Los Angeles Angels Top 28 Prospects
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 third 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 I 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.
Rk | Name | Age | Highest Level | Position | ETA | FV |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Logan O’Hoppe | 23.3 | MLB | C | 2024 | 50 |
2 | Zach Neto | 22.4 | MLB | SS | 2023 | 50 |
3 | Edgar Quero | 20.2 | AA | C | 2025 | 50 |
4 | Nelson Rada | 17.8 | A | CF | 2027 | 45 |
5 | Jack Kochanowicz | 22.5 | AA | SP | 2024 | 40+ |
6 | José Soriano | 24.7 | MLB | SIRP | 2023 | 40+ |
7 | Jake Madden | 21.5 | A | SP | 2026 | 40+ |
8 | Coleman Crow | 22.5 | AA | SP | 2024 | 40 |
9 | Ky Bush | 23.6 | AA | SP | 2025 | 40 |
10 | Walbert Urena | 19.4 | A | SIRP | 2026 | 40 |
11 | Caden Dana | 19.5 | A+ | SP | 2025 | 40 |
12 | Sam Bachman | 23.7 | MLB | SIRP | 2023 | 40 |
13 | Ben Joyce | 22.7 | MLB | SIRP | 2023 | 40 |
14 | Jorge Ruiz | 19.0 | A | LF | 2026 | 40 |
15 | Jadiel Sanchez | 22.1 | A | RF | 2025 | 40 |
16 | Chase Silseth | 23.1 | MLB | MIRP | 2023 | 40 |
17 | Kolton Ingram | 26.6 | AA | SIRP | 2023 | 40 |
18 | Mason Albright | 20.6 | A+ | SP | 2026 | 40 |
19 | Kyren Paris | 21.6 | AA | SS | 2024 | 40 |
20 | Denzer Guzman | 19.4 | A | SS | 2026 | 40 |
21 | Davis Daniel | 26.0 | AAA | SIRP | 2023 | 40 |
22 | Capri Ortiz | 18.2 | R | SS | 2027 | 35+ |
23 | Keythel Key | 19.7 | R | SP | 2027 | 35+ |
24 | Werner Blakely | 21.3 | A+ | 3B | 2025 | 35+ |
25 | Landon Marceaux | 23.7 | AA | SP | 2025 | 35+ |
26 | Kelvin Caceres | 23.4 | AA | SIRP | 2024 | 35+ |
27 | Mo Hanley | 23.9 | A | SIRP | 2026 | 35+ |
28 | Jordyn Adams | 23.7 | AAA | CF | 2023 | 35+ |
Other Prospects of Note
Grouped by type and listed in order of preference within each category.
The 2021 Arms
Brett Kerry, RHP
Luke Murphy, RHP
Eric Torres, LHP
Ryan Costeiu, RHP
Nick Jones, LHP
Braden Olthoff, RHP
Andrew Peters, RHP
Brandon Dufault, RHP
Mason Erla, RHP
We’re now two years removed from the 2021 draft that saw the Angels mostly target fast-moving college pitchers who could help them win during the short window where they still had both Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani. We’re in Ohtani’s contract year now, so how is this going? It has yielded two current members of the big league 40-man roster (Silseth and Bachman), a few other prospects ranked above, and this group. I’ve included the round the pitcher was drafted in behind their name. Kerry (5th, South Carolina) is pitching well in the Double-A rotation despite only sitting 90-92 mph. His breaking ball command is also quite good, and he’s tracking like a spot starter with 40 stuff and plus command. Murphy (4th, Vanderbilt) is pitching out of the Double-A bullpen and sitting 94 with an average slider. He’s upper-level relief depth with two average pitches. Torres (14th, Kansas State) is a soft-tossing lefty reliever who’s having upper-level success. Costeiu (7th, Arkansas) had success in 2022 with a low-90s fastball (which was down from college), an above-average changeup, and an average curveball before being shut down with an elbow issue that has lingered into 2023. Big Nick Jones (8th, Georgia Southern) reached Double-A last season but is currently at High-A, where he’s gotten his walks under control in the bullpen. Olthoff (9th, Tulane) was a one-pitch wonder with a weird delivery and a great slider. Peters (10th, South Carolina) was a durable college starter with a big frame and mid-90s arm strength, but below-average secondaries. Both Olthoff and Peters are on the IL and haven’t pitched this year. Dufault (16th, Northeastern) and Erla (17th, Michigan State) looked good early on after the draft, each sitting 93-97 mph, but Dufault is struggling to throw strikes right now and Erla’s velocity has backed up significantly.
Guys I Overevaluated
Natanael Santana, OF
Jeremiah Jackson, UTIL
D’Shawn Knowles, CF
Adrian Placencia, 2B
Arol Vera, SS
Alexander Ramirez, OF
David Calabrese, OF
Most of this group was working out five miles from my house for two years and I mistakenly thought several of them would hit. I’m endlessly fascinated by the 21-year-old Santana, who has one of the most impressive physiques in pro baseball. He is so fast for a guy his size that I wonder if any college football recruiters reading this post might want to fly in to watch him play and see if he can have some kind of Chris Weinke-like career as a linebacker or running back. He has just missed too many reps because of the pandemic and a 2022 knee injury. Jackson has above-average raw power and a 20-grade hit tool. He’s begun to play several other positions, including center field, an experiment that’s in its very early stages. He could be a piece if he takes to center. Knowles runs well enough to play center field, but his offensive performance has been way below an acceptable level for a prospect for several years now (RIP Pioneer League numbers). My biggest whiffs from this group are Placencia and Vera, who both have swings that are just far too long to be viable, something I should have seen way faster than I did. Vera has filled out considerably at this point and is barely a shortstop anymore. Placencia is still super athletic and projectable, but his arm only fits at second base. Ramirez has plus power and is striking out a ton. Calabrese I was never on all that much; aside from his speed, he was more of a model darling because of his draft day age than a scouting favorite.
Some Complex Dudes
Felix Morrobel, SS
Randy De Jesus, OF
Dario Laverde, C
Anthony Scull, OF
Manuel Cazorla, LHP
I wrapped up seeing the complex group a few nights ago. Morrobel is in the DSL, so I haven’t seen him in person. He signed for $900,000 in January and is a projectable switch-hitting shortstop with a gap-to-gap-approach at present. De Jesus, who signed for $1.2 million, is the big name in Arizona. He’s physically mature, and has strength and modest feel for the barrel. I don’t love how his hands work, as they don’t really load and just fire from a dead stop right now. It’s a tough R/R corner outfield profile. Laverde signed for $350,000. He’s a well-rounded, low-level catching prospect who has only played the position for a few years. There’s no standout tool right now, but he’s a good player to have in your system. Scull is a lefty-hitting Cuban outfielder with 50 speed. With center field probably not in the cards, he’s more of a fifth outfielder type, maybe a Jake Fraley sort of 45 if you like him and he keeps hitting. Cazorla is a projectable lefty who is sitting 88-91 mph and flashing an occasionally good curveball and changeup.
Carve Your Own Path
Kenyon Yovan, RHP
Victor Mederos, RHP
Gustavo Campero, C
Erik Martinez, RHP
Hayden Seig, RHP
This entire group was either acquired by non-traditional means or took some weird, circuitous path here. In high school, Yovan looked like he might grow up to be J.D. Davis, but instead he’s turning into Joe Savery. Yovan dealt with injuries in college at Oregon and tried just hitting for a while. He’s back to pitching and is sitting 94 mph, touching 98, and trying to find a big league slider. Mederos was a famous high schooler with mid-90s heat and a plus breaking ball, but no feel for location. He transferred from Miami to Oklahoma State (neither is especially good at developing arms) and has now been in the Angels system for a year and is still largely the same dude. Campero is a favorite of mine, an athletic 25-year-old switch-hitting catcher and outfielder who crushed 2022-23 winter ball, and is now hitting at High-A. He needs a promotion (and a lot of work on defense still). Martinez, 27, went to Cal through 2018, then pitched in Indy ball and in Mexico for four years before signing his first pro contract in the offseason. His fastball has effective rise/run movement and he has a pretty nasty two-plane sweeper. Seig, a 6-foot-5 24-year-old, was a 2021 undrafted free agent senior from St. Joe’s who somehow has a low-slot delivery that produces a downhill fastball because of his height and upright lower half. He’s currently having A-ball success as a sinker/slider reliever.
System Overview
This is not a good farm system. There’s no one reason for it, and not all of the reasons are bad. Reid Detmers is a big leaguer while a lot of players from the 2020 draft are still prospects. Kyle Bradish and others (mostly pitchers) from the 2018-20 draft classes have been traded and are in other systems. The hit rate on the toolsy athletes who the Halos gravitated toward in the draft for a while has been mixed. Brandon Marsh panned out, Jo Adell looked like he was going to but hasn’t, and Jordyn Adams, Jeremiah Jackson, and a few others have not. At the time, I thought the two-way player experiments (Erik Rivera, William Holmes) were worthwhile, but they cost meaningful draft capital and didn’t work. The players signed by the international program (and I think this is the biggest issue) are not hitting, with guys who received close to $6 million of combined bonus outlay currently hitting a collective .240 at Tri-City. The conservative, need-based approach the Angels took to the 2021 draft meant they failed to cultivate a class with real upside, as the cement was mostly dry on the pitchers they took. Those effects can be felt here.
The big league team is currently 38-32, and scouts are hitting this system hard in anticipation of the team being deadline buyers for the first time in a while. If the Angels are confident Logan O’Hoppe is their catcher of the future, they could move Edgar Quero as the centerpiece of a meaningful trade. Or maybe there’s a club out there that thinks Nelson Rada (who’s really exciting) is already good enough to carry similar weight. Other than that, Los Angeles seems likely to either make some small trades or be outbid by teams with more minor league ammunition. Is there a big fish lurking in the DSL? The Angels really spread their 2023 international bonus pool out among a lot of high-six-figure guys, and that group should be a priority for teams that might be a trade fit come July because the rest of this system is so light.
If the Angels somehow fall comfortably out of contention during the next six weeks and seek to trade Shohei Ohtani, who knows how this system will look. His looming free agency complicates the question, but Shohei is his own thing, and it’s difficult to gauge what they might get for him in return. The Scherzer/Turner trade might offer a fair recent proxy because two premium players moved in one deal, and that’s essentially what Ohtani is (not to mention the marketability, handsomeness, etc.). You can bet that the centerpiece(s) of such a deal would either be plug-and-play big leaguers or the top prospect(s) on this list as soon as it’s consummated.
Eric Longenhagen is from Catasauqua, PA and currently lives in Tempe, AZ. He spent four years working for the Phillies Triple-A affiliate, two with Baseball Info Solutions and two contributing to prospect coverage at ESPN.com. Previous work can also be found at Sports On Earth, CrashburnAlley and Prospect Insider.
Would they be better off over the next 5 years if they trade Trout and Ohtani?
If you can’t build a winner around them (granted they’ve been solid this year) what makes you think they can build one without them?
Definitely if they trade Ohtani; they’d get a major haul back, and he’s not re-signing with the Angels. But they won’t do it, so it’s probably irrelevant.
I don’t know about Trout. They’d be better off if they ate most of his salary to get a ton of big-time prospects back, but if they’re just dumping his salary they would just be a worse team without anything to show for it. But he has a no-trade clause, so again, I don’t think this is happening.
Michael Harris for Trout, who says no?
The Braves. It’s tempting but although Harris isn’t as good as he was in 2022, he’s also not as bad as he has been so far in 2023.
Harris is heating up too. But I agree ATL says no. Unless the Angels take a ton of his salary.
Pfft. The only reason the Braves turn this down is if they think the number of years left on Trout’s deal is _literally_ too much.
Trout enjoys golfing and going to Eagles games in October way too much to sign off on a trade to a contender
sports media loves bashing Damian Lillard for not forcing a trade out of Portland. Yet they never mention the fact Trout is seemingly content to finish his career with just 3 playoff games played
Trout is Angels baseball. Ohtani might be another story; however, you don’t want to be the one that trades the new Babe Ruth…
If the Angels do trade Ohtani Arte Moreno should be forced to stage a production of No No Nanette
The Red Sox fans wouldn’t care at all if the team traded two months of Babe Ruth. Contracts back then were obviously different from what they are now. The Angels could always offer him the biggest contract this offseason if they want him back.