Get it at Home Depot.
Unless “it” is a major league baseball team with a divine team theme.
The Angels are no longer for sale, as of this week.
I’m about 99.9 percent sure the non-sale is not connected to the club’s minor league system, but I can say this group was a pleasant surprise late in the process. Best system Los Angeles of Arte-time has seen in a long time, and the best part is that the best players look like high-probability major league hitters.
Format: Position Player | Age on 4/1/23 | Highest Level Played | ETA
1. SS Zach Neto | 22 | AA | 2023
Here’s what I wrote about Neto in my Top 15 for 2023 First-Year-Player Dynasty Drafts this summer.
“Not many options for those seeking a college bat with speed who could cruise through the minors quickly enough to help you sometime soon in the standings. As a bonus, the Angels don’t have anyone blocking anything on the middle infield, with the possible exception of Luis Rengifo, who I’ve been adding and trading for across my leagues because I believe in his steps forward this season. One downside is Neto’s oversized leg kick, something he ditches with two strikes in favor of a contact-oriented approach. The big front leg isn’t necessarily bad, and I like that he’s got a two-strike approach, but he might need some adept coaching along the way in making the leap from Campbell and the Big South Conference. He’s hit well in wooden bat leagues against college arms, which assuages some of the small school concerns.”
Since then, Neto has in fact cruised through the minors quickly. He played 30 Double-A games and slashed .320/.382/.492 with four home runs and four stolen bases. It’ll be hard to hold him back in the minors if he replicates that success this coming season. He was seventh on this post-draft list and will be higher than that when I shuffle up and deal a new ranking.
2. C Logan O’Hoppe | 23 | MLB | 2022
The bandwagon has filled up in a hurry, and the Angels could look pretty clever for finding the Phillies a center fielder down the stretch in 2022. My only quibble would be that this team already had a dynamic catching prospect in Edgar Quero, but he’s a long way away, and the Angels actually look pretty competitive for 2023. In 104 games across two minor league levels, O’Hoppe hit 26 home runs and stole seven bases, slashing.283/.416/.544 with 74 strikeouts and 70 walks. He finished the season with the week in the majors and figures to open 2023 as the starting catcher, where his elite plate skills, plus power and open runway make him a fun redraft sleeper with an ADP of 244.
3. C Edgar Quero | 19 | A | 2025
It’s unclear why Quero spent the whole season in Low-A despite, but it’s probably not due to anything that happens in the batter’s box, where Quero spent the season slashing .312/.435/.530 with a 17.7 percent strikeout rate and 14.2 percent strikeout rate. He’s 5’11” 170 lb switch hitter, and it’s a little absurd for a switch-hitting catcher to be this complete this young. If O’Hoppe takes well to the primary gig at the major league level, Quero might be sent on a journey around the diamond a la Endy Rodriguez. Quero doesn’t have Endy’s athleticism, but you’ve got to move a hitter like this up the levels. Waiting around for plus defense to materialize behind the plate feels idealistic to me. Give him crash courses at first base and left field and see what happens. Catching suppresses a player’s natural athleticism, as we’ve seen with Dalton Varsho and MJ Melendez looking much different as outfielders than they did as backstops.
4. SS Livan Soto | 23 | MLB | 2022
The club’s best hitter for about three weeks in September, Soto’s big league slash line was .400/.414/.582 in 18 games. He started at shortstop in 11 of the final 12 games and slashed .475/.488/.650 with a 222 wRC+ and 13.6 percent strikeout rate. Soto feels like an out-of-nowhere utility player, but he’s actually one of the big-ticket John Coppolella signings that Atlanta forfeited when baseball made them the scapegoat for somewhat standard practices on the international market. The Angels swooped in for $850,000 and have been bringing Soto along slowly since then.
The trouble with Soto is that he’s never really hit, though. Certainly not like he did last year. His best wRC+ is the 104 he posted in Double-A on the strength of a .281/.379/.362 slash line with six home runs and 18 steals in 119 games. You have to look behind the lines on this guy, and it shouldn’t be that hard. He got swallowed up in scandal as a teenager then missed the pandemic season. He’d only played 64 slap-hitting games at Low-A before 2020, so it’s kind of like his on-field, stateside career began in 2021. Listed at 6’0” 160 lbs, Soto’s ultimate fate will come down to muscle. If he can keep adding functional strength and incorporating that into his swing, he’s got the defense, hit tool and plate skills to carve out a long career. The club is thick with infielders after acquiring Brandon Drury and Gio Urshella, so although Soto looked like a potential breakout in 2022, he’ll likely head to Triple-A. Even if someone gets hurt, Urshella and David Fletcher could come off the bench, so he’ll have to force his way into the lineup.
5. SS Kyren Paris | 21 | AA | 2024
So I have to wonder if the Angels have something special going on at Double-A Rocket City. It’s a few small sample sizes in a hitter-friendly park, but the club got breakouts from Livan Soto and Kyren Paris at the level in 2022, and Zach Neto went there right out of the draft and painted the town red. Paris played in Double-A for just 14 games, but he was 20 at the time and laid waste to the competition, slashing .359/.510/.641 with three home runs and five stolen bases. While the sample is obviously small enough to smirk, Paris was always going to come quick if he could put it all together. A double-plus athlete with double-plus speed, Paris could jump into the consensus Top-50 range with a solid start to 2023. Could just as easily fall back if he loses the thread back in Double-A, but I’m betting he’s on a rocket ship out of that city.
6. RHP Ben Joyce | 22 | AA | 2023
Carlos Estevez was brought in to be the club’s closer, or part of the Jimmy Herget committee anyway, and I like him a lot. Running some rough, back-of-the-envelope math, his 1.18 WHIP in Coors equates to a 0.08 WHIP in Anaheim. I only mention the back of that major league bullpen because Joyce went straight to Double-A and dominated (2.08 ERA, 20 K, 0 HR in 13 IP) after being drafted 89th overall in 2022. He tops out well above 100 mph and sits triple digits with his heater. Slider’s solid, too. Might not be a ton his guy can learn in the minors. Looks likely to open 2023 in Triple-A and could be the team’s best closing option by June. You don’t draft a guy like Joyce to watch him waste a bunch of bullets in the minors.
7. 3B Werner Blakely | 21 | A | 2025
A fourth-round pick in the 2020 draft, Blakely is a 6’3” 185 lb left-handed hitter who came into his own in 2022, slashing .295/.447/.470 with five home runs and 24 stolen bases in 55 games. 2023 looks ripe to become a multi-level campaign if Blakely is good early at High-A. He’s a little passive for my tastes at the moment (19.1 percent walk rate, 29.8 % K), but that’s a very base-ball young hitter against pitchers who typically struggle to repeat deliveries and fill up the zone. He’s no Emmanuel Rodriguez, but if you’re one of the big-time E-Rod believers, you should probably scoop up a free Blakely when you get a chance.
8. OF Nelson Rada | 17 | DSL | 2027
Signed for $1.85 million as a 16-year-old last January, Rada impressed in his first pro season, slashing .311/.446/.439 with 26 walks, 26 strikeouts and 27 stolen bases in 50 DSL contests. At 5’10” 160 lbs, Rada will have to build functional strength across time while maintaining the premium hand-eye skills that made him a high-dollar signing. I think he’s a high-probability player who will rise quickly within the organization and the public-facing ranking systems.
9. LHP Ky Bush and RHP Chase Silseth
With apologies to both guys, I just didn’t want to leave one of them off the list, and I didn’t want to leave the org without discussing Sam Bachman and Nelson Rada. Silseth (22) jumped to the majors and got rocked in the general sense but looked like a legit big leaguer at times, particularly in his debut, when he threw six shutout innings and allowed just one hit against Oakland.
Bush is a 6’6” 240 lb lefty with a plus fastball and plus slider who posted a 1.18 WHIP in 103 Double-A innings. Like most Angels prospects, Bush (23) was pushed on an aggressive timeline after being selected 45th overall in 2021. I suspect the club sees both these guys contributing major league innings at some point in 2023.
10. RHP Sam Bachman | 23 | AA | 2024
An utterly baffling selection (to me, others liked him a lot) at ninth overall in 2021, Sam Bachman opened 2022 in Double-A and stalled out there, striking out just 30 batters and walking 25 across 43.2 innings pitched. It’s easy for Captain Hindsight to jump in and say Andrew Painter when 13th and Sal Frelick went 15th, but the draft is hard. I’m just not big into draft-creep velocity-surges from thick bodies who have relievery deliveries. Pretty easy profile to just avoid in my opinion. He’s still on this list because a lot of their other candidates are far away, but also because I can take the chance to ask anyone rostering Bachman to drop him now and add him later if he looks good early this year. If someone else gets in in the interim, so it goes. Opens up a roster spot to use on Paris or Blakely.
Thanks for reading!
I’m @theprospectitch on Twitter.
