Los Angeles Angels Top 24 Prospects

The Angels have floored Rada’s promotion pace, and he began 2024 at Double-A Rocket City at just 18 years and 7 months old. He has posted elevated strikeout totals compared to his career norms, but remember, he’s an 18-year-old competing against pitchers who are about six years older than he is on average. Everything we say about Rada in this scouting report, except with regard to his defense, should be considered with that in mind.

Rada’s defense is easily the most special and advanced part of his game. His range, routes, and balls skills all project to be plus if they aren’t already. His poise and comfort out there is incredible for a player his age, and Rada’s future defense grade is only capped by his speed, which is “merely” plus. On offense, Rada looks physically overmatched by Double-A pitching. He tracks pitches well, and his swing is smooth and short, but he just can’t swing that bat very hard yet and makes a lot of soft, groundball contact. Projecting on Rada’s strength is complicated by his size. He’s a smaller fella (this guy’s listed height dropped two inches after MLB’s independent measurement this spring), not the typical 6-foot-1 teenager who you could see adding 20 or so pounds of muscle over time. Guys like Adam Eaton and Cedric Mullins (maybe the most flush comp to Rada’s game) provide examples of what it looks like when an outfielder this size succeeds. We like Rada’s athleticism and body composition enough to project that he’ll eventually have viable big league strength and be a table-setting everyday center fielder.

Though the stopwatch-holding prospect arm of FanGraphs has tended to be lower than consensus on Schanuel due to a lack of power and athleticism, it’s surprising to see him barely maintaining replacement-level performance as he graduates from rookie status and approaches 300 career plate appearances. ZiPS still likes Schanuel to produce as a 45-grade player for the next three years, right in line with our preseason report and evaluation, which we stand by. It is reproduced here: If you liked Craig Counsell‘s batting stance, then please enjoy Schanuel, whose hands start way above his head before they load in a pretty normal spot. It’s common for hitters in college baseball to walk as much as they strike out, especially the good ones. Schanuel walked five times as often as he struck out in 2023, a cartoonish stat that helps illuminate his freaky feel to hit. Even as a small school prospect, he was viewed as one of the more advanced bats in the 2023 draft class, and the Angels, who tended to take players of that ilk during the late-Ohtani era, made Schanuel their first round pick and had him in the big leagues before the end of the season.

Schanuel’s swing isn’t sexy or explosive, he just finds a way to put the bat on the ball, and the natural uphill path of his cut helps him to hit for some power, though the reason Schanuel was left off the offseason Top 100 was because he doesn’t project to hit for enough thump to be a meaningfully impactful first baseman during the next half decade or so. He slugged .868 in college last year, but it was more due to his consistency of contact than big power, and Schanuel has way less raw pop than is typical of a first baseman. As part of an offseason regimen to try to get stronger, Schanuel stood all day. He perhaps looks a little bit stronger this spring, but he’s probably going to be more of a player you can “win with” in your lineup than one you win “because of,” akin to LaMonte Wade Jr. and other contact-oriented first basemen of modest impact.

Dana tossed 68.1 innings between Inland Empire and Tri-City as a 19-year-old in 2023, striking out 31.7% of opposing batters while walking only 10.7% at the latter stop. He has a strong, broad-shouldered build, comes at hitters from a high three-quarters slot, and has above-average arm speed.

Dana’s upright posture and 6-foot-4 height create a downhill angle on his fastball, which could make his heater velo-reliant as he climbs the minors. This tends to be a trait that indicates relief risk. Dana’s fastball sits 92-95 mph and will touch 96 while showing fair carry and late run. His delivery looks starter-y in terms of effort, and he’s shown improved feel for repeating it. The slider is the most consistent secondary pitch in Dana’s mix; it features both vertical and horizontal break, and will morph into a downer version on occasion. There’s advanced feel for locating the pitch down and away to right-handed hitters, but not yet to other quadrants. It looks like a plus pitch from a visual scouting standpoint and it’s even better than that when it comes to things like its chase and whiff rates, though from a stuff quantification POV, it’s only a bit above average. Dana has another distinct breaker in his curveball, which has 12-to-6 shape and significant depth, but it doesn’t show above-average break with the frequency his slider does. Dana’s changeup continues to lag behind development-wise; it ranges between 84-88 mph and it often lacks the action that would allow it to miss bats or generate weak contact.

Dana has the build and (for the most part) mechanical look of a innings-eating workhorse, but his command and pitch mix are more typical of a reliever. The good news is that if the latter is true, his slider quality will probably facilitate a late-inning role.

Kent was the Angels’ eighth round pick out of Pottsboro, TX, and they gave him nearly $1 million to forgo his Arkansas commitment. He stands in at a strapping at 6-foot-4 and has pretty clearly been in the weight room since he signed. He doesn’t have an uber-projectable frame, but Kent has already gotten stronger and isn’t fully grown.

Kent’s fastball currently sits between 91-95 mph, and he’s shown he’s capable of reaching back for a couple extra ticks of velocity in the past. There’s some looseness in his arm action, and as his frame continues to mature, it’s easy to see his average fastball velocity also ticking up. Presently, Kent’s fastball shows solid carry when he’s working above the belt but a vulnerable lack of movement in the zone; his heater is going to depend on his command in order to play. His slider will show traditional two-plane shape as well as a more vertical downer version, both of which are capable of flashing above-average bite. Kent’s prototypical size and natural slider movement are the driving forces of his profile. He needs to polish his changeup. Right now, Kent does a good job of maintaining his fastball arm speed when throwing his cambio, but the majority of the time it’s an offering that lacks notable action. The change will show both fade and depth on occasion, but it will need to do so with much greater frequency if it’s ever going to be an average pitch for him.

Kent’s realistic ceiling (via a leap in changeup quality and command) is that of a backend starter. He’s a pretty standard million-dollar teenage pitching prospect, albeit one who we’d view toward the bottom third of that player group because of his fastball shape and lack of command. Before the draft, Kent’s build was also part of why he was more clearly a 40 FV prospect than a 40+, and he’s already made strides in that area. If those improvements lead to better command, and Kent shows us that across a bigger performance sample in 2024, he’ll move up the FV continuum.

Guzman was the Angels’ top 2021 international amateur signee at just shy of $2 million. He has yet to have an impressive statistical season on offense and has a sub-.700 career OPS as of list publication, but he continues to project as a sound shortstop defender and swings with enough verve at 20 years old to portend profile-carrying power.

Guzman’s tools are like Diet Willy Adames. He has cleaned up some of the odd looking aspects of his defensive actions (which were really only strange and stiff when he had to make plays in on the grass) and continues to be great at backhanding balls in the hole and making strong throws back across his body. Guzman is also an impressive in-the-box rotator and swings pretty hard for a 20-year-old, but his cut is quite long. He’s had concerningly high strikeout rates in the low minors, and it’s tough to forecast him as an everyday player because of this. This is where one could argue Guzman’s skill set is structured like Adames’, but Guzman isn’t tooled up to that degree (Willy is a 7 defender with 6 power). We think there might be enough power here for Guzman to be a second-division regular shortstop, but whether his hit tool lets him get to it is another matter, one we feel less good about.

Ortiz has taken quite a leap on defense and in the early going of 2024, he not only looks like a lock to stay at shortstop, but he might become an impact glove there. This is not often the case for spindly speedsters like Ortiz, who is in the Roman Quinn and Billy Hamilton physical mold. The pace of Ortiz’s exchange needs to quicken some, but his arm strength has improved and he’s made several acrobatic plays already this year.

Ortiz still needs to get stronger at the dish. He is swinging underneath tons of in-zone fastballs because he has to wind up his entire little body to swing hard, causing him to be late. He has only been switch-hitting for a couple of years, and while Ortiz doesn’t have ideal body projection because he’s such a rail, he should get at least somewhat bigger as he matures, and take a step forward as a hitter via both improved skill and strength. At minimum, he looks like a plus shortstop defender with 70 speed; even with a flawed hit tool, that’s a good utility player. His upside will be driven by how much Ortiz develops on offense, so much of which is still TBD as he grows and changes as an athlete.

Laverde is an exciting bat-first catching prospect who has split time between the Angels’ Low-A and complex-level teams so far in 2024. Though he’s older than Juan Flores (who is ranked a bit later on this list), Flores is a more advanced defender and is playing a level ahead of Laverde as of list publication. Still, Laverde has more offensive potential by a good bit. He has plus lefty bat speed with natural pull-side lift and enough barrel control to manifest that power in games. His stocky build lacks great long-term physical projection (Omar Narvaez and Tucker Barnhart are pretty good body comps), but Laverde already has good offensive tools for a catching prospect. He also has a good arm, but his poor receiving (Laverde frequently flinches when hitters swing and loses sight of the baseball) needs to improve if he’s going to stay back there. So much of Laverde’s upside is dependent on him developing as a catcher and if our degree of confidence in him staying back there was higher, he’d be in the 40+ FV tier. If things progress on defense, Laverde will be a Narvaez/Victor Caratini type of bat-first catcher.

Joyce had Tommy John as an underclassman at Tennessee and later became famous for touching 105 mph in college, but as a relief prospect with messy control, he signed for the slot value of pick 73 or so. He’s a remarkable athlete who has to have worked incredibly hard for his body to generate such elite velocity in an era of historically high velos.

Joyce missed time in 2023 due to ulnar neuritis, which limited him to 27.2 total innings (10 in the bigs). He throws from a three-quarters slot with plus-plus arm speed. He appears healthy this spring (he was sent to Double-A), as he’s once again sitting 99 and peaking above that, but he’s hindered a bit by his erratic control and tick-below-average deception. Joyce’s slider will show sharp two-plane action, and he also throws a version with more length to it; both shapes are able to consistently maintain their above-average bite. Joyce has improved his ability to land the breaking ball in the zone, and he’ll need to continue to make strides in that regard for the offering to have above-average effectiveness long-term and not be overly reliant on chase. Barring a drastic improvement to his overall control, he projects as a single-inning reliever who is better suited for middle-relief duties than a role where he’s routinely handling high-leverage spots.

The former Wake Forest closer was drafted by the Angels in the sixth round last year and ended up only throwing 8.1 pro innings in 2023 after striking out 34.3% of opposing batters in his final collegiate season. Minacci is a fastball/slider reliever who throws from a high three-quarters slot with significant effort in his delivery. His four-seamer, which has averaged 95 mph so far in 2024 and has touched 97 mph, has solid life in the form of carry and will also flash late running action. His slider lives in the mid-80s and relies on the lateness of its break more than overwhelming spin. He’s shown advanced feel for landing the breaker in the zone, as well as expanding out of the zone to finish hitters off. His slider will take the form of vertical downer as well as a more traditional two-plane version. Minacci has a lot less volatility in his strike-throwing ability than most of the reliever profiles in the system, and even though an elite pitch is absent from his arsenal, he projects to be a consistent performer in a middle-relief role sooner than later.

Hurtado appeared in 22 games last season working mostly as a starter or in a piggy-back role, but there were also a handful of 1-2 inning outings of the Inland Empire bullpen. Hurtado has a lean, projectable frame that can easily handle more weight in the coming years. Over his 78 innings of work in 2023, he struck out 26.3% of batters and walked 9.1% on his way to posting a 5.42 ERA in the Cal League as a 22-year-old.

Hurtado throws both a four- and two-seam fastball that average 95 mph and touch 98 mph. The four-seamer tends to play down from that velocity because it lacks plus life, but the two-seamer will show significant late running action. Hurtado has a sharp mid-80s slider that features both horizontal and vertical break, but his feel for the offering is very hit-and-miss at present. There’s also a rarely utilized changeup in the arsenal, which at its best is thrown with quality arm speed and will feature fade and varying degrees of depth. While Hurtado continues to be developed as a starter, his inconsistent strike-throwing ability makes him best suited for a relief role, one that would hopefully allow him to tap into a few more ticks of velocity and unlock additional life on his four-seamer.

The Angels signed Texido for $250,000 out of Cuba in 2023 and he threw 50.2 frames for their DSL club, where he struck out 30% of the batters he faced and only walked 5.9%. Texido has a medium frame that has limited projectability, but he appears to be an above-average athlete. Texido’s fastball is light on velocity at present (ranging between 86-90 mph), but it plays way, way up because his extreme crossfire stride direction creates a unique and deceptive angle that’s especially tough on lefties. Ryan Yarbrough‘s delivery is as close a mechanical comp as we can make, but Texido’s stride direction is more akin to DJ Herz or a younger Sean Manaea.

The headliner offering here is the changeup, which Texido sells with fastball arm speed. It features 8-10 mph of velocity separation from his heater and has substantial late depth that allows it to regularly slip under barrels. Texido also has a slider (75-80 mph) that has traditional two-plane shape, but with an extra element of length to it that is created by his drastic crossfire direction. The secondary offerings carry the profile at present, but there’s outlier deception here that has the potential to enable a fastball that otherwise wouldn’t be effective. The fastball will hopefully add at least a few ticks if Texido’s going to have a long-term future as a starter, but even if that doesn’t happen, he profiles as a plus-deception reliever who can cover multiple innings by leaning heavily on his secondary pitches.

Lugo’s rare power/speed combination drove his amateur clout, and he signed for $2.3 million. His range and arm strength will give him a chance to develop into a viable shortstop defender. Swing length and bat path efficacy create hit tool risk here, which is why we’re a bit lower on Lugo than we tend to be on players who get that big of a bonus in the international space.

Kochanowicz dropped his arm slot and added three ticks of velocity to his fastball in 2023, but that pitch’s plane and movement simply aren’t effective, and he generates shockingly little chase and whiff on a pitch that is averaging 95 mph again to start 2024. Kochanowicz’s most reliable bat-missing offering is his changeup, which is regularly average or a tick above and moves enough to stay off the barrel even when it’s in the zone. Meanwhile, his most reliable pitch from a strike-throwing standpoint is his mid-80s slider/cutter, which has added a couple ticks of velo this spring and currently sits 86-87 mph. Kochanowicz has worked hard to not only keep his big frame in check but to improve his conditioning in a substantial way (for all their issues developing players, the Angels strength program seems to make a consistent and noticeable difference across their system). He should be able to eat innings as a backend starter who liberally mixes in his secondary stuff to keep hitters off his fastball.

Urena spent the entire 2023 season in the starting rotation at Inland Empire, where he covered 98.2 frames while striking out 21.7% of batters and walking 13.5% on his way to a 5.66 ERA as a 19-year-old. The easy effort in Urena’s delivery is starter-like, but his erratic strike throwing pushes his profile to the bullpen rather emphatically. Urena already sits 94-98 and touches 100 mph, and that velocity is likely to tick up in a single-inning role where he could air it out in short bursts. Urena’s changeup projects to be his best secondary pitch. He does a good job of mirroring his fastball arm speed when he throws it, the pitch shows significant depth and fading action, and he can deploy it against hitters of either handedness. The third pitch in Urena’s mix is a slider that more often than not has fringe-average tightness; its shape often varies due to his inconsistent timing and tendency to get on the side of the breaker. We love Urena’s stuff in some ways but are skeptical about it in others (he weirdly tends to get swings and misses in the bottom of the zone and nowhere else), and we consider him more likely to be a middle relief prospect who won’t be trusted in leverage situations due to his control issues.

Flores is an unbelievably skilled thrower of the baseball. He has fairly average raw arm strength, but the quickness of his exchange and his ability to turn around poorly located pitches with pace and accuracy is remarkable. Flores’ hands are also an asset when picking pitches in the dirt. He’s a smaller athlete who needs to get stronger so his receiving can be quieter, but the other aspects of his defense are already plus.

On offense, Flores is a relatively slow-twitch swinger with below-average bat speed and a very conservative approach. He tracks pitches pretty well, but his ball-striking power is near the bottom of the scale. Still just 18, Flores was skipped over the Arizona Complex League and sent straight to Low-A to start 2024. He can keep up with the pace of a full-season game behind the dish, but he’s physically overmatched in the batter’s box. Hopefully he can become stronger and a bit more dangerous on offense; his current projection looks more like a good backup.

Daniel has dealt with injuries (a 2019 Tommy John and 2023 shoulder strain) and fluctuating velocity (at times sitting 90, at times sitting 93 and up to 96) during the last half decade, but he appears healthy and effective early in 2024. Daniel is again sitting 91-94 and commanding his fastball to the belt. He mixes in two distinct breaking balls (a slow mid-70s curve and low-80s slider) and, to a lesser extent, a mid-80s changeup. Nothing is plus, but Daniel is a loose-bodied, big-framed righty whose direct line to the plate makes him a reliable strike thrower. Currently at Salt Lake, he’s an up/down starter who seems likely to lose rookie eligibility at some point in 2024.

Ketchup didn’t play at all during his freshman year at Georgia and transferred to Lipscomb for his sophomore and junior years; he hit for power (including a 35 extra-base hit, 31 stolen base junior year) but struck out a lot. The Angels more or less leapt him right to High-A, and he has been striking out roughly a third of the time there. He has power against pitches he can get extended on, those away from him on the outer third of the zone. It’s unlikely Ketchup will ever make enough contact to be a lineup mainstay, but he’s a remarkable athlete who plays a special, acrobatic style of shortstop defense. It should allow him to wear a big league uniform (probably a couple) because of his rare ability, and he’ll have some other in-game utility as a pinch-runner.

Morrobel is a toolsy developmental shortstop prospect who signed for just shy of a million bucks in 2023. Stocky and physically mature, Morrobel’s rocket arm strength is what gives him a shot to stay at shortstop even if he continues to fill out more and slows down a bit. He’s capable of sizzling the baseball to first base from deep in the hole and his arm could compensate for what might be below-average range during the bulk of his career. On offense, Morrobel swings with impressive bat speed from both sides of the plate, but it takes him a ton of effort to generate it. His lefty swing has a downward-cutting bat path that looks rather ineffectual. You can clearly see why Morrobel got the signing bonus he did, but at this stage, he’s much more of a toolsy dev project than an ascendant everyday shortstop.

Acosta was the hardest-throwing teenage pitcher in the Angels’ system in 2023 and their complex team’s Opening Day starter in 2024. He’s got a medium QB build at a strong 6-foot-1; it’s well-composed but not especially projectable, and will likely trend toward barrel-chested. Acosta sits 92-94 and will flash a plus slider, but the shape and quality of that pitch varies pretty heavily. He has a simple, relatively upright delivery with a high three-quarters release and lovely, efficient arm action. It’s a fastball with vertically oriented spin but downhill plane. Acosta will probably be able to get on top of his breaking ball more consistently with time because of his vertical slot, and you can project on his changeup because of the relatively effortless nature of his delivery. Because he’s more physically maxed than most prospects his age, Acosta’s best shot at accessing big ceiling is likely through sharper command rather than velo growth.

Of all the players whose lives were upended by Atlanta’s 2017 international scandal, Zuñiga has the best chance to wear a big league uniform for a while. Once a Braves sleeper prospect, Zuñiga was made a free agent due to the fallout from the John Coppolella-era scandal and signed with the Dodgers; he climbed through the minors with LA before reaching minor league free agency and signing with the Cardinals, who traded him during the offseason to the Angels for cash.

This is the Colombian giant’s eighth appearance on a prospect list, as he’s remained relevant as a middle relief prospect due to his arm strength and, more recently, his breaking ball consistency and changeup. Zuñiga has long sat in either the mid- or upper 90s depending on the night. His velo was down several ticks from last year prior hitting the IL with a pec strain. His feel for locating his slider (which bends in anywhere between 81-91 mph) has improved, and its spin rate spiked a couple of years ago, as if he found a new grip or release. The lack of consistency here means Zuñiga will probably be up and down from Triple-A once he’s healthy.

Key is a max-effort, uber-projectable right-hander who threw 52.1 innings in 2023, all but 8.2 of which were in the Complex League. In those frames, he punched out 21.4% of batters and had a worrisome 16.7% walk rate as a 19-year-old. Key works out of the stretch, utilizes an exaggerated leg lift, and throws from a high three-quarters slot with a head whack prior to release; he falls off to first base after release. His four-seamer averaged 93.6 mph in 2023, but the above-average carry it has gives a much higher perceived velocity than the radar reading does. His shotgun command ultimately hinders the offering’s effectiveness because of how erratic he tends to get. His breaking ball often displays slurvey, tweener shape and will flash above-average bite at its best. Much of the time, Key shows more strike-throwing ability with his breaking ball than he does with his heater. He also has a changeup that can vary in quality pretty drastically from pitch to pitch — there are times when it shows very minimal action and others when it has late sink. Key needs to take a giant developmental step forward, particularly with his fastball control; until that happens, he has the ceiling of a future single-inning middle-reliever and will likely end up as a up/down type.

Sanchez looks like the same player he was when the Angels acquired him from Philly as part of the Noah Syndergaard trade, which is a positive in some ways and a negative in others. The good: Sanchez is a lean and lanky switch-hitter who has demonstrated above-average overall feel for contact. The bad: He’s been rail thin for basically his whole career and has yet to get any stronger, and his performance has mostly come as an old-for-the-level hitter. Sanchez is 23 and still at High-A, and he needs to get stronger if he’s going to have the power to play right field in the big leagues. We’ve kept him alive on the list because of his switch-hitting contact profile, but we’d really like to see him add strength.

A high school infielder who became a reserve catcher during his underclass seasons at Stanford, Rios didn’t really get consistent reps until his junior year when he moved into a vacant spot in the outfield. He responded by slugging a jet’s worth, hitting .384/.485/.707.

Rios doesn’t have the prototypical offense of a corner outfield prospect, and his best chance to profile is by improving at the catcher position. He’s catching about a quarter of the time so far in 2024 and looks predictably raw. He’s a one-knee, bottom-up receiver, and has a tendency to stab at pitches that miss the location where he’s set up. This needs to quiet down, and Rios’ ball blocking needs to improve. There are amateur scouts who liked Rios’ bat enough to give him a shot in an outfield corner. He was especially good at getting on top of high fastballs in college, but his hand path, which is remarkably similar to Keston Hiura’s, is not the kind for which this is typically true. It’s possible Pac-12 pitching just wasn’t good enough to expose the upper-zone hole in Rios’ swing (which seems to be true early on in 2024 as he K’s north of 30% of the time). If it turns out his hit tool can hold water, then Rios is going to be a doubles machine capable of playing a part-time corner role, but we think it’s more important for him to catch.

Redfield transferred from Temple College to Sam Houston and had an absurd draft year, slashing .402/.485/.683 with as many walks as strikeouts. He’s similar to former Mississippi State outfielder Jake Mangum in that his super simple, downward-cutting swing allows him to cover the whole plate but produces mostly grounders and line drives. How Redfield develops in center field will be key to his big league future. He could have a very low-end, part-time corner role with his style of contact alone, but if he can actually play center field, then his chances of having a long career improve sizably. He looked just okay there during Eric’s 2023 WAC tourney viewing, but it was hot and teams were playing marathon games all day for a week, so he may not have had his legs. So far in 2024, Redfield has played a mix of all three outfield positions and looks about the same, a little too inconsistent to comfortably project him in center.