Welcome all to the dawn of the 2025 baseball season. Across Phoenix and Florida this week pitchers, catchers, and quite a few position players reported to training camp. By this time next week, Cactus League play will be underway.
NCAA’s 2025 season also kicks off today with a full slate of games and several tournaments. With the Angels holding the second overall pick we will be following NCAA baseball much more than we have in the past.
Here are some key dates for the NCAA season and Nolan will be doing a weekly column on the top handful of players who might get drafted second overall and some who might be around at pick 47.
As this is an Angels site, we created an Angels Fan Guide to the 2025 NCAA season to help get you started.
And, as this is an Angels fan site, let’s get to the Angels news of the week.
Kenley Jansen, come on down. Jansen returns to Southern California and continues to bolster his Hall of Fame chances with every save he gets. That excellent link from FanGraphs also illustrates how he’s evolved as a pitcher the last few seasons.
Ultimately he provides a veteran anchor to what will largely be an unproven bullpen and I love it. Kenley is known to be active in the community and a great teammate. If the goal for this year is to let the kids develop and learn how to compete at the MLB level, having a guy like Jansen around is great.
If there was any doubt about the Angels dedication to the youth movement, the bobblehead schedule should dispel it. Neto, O’Hoppe, Joyce, and Schanuel will be honored with bouncing statuettes this season.
Another veteran, Robert Stephenson could be in the bullpen in April or May. Both Stephenson and shortstop Zach Neto received good news regarding their injuries this week.
Let the hopium begin….
The biggest stories out of training camp will be health. When will Neto be healthy, can Trout stay healthy, and of course how does the rotation shake out. The main site took a look at all three of those questions while I did a deeper dive on the rotation.
One person who will not be healthy or a part of the 2025 Angels is Anthony Rendon. He’s going to have hip surgery so he can collect his salary but I doubt he’s going to be part of the Angels again. If so, this is a fitting end to a disastrous contract and Rendon not calling manager Ron Washington back is a fitting end to Rendon’s behavior as an Angel.
Washington spoke with media yesterday. I love the shots of the players in action.
So did the Angels largest off season acquisition.
From around baseball:
The Padres took two interesting gambles this week. One was on Nick Pivetta on a four year deal. Then they brought Kyle Hart back from Korea on a one year deal with a club option for 2026. Now with a plethora of pitching, the Padres are expected to keep both Dylan Cease and Michael King and make another run at October.
Up north, the LA Deferrals signed both Clayton Kershaw and Kike Hernandez.
Enjoy your weekend and link what I missed. Happy Valentine’s Day to you couples who celebrate and you might catch me at the Dirtbags game on Sunday depending on weather and a couple of other things.
We’re 8 days away from Angels baseball!
