center right now.

The Angels will be a below-average offense, but probably not the worst in the league.

Pitchers

The rotation is, at least according to ZiPS, a step up from the lineup, with the important caveat if healthy. Yusei Kikuchi, José Soriano, and Reid Detmers — who is the returning to the rotation in 2026 — are all acceptable starters, even if none remotely screams “ace.” Grayson Rodriguez was just the kind of pickup the Angels should be making, and still has all sorts of upside remaining. Some combination of Alek Manoah, Caden Dana, and Sam Aldegheri is likely fine for the last spot in the rotation. The problem is what happens if (read: when) injuries hit. George Klassen throws really hard, and his control might just be just good enough to allow him to have a career, but once you get past Klassen, you quickly get to a recent retiree (Kyle Hendricks), a guy with an ERA near seven in more than 100 innings (Jack Kochanowicz), and a pitcher I forgot still played baseball (Dakota Hudson). The starting five could be adequate, but there’s a massive amount of downside behind them.

The bullpen looks very ordinary, but there are some sources of upside: Robert Stephenson and Ben Joyce can both be quite effective, but they come with serious injury concerns. Drew Pomeranz was highly effective for the Cubs last season, but he also has a significant injury history that cannot be ignored. Kirby Yates is nearing 40 and wasn’t particularly good last year, but ZiPS legitimately likes Brock Burke. This all averages out to, well, an average bullpen, but with some good dice rolls, there’s a pretty decent ceiling here, more than anywhere else on the team. Alas, the bullpen rocking will be most relevant in the last week of July.

Right now, the Angels look like a 70- to 75-win team with a rather unimpressive ceiling. I’ve done enough projections to be well aware of the pitfalls of projecting the future, so the team spiking an 86-win season and sneaking a wild card spot isn’t out of the realm of possibility. It does seem out of the realm of likely, though I don’t think that’s an actual expression.

Ballpark graphic courtesy Eephus League. Depth charts constructed by way of those listed here. Size of player names is very roughly proportional to Depth Chart playing time. The final team projections may differ considerably from our Depth Chart playing time.

Players are listed with their most recent teams wherever possible. This includes players who are unsigned or have retired, players who will miss 2026 due to injury, and players who were released in 2025. So yes, if you see Joe Schmoe, who quit baseball back in August to form a Ambient Math-Rock Trip-Hop Yacht Metal band that only performs in abandoned malls, he’s still listed here intentionally. ZiPS is assuming a league with an ERA of 4.16.

Hitters are ranked by zWAR, which is to say, WAR values as calculated by me, Dan Szymborski, whose surname is spelled with a z. WAR values might differ slightly from those that appear in the full release of ZiPS. Finally, I will advise anyone against — and might karate chop anyone guilty of — merely adding up WAR totals on a depth chart to produce projected team WAR. It is important to remember that ZiPS is agnostic about playing time, and has no information about, for example, how quickly a team will call up a prospect or what veteran has fallen into disfavor.

As always, incorrect projections are either caused by misinformation, a non-pragmatic reality, or by the skillful sabotage of our friend and former editor. You can, however, still get mad at me on Twitter or on Bluesky. This last is, however, not an actual requirement.

The following article is part of Jay Jaffe’s ongoing look at the candidates on the BBWAA 2026 Hall of Fame ballot. For a detailed introduction to this year’s ballot, and other candidates in the series, use the tool above; an introduction to JAWS can be found here. For a tentative schedule and a chance to fill out a Hall of Fame ballot for our crowdsourcing project, see here. All WAR figures refer to the Baseball Reference version unless otherwise indicated.

The third and final multi-candidate pairing of this series is by far the heaviest, covering two candidates who have both been connected to multiple incidents of domestic violence. Read the rest of this entry »