Nelson Rada scored a run in the top of the fifth inning at the Futures Game. Tyler Bremner faced one batter and got him out.
The Angels picked Jared Grindlinger at number 12 overall. He is a left fielder and left handed pitcher. They grabbed the son of Reggie Willits with their first pick of day 2. He is a shortstop. Here are the other Angels picks.
Zac Gallen has elbow inflammation so the Diamondbacks put him on the injured list. Rangers reliever Chris Martin is on the injured list with shoulder impingement. The Giants activated right-hander Jason Foley from the 60 day injured list. Reds left-hander Nick Lodolo has a boo boo.
The Red Sox DFAd lefty Danny Coulombe. The Nationals designated left-hander Matt Krook for assignment. The Brewers acquired infielder Braden Shewmake from the Astros for cash. The Mets released outfielder Jared Oliva.
Photo credit: Rex Fregosi
There are rumors beginning to pickup that the Phillies are looking for OF help and Adell is 1 of their targets. Any decent prospects in their system of interest? Usually with a Dave Dombrowski team, the cupboard is pretty empty by year 3 of his reign.
The Phillies don’t have a great farm system but Adell does not have great trade value, either.
Ramon Marquez, a 20 year old recently promoted to A ball is somebody I mentioned and have seen mentioned in other pieces.
Adell may have more trade value than we realize as mentioned by P12 at the bottom.
Yes, scarcity and his numbers against lefties could net us a better return than expected.
Thus far my favorite hypothetical is the Cozart kid in Cleveland. We need backstops. Pairing him with Flores in AA could net us our long term tandem behind the dish.
Angels are too slow, last year he was commanding more in return. 2026 had been regression.
Yea we messed up not trading Jo in the offseason. I’m not gonna say he would’ve brought back a haul, but it would’ve been a strong package with every team looking for a power hitting RH OF
BA 2027 draft mock is already up and they are using Tankathon.
We are #1. I don’t have a subscription but they say
California prep shortstop Dylan Seward seems to have separated himself on the high school side.
My guy ASU Sun Devil Langdon Hariston OF, Golden Spikes runner up, will be at the top too.
This is going to be a fun year to watch for me. So many kids my kid has played against over the years. 5 in the top 50 are locals he’s played against, most of them many times.
Dax Whitney and a host of other top talent will be available with the Angels picking in the 1-5 range.
If Dax can return to form after his injury
Yeah, Dax going under the knife really came at a bad time for him. He’ll slide out of the top 10-15 and maybe out of the first round.
I’ll copy over here, just for fun:
Plenty of talent in the top six, no matter where the lottery places them. Of course, there’s a year to go, and who knows who will emerge, and what health issues might pop up.
A really interesting tidbit from Mcllvaine yesterday:
The organization wants to build a core of players that advance through the minors together. The goal is to get the high school pitchers drafted last year in the same clubhouses as the college kids picked this season and let them bond and grow together.
He cited Willits in particular as a good clubhouse guy but also that all of the college guys came from winning programs and he wants that influence on the high schoolers.
It definitely sounds like an actual development program rather than a race to the bigs.
This all sounds good. I really liked the Willits pick.
Interesting the focus on winning programs. Clearly – if some dude was stuck on a bad program or a program with a down year – they would have still taken him. But this tells me they gave a premium to guys that know how to win. Kind of like that idea.
Moore and Shores and Snead can share their Omaha rings with Willits. That’s why I’m still a strong believer in Moore and Shores. Champion pedigree means a bunch to me.
Get them to Tempe to join Gray and Slawinski and Ford! It’d be a surprise if high schoolers heads to Tri City or RC right away.
A very sound strategy, good to hear.
I’ve always thought the reason why the trash cans sustained their success for a long period was because their “kids” grew up together and arrived close to each other in the majors. Obviously, there were other reasons why they were successful. But there’s no doubt those players have pedigree (which is why they didn’t have to cheat, but still did anyway).
Jeff, I assume minors development is not under McIlvaine?
It would be nice to hear if there will be a different direction of development under Moz, even if temporarily. I have previously read development programs under Servais (“The Angel Way”), Eppler and Perry.
It was/is Joey Prebynski. I believe he is still in his role as Assistant GM, Player Development. He’s there until a new GM changes it up. Don’t think Moz will get his hands dirty with this.
Moz’s last big act may probably be the trade deadline. But still, I would like to see him have a chance to have a stamp on the minors. The Cards had a solid development program. If the Angels can even replicate half of that, it would be a boon 4-5 years down the road.
Yeah, nobody has been fired yet. Mo will keep everybody in their jobs until the end of the season.
For one, there aren’t any readily available replacements we would want.
Secondly, this gives Mo a chance to evaluate who we have. Maybe there are decent employees who were just given bad directives and deserve to stick around.
I’m not going to say Mcllvaine does or does not, but I think we all agree we have a better perception of him today than we did last week. Same could be said for others.
First free agent signing
https://bryantbulldogs.com/news/2026/7/13/baseball-wensley-signs-free-agent-contract-with-los-angeles-angels.aspx
I like him better than the relief pitchers.
As an HBHS alum, I’m happy to see the Halos take another kid from there. Hopefully he’s better than Conger was so I can justify paying for his jersey.
I loved seeing another VPHS guy on the Angels. We had Trumbombs. What rhymes with Grohovac?
I really like the Grohovac signing. The kid is a die hard Angels fan. He has pop. He’s cut his K rate in half. Really want to get to interview him.
It’s nice to sign Angel fans, because they will have reasonable expectations about what it’s like to play there.
Inquirer on what he did to cutdown on his K rate. His runs per AB went up
So he did not sacrifice power.
I just met him last week but didn’t know he was getting drafted let alone by the angels. Hes my next door neighbors daughters boyfriend. Built like a rock. Really hope he pans out
That would be a lot of fun for you. I see free tickets in your future.
Yeah, he has a stocky muscular build. I saw his family video when his name got called as being picked by the Angels. His dad did not look too pleased the Angels picked him. Being himself a college baseball coach, he’s familiar enough with how the team is being managed.
Trout and the Big A this season:
Now that we are at the all star break, with a large sampling size, so taking a look at Trouts stats at home this season. Spoiler alert: they are terrible.
AB’s 129
Hits: 27
HR’s: 5
RBI’S: 9 !!
Doubles: 5
Runs Scored: 22
BA: .209
K rate: over 30%
And Fielding Bible rates him as one of the worst defensive outfielders in mlb.
This season is a goner anyway, but his lack of production at home has definitely not been helpful.
That’s why Meckler was my ALL Star pick and vote.
Yep
Love Trout but his days in CF need to end yesterday.
Trade Adell to Cleveland for AA catcher Cozart.
Call up Rada and let him play CF
Move Trout to either corner and DH.
Best use of the current roster would be to have Trout DH and play Meckler in Left. If you play Trout in LF, Meckler has to sit and Trout was awful in RF. After trading Adel, RF could be a Siri/Lowe Platoon.
I agree. Trout is deserving of being a hall of famer and his number retired by the Angels. But every player has their late autumn in their career and Trout has reached his. It’s grossly unfair so many injuries has wrecked several of his prime years, but it is what it is.
Perhaps Trout will get blazing hot in remainder of season, but at this stage, it’s too little too late for this season.
Baseball is a business, like other big businesses, its sentimental but hard. If the wins are not sufficient, and eleven consecutive seasons of futility for this franchise is deplorable. Changes are happening with the Halos. Firing Perry, a different draft philosophy (which you guys covered brilliantly) are a good start. Next on this list should be a possible buy out, of Trouts contract. It takes two to tango with that. Make it worth Trouts while and spread the money, at a discount, over 10 years or so. Either that or his career will be a part time DH in Anaheim.
The Angels outfield now is a disaster. Trout, Adell and Lowe are three of the worst defensive outfielders in mlb and their offense doesn’t nearly offset that.
I agree Jeff, time for the trades to begin, and the young guys to be brought up. Trout should become the DH, probably down in the batting order.
That’s my two cents.
Thanks.
I’m perfectly fine with Trout’s autumn being here but not in CF.
Soler will be off the roster soon and I think a trade of Adell sets a lot of things in motion. Let Trout spend the next couple of years DH’ing and playing some corner outfield.
Rada’s speed was so evident in the Futures Game yesterday. Let’s bring that up.
The Trout decline is sad to watch. I say that as a fan of him, he was my favorite player to watch in his prime. I fear he will have a painful decline, Pujols 2.0, but at least without Albert’s horrible attitude, Mike will always be a great guy.
He hates DHing, but it makes the most sense, especially if includes DFAing Soler. Let’s get rid of that Minasian mistake ASAP.
I’m happy to watch Mike DH until his contract runs out. He’s going into the HOF as an Angel. He can still break records.
there’s nothing shameful about moving. My first favorite player, way back when, had already moved before I was old enough to know anything, from the outfield to first base and that was Stan Musial. So DH for Mikey is fine and, now that I think about it, why not first base?
That’s what they used to do. I’m afraid he’d get hurt.
Had not even considered first base. Does require some diving, but following the Erstad plan makes sense.
Harper did this, yes?
Yes.
It’s also where the Cubs stashed Ernie Banks in his final years.
yea his OF defense could be mostly fixed just by him playing at a regular depth for major league centerfielders. He’d get to way more balls and all he would lose is how long he gets to watch homers at the wall. Being shallower would also allow him to throw people out on the bases which he just never does now playing so deep. I know he plays comfortable deep but we need someone on the team to shake him out of his comfort level on defense.
And why hasn’t that happened? I have heard Terry Smith and Mark Langston comment on that various subject multiple times this season, i.e. how it hurts the pitching staff.
That’s a fair question. Seems like there are multiple coaches and other personnel who should know this and tell the manager who tells the players. But that doesn’t seem to happen with the Angels. And if you think about it, this problem has been around for years most likely. So why hasn’t this been changed?
He’s an Angels legend and management is giving plenty of room here. Giving the roster this year, I really have turned an eye to his woes.. Perry and his Manager decided to allow him a chance this year to reclaim CF. Not the best decision. This will change by next year or perhaps earlier.
While we could fix the No. 8 position with Teodosio, still think there are defensive limitations at the No. 2, 3, 4 , 5, 7 and 9. As a team, Angels rank 26-28 in defensive errors, this cannot be all on Mike. I’m hopping Guzman can help here to turn this around.
There was an OF coach maybe 9-10 years ago (Ebel, maybe?), who said he taugh the OF’ers, including Trout, to play shallower and get used to moving backwards chasing the ball, rather than playing deep and moving forward. Trout said he’s been taught all his life to play deep and chase forward, so doing it the other way was an adjustment to him
Did Trout kick your dog or take the last egg roll in front of you at a Chinese buffet?
The vast majority of your posts are just different ways to slam him. He’s not going anywhere and will probably play CF until his legs fall off.
I’m not slamming Trout, just telling it like it is. I recall this site slamming Taylor Ward for his defense, yet he is a better outfielder than Trout. If Trout is a sacred cow, so be it, but the hugely overriding topic here for a long time, and rightly so, is the perennial losers the Angels are. Trout has done little for the past six years to change that. Not all his fault, injuries and all, but it is what it is. If he stays in CF with the mediocre offense he provides, that lessens the chance of turning the losers around and getting new blood in the line up. If his wasn’t Trout, he would getting the same treatment from some as did previous outfielders the Angels had.
As mentioned previously, my main hope is he keeps climbing the bWAR ladder and playing CF helps that so I vote to keep him in CF.
Mike first, then what’s best for the team 😂
If someone can definitively say that the difference between the Angels making the playoffs vs not making the playoffs is Trout playing CF when he’s not supposed to, then move his ass out of there. As it is, it doesn’t make a difference whether it’s Siri, Teodosio, Meckler, etc. This team has a lot of holes. This team is not a Trout DH or Trout corner OF move away from playoffs.
As such, let him play there until his legs fall off, like someone else said. If playing CF gives him a good mindset offensively, then so be it.
You are correct, but if all of the potential incremental improvements are approached that same way, nothing is going to change. You have to start somewhere. If we had no real options then I might agree, but the fact is that Trout playing in CF is keeping Nelson Rada, who is an elite defensive CF, from playing CF. We’re either attempting to get better or we’re not.
In response to Terry, Trout’s offense is not mediocre, He is currently the 9th best hitter in the AL the 20th best in all of baseball. Only 5 players in the AL make and out less often than Trout.
Is Rada ready to be called up AND actually stick in the majors? If yes, sure, have the hard conversation with Trout. Liken it to when Torii moved out of CF for him. But the Angels were in a much different position then. They were competitive and had high expectations of playoffs.
If they will call up Rada only to bench him or yo-yo him between the majors and minors, I’d argue it’s even worse for his development than just playing him everyday.
For the record, I like what they’re doing with Denzer. Let the kid have a real experience at the majors, take his beatings and letting him learn from it. But again, it’s not like there is another viable option at the position. And it’s not like he’s also blocking Rendon from playing.
I don’t disagree with what you just said, but I think they should call him up and have him play every day and find out.
We should chill a little on the shrill declarations of injustice allowing Trout to block Rada. Yes. Trout sucks. But Rada is young. More than that, people here keep talking about him like the PCL just can’t contain him. He’s a KID with a .740 OPS IN THE PCL.
That doesn’t scream READY at me at all. There is a good chance that he’s still working on some things that I don’t know about. For example, what’s his GB rate? I have no clue. But I do know there are a half dozen issues he could have that’ll make him a.550 OPS guy in the MLB real fast. If he’s having any of them why not let the kid suss it out in SLC?
Yes, it’s a lost season with a sad floppy Trout. That doesn’t mean we have to throw Rada to the wolves. He’ll be around for a while. He’ll likely get some late season games with the big club too, wet his whistle before this next Spring Training.
That is also a reasonable path.
I’m not sure playing CF is helping his WAR, though. He is a big negative defensively per both BB Ref and FanGraphs.
Wouldn’t taking the same offense and being a plus defender in a corner be at least as good if not better WAR wise?
As someone who knows nothing about the draft other than reading the rankings and the blurbs, I like it a lot. Moz turned the reins over to his team, and they seemed to draft best available based on their own evaluations. Grindlinger seems like a fine pick based on what was available, who has a ton of upside. Most importantly, he was a statement that we are no longer looking for mediocrity that will get to the mayors most quickly.
Next step for Moz, further replenish by getting a haul for who will get us the biggest return. I don’t believe anyone should be exempt, if the price is right.
To me, yesterday was a freedom from the bad days of Minasian. I will know more the day after the trade deadline.
Yeah. It was a top ten draft at least. Pretty darn good.
Following the Break can we please start to have a line up that makes sense and takes advantage of what people are doing. I would at least like to see Meckler, Schanuel, Trout, and Neto 1-4. After that is kind of a crapshoot. The 2 best on base guys other than Trout followed by the 2 best power hitters. What a novel concept.
Jeff – Nice draft recap. The new strategy is a move in the right direction. We may have underrated how much damage Perry was doing to the club.
Where is it?
Never mind, I googled it.
Me too, SI, sorry.
Thank you.
The talks with Mcllvaine were really eye opening. Too bad I screwed up on recording the second one.
He sounded like a guy who was in a bad relationship and is amazed that his new girlfriend treats him decently.
What will be interesting to see is if Mo keeps him around.
What a shot of fresh air. Minasian always had the built in excuse of Arturo, but he was genuinely bad at his job, and apparently not a good guy to guys in the org as well as to the fanbase.
Has Perry said anything since he was jettisoned?
Jeff, that would be quite the scoop getting him on record anything he wants to say and get off his chest!
My guess is he wants to work again, so bad-mouthing the owner in the press isn’t a way to endear yourself to the other owners. Anyone inside the industry knows the limitations he faced working for the Angels.
Arte’s meddling has been well documented for years. Not like there would be any surprises if Perry said anything.
He’s a ghost and would be wise to just sit tight and be quiet. Nobody is surprised.
Arte is also a ghost.
Molly, however, is very out and about at games. I see her almost every time I go to a game and usually on the diamond club patio.
From McIlvaine’s comments and Fletcher’s reporting it seems like the team is not entertaining Grindlinger as a 2-way player, which is deflating because the kid has the talent and ability to try and do both. That was the reason I was so hyped about the selection, but oh well.
Gitcho made an interesting comp to Yelich, and I think all of us would be ecstatic if Grindlinger’s career turns out anything close to 45 WAR and an MVP.
Mcllvaine left the door open just a tiny crack for the two way thing. Said the focus now will be on the bat and they’ll see how it plays out.
Grindlinger ultimately controls whether he is allowed to be a two-way player. If he believes in his skills, he still has the option to go to Tennessee, where he can further hone his talents.
If being a two-way player is not important to him, he’ll sign with the Angels since McIlvaneh has made his position known.
The only thing I didn’t like is drafting more relief pitchers. I would’ve preferred lottery tickets on hitting, which is the most sorely lacking in our system, That is a nit pick as the early picks were used to address my concern.
I understand but it’s a shame we aren’t even gonna give the kid a fair shot at it. He’s nasty on the mound
I totally agree. Now is not the time for the Angels to limit options in developing a player. If I’m the scouting director, I’m telling the kid we’re going to develop you to be the best two-way player since Ohtani.
If in 3 or 4 years, the two-way thing hasn’t worked out, then choose with the player to focus on his strength. The kid will still only be 20 years old!
Per Mcllvaine the sides have discussed this and have an understanding. They are going to start with the bat and see where it goes from there. Nothing is set in stone as of yet.
The kid is 17. He has a long development curve. For now they want to get him into the organization, focus on the bat, and keep an open mind.
The way I’m reading it is,
open mind = pitching is a fallback if the kid can’t hit. We will not have him do both.
Of course to your point he’s 17 and just got drafted.
Paul Skenes can hit. But he’s dominant on the bump. So hard to do both at a professional level. That’s what makes Shoehei such a freak.
Michael Lorenzen was a LEGIT hitter. Even in the minors. Even when he was on the Reds there was talk of playing him in the OF.
I think that, if Grindlinger eventually shows the ability to do both in the MiLB they will let him try, but we won’t see him in the MLB till he’s 22 years old…. that’s a lot of skills to develop to a top 99.9% of humans level.
In reading between the lines I think it is:
For now, though, they feel the offense is the way to go and will start him as a normal outfielder.
It would be so cool to develop him as a two-way. If he somehow succeeded, it would be a tremendous win for that pick. With the add on of being a local guy.
My bet is he only becomes a two way guy if one thing or another just comes to him naturally. If he can just plain hit, then he can focus on pitching. If he throws harder and still has a nasty second pitch by the time he’s 20 and he doesn’t have to work at pitching then he gets some bullpen innings while working on OF/Hitting and then maybe they try to get him a third pitch….
But if he has to work hard to get to an MLB level at either one it’s not gonna happen.
Agreed.
Half the questions Tim fielded were on the two way thing and without actually saying it he basically said “let’s get one thing good first.”
Fletcher, Blum, and at least one other guy (TBW?) all asked.
They’ll see how the hitting goes then adjust from there.
Look at it this way. He’s gonna be a highly active prospect. If it turns out he’s crushing it in the complex league, moves on to Rancho early, puts on 20 lbs of muscle by the time he’s 19 and says “Hey, I want to throw a couple BPs and see what’s what.” and lo and behold he’s popping 99 MPH and still spins off speed pitches after knocking the rust off….
Do you honestly think the Angels are gonna say “Fk that. The day we drafted him we said he’s gonna be a hitter and that’s all he’s gonna do!” No. They’ll literally have three more years of him on the farm where they can figure out how to add pitching to his mix.
He can already pitch. It’s much harder to “take advantage of his two way ability” on the hitting side. If he gets that under control the pitching, at least physically, will come back to him pretty fast.
I don’t think they are gonna refuse to develop him as a pitcher. But he’s 17. Hitting is hard. His arm will still be attached when he’s 19. They can let him get comfortable as an OF and then reevaluate their options with him before he gets out of A Ball. It’s not really a big thing.
🍺 Crying in my beer, Hernandez and Anderson looked awesome yesterday in the futures, woulda, shoulda, coulda. Moving on, Jeff has a complete draft run down of our picks that is upbeat and a must read. Home Run Derby on Netflick later today, is MLB making mistakes with using a lot of different streaming platforms? It seems to this ‘Ol Guy that it makes it difficult to say involved unless you are to purchase all these different streaming sites. The good news with losing and being in last place is that we will have a decent drafting position next June.. Wheeler, pitcher on the the Phillies is butt hurt about being invited to the All-Star game after another player passed on playing in the game after being named to play because of injury and Wheeler says he doesn’t want to join 5 other Phillies on the roster (give me a break) and accuses MLB of being disrespectful. You, Mr. Wheeler are the one missing out and no one cares if you are there. You know, I miss “Bommer” calling the HR Derby (Back, back, back, it’s gone!)
Nolan Schanuel
March/April
126 PA
.239 / .302 / .372
7.9% BB rate
15.1% K rate
May/June/July
194 PA
.299 / .371 / .414
8.3% BB rate
15% K rate
Good player.
I truly thought that he was a bad pick when drafted and someone questioned me harshly for expressing my opinion. Since last season I thought that this would be a breakout season for Schanny, but maybe in the next 2 1/2 months he will improve considerly more and not be replaced by the new team. He is a .300+ 20 HR, .370 OBP with gap power type hitter. BTW, at this point I was right about him being a first round draft pick, I hope I was wrong though. 🙂
He needs to get to your aspirational numbers to be viable, as well as work on his fielding, and his mental approach, which is a bit of a space cadet, to be charitable. I’ve always thought of him as James Loney, 2.0 Not a very good pick, but better than some of Minasian’s truly awful ones.
Schanuel is a perfect example of Perry telling the scouts what to find him rather than listening to the scouts.
Matt Shaw, Kyle Teel, and Bryce Eldridge were picked right after Schanuel but Perry wanted a first baseman who was plug and play.
He’d just drafted Neto and Shaw was a SS. He’d traded for O’Hoppe and Teel is a catcher.
It was a really stupid way to run a draft room.
Perhaps someday he will do what you say, but up until now, his performance has been extremely consistent and predicable.
Year Slash Line HR RBI BB OPS+
2024 250/343/362/706 13 54 68 100
2025 264/352/389/742 12 53 59 110
2026 275/344/397/741 6 35 26 110
He is remarkably consistent. Even in your splits above, it looks like the only real difference is better BABIP luck.
I wish he could reach down deep for just a little bit more power, just get to that 20 HR mark and push that OPS closer to .800
He also wasn’t healthy to start the year. I think I’ve given up on him tapping in to more power.
Neto, Guzman and Moore all hit for power and can help balance out the infield with Schanuel being an atypical contact hitting 1st baseman.
The draft results are encouraging. I’m cautiously optimistic that the trend will continue with the trade deadline.
I will be once they make one real move. Making a play like moving Adell for a bullpen catcher contributor will be more of the same. I actually look at him as a sweetener – because he’s almost worthless right now.
There will be a trade market for Adell for one main reason — the entire league is searching for a RH power OFer.
Amongst all qualified RH OFers, Adell has the 13th highest SLG at .395, and that’s 3rd highest amongst qualified RH RFers.
Some team will believe they can unlock him back to his 2025 version who mashed 37 HR. Plus they get another year of control.
I certainly hope so.
I think Pineapple is probably right – because the potential to break out for a month or so is still there. It still won’t be much – but it could be a small piece that could pan out.
There is definitely a market for him, he’s very high upside to a team that knows what they’re doing and uses him correctly.