{"id":466994,"date":"2026-02-08T19:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T19:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/466994\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T19:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T19:21:09","slug":"looking-at-the-angels-infield-options","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/466994\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking At The Angels’ Infield Options"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Angels have had a quiet offseason. It can be argued their biggest move was restructuring Anthony Rendon<\/a>\u2019s final year under contract, with the two parties deferring his $38MM salary over five years. In terms of adding to the roster, the club signed Jordan Romano<\/a>, Drew Pomeranz<\/a>, Kirby Yates<\/a>, and recently Brent Suter<\/a> for the bullpen. They\u2019ve also bought low on Alek Manoah<\/a>, Grayson Rodriguez<\/a>, and Josh Lowe<\/a> (the latter two by trade) and re-signed Yoan Moncada<\/a> to play third base.<\/p>\n

With Moncada being a returning player, the Angels\u2019 infield hasn\u2019t seen much of an upgrade. Perhaps that\u2019s due to financial uncertainty. The club recently terminated its contract with Main Street Sports and may consider turning over their broadcasts to MLB \u2013 generally a less-lucrative arrangement. Whatever the reason, the team\u2019s infield still has some question marks, especially at second base. What options do the Angels have at present? Let\u2019s take a look at the possibilities:<\/p>\n

Christian Moore<\/a><\/p>\n

Moore is the incumbent at the keystone after Luis Rengifo<\/a>, who led Angels second basemen with 260 plate appearances last year, became a free agent. He was the club\u2019s first-round draft pick in 2024 and will get plenty of opportunities on that basis alone. That said, Moore struggled mightily at the plate in his debut season in 2025. In 184 PA across 53 games, he batted .198\/.284\/.370 and graded out 18% below average by wRC+. His 10.3% walk rate was a positive, but that was outweighed by a 33.7% strikeout rate. Moore also has room for improvement on defense, with Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average both taking a negative view of his work at the keystone. The key for him in 2026 will be making more consistent contact and getting on base so he can take advantage of his 78th-percentile speed.<\/p>\n

Vaughn Grissom<\/a><\/p>\n

Grissom was acquired from the Red Sox two months ago. He owns a career line of .255\/.309\/.346 with an 82 wRC+ in 350 PA for the Braves and Red Sox from 2022-24. Unfortunately, he didn\u2019t play at all in the majors in 2025, instead spending the year at Triple-A. While he was above-average there and posted good strikeout and walk numbers, time is running out for him to prove himself at the big-league level. Grissom\u2019s defense at second base is on par with Moore\u2019s (-3 DRS and -8 OAA in 613 innings), so he\u2019ll need to outhit Moore to compete with the recent draftee for playing time. Grissom is out of options and comes with five additional years of team control.<\/p>\n

Oswald Peraza<\/a><\/p>\n

Peraza is a former Yankees prospect who has yet to make an impression in the majors outside of a late-season callup in 2022. In 524 PA from 2022-25, Peraza has batted just .189\/.260\/.282 with a 54 wRC+. He has also struck out at a 27.1% clip in his career, including 34.7% of the time in 95 PA with the Angels in 2025. He has only played 205 career innings at second base, although DRS and OAA both see him as slightly above average. Apart from his range, Peraza also has 81st-percentile arm strength, so the Angels might take advantage by playing him across the infield. Of course, he\u2019ll need to cut back on the strikeouts and get on base more frequently to justify a bigger role than \u201cdefensive replacement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Denzer Guzman<\/a> \/ Kyren Paris<\/a><\/p>\n

Guzman was an international signing in 2021 and made his big-league debut at the end of last year, albeit for just 43 PA. He batted .247\/.343\/.426 with a 119 wRC+ across Double-A and Triple-A in 2025, showing decent power with 17 home runs. Paris was the Angels\u2019 second-round draft pick in 2019 and has made 245 PA in the majors from 2023-25. He is a steady defender but hasn\u2019t shown anything with the bat, with a career wRC+ of 50 and an extremely high 42.1% strikeout rate in 140 PA last year. Even as depth pieces, Guzman and Paris are lower on the pecking order than Grissom and Peraza. Both have at least one option remaining, so they\u2019re likely ticketed for Triple-A.<\/p>\n

Minor-League Signings<\/p>\n

Trey Mancini<\/a> and Jeimer Candelario<\/a> are in the organization on minor-league deals and will likely attend big-league Spring Training. Both are veterans with minimal track records in recent years. Mancini was out of baseball entirely in 2024 and spent 2025 with the Diamondbacks\u2019 Triple-A affiliate, hitting 10% better than average by wRC+ in 335 PA. His last productive big-league season was in 2022 (105 wRC+). Candelario was released by the Reds mid-way through last year after seeing his offense crater compared to the heights of his 2023 campaign. In 554 PA since the start of 2024, he owns a wRC+ of just 76 and has struggled badly to get on base. Candelario is limited to the infield corners and Mancini to just first base, so their ceilings are essentially as backups if Moncada or Nolan Schanuel<\/a> get injured.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Gary A. Vasquez, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Angels have had a quiet offseason. It can be argued their biggest move was restructuring Anthony Rendon\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,53687,238780,238781,238782,591,7308,85,238783,91435],"class_list":{"0":"post-466994","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-christian-moore","11":"tag-denzer-guzman","12":"tag-jeimer-candelario","13":"tag-kyren-paris","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-oswald-peraza","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-trey-mancini","18":"tag-vaughn-grissom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}