{"id":510925,"date":"2026-03-03T05:11:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T05:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/510925\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T05:11:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T05:11:22","slug":"angels-notes-neto-moore-lowe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/510925\/","title":{"rendered":"Angels Notes: Neto, Moore, Lowe"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Angels and franchise shortstop Zach Neto<\/a> worked out a $4.15MM arbitration settlement in January. That covered the first of four years of arbitration eligibility for the former first-round pick, who reached Super Two status this offseason.<\/p>\n

If the sides discussed the possibility of any kind of longer-term deal, those talks apparently didn\u2019t progress. Neto\u2019s agent, Ryan Hamill of CAA, tells Bill Shaikin of The Los Angeles Times<\/a> that the Angels did not make any official long-term offers over the offseason. It\u2019s unclear if the sides will have any conversations during Spring Training.<\/p>\n

The Angels didn\u2019t make any long-term commitments. All their free agent activity was limited to one year, with no individual player making more than $5MM. They also signed an atypically short one-year contract with new manager Kurt Suzuki (reportedly after talks with Albert Pujols about the job fell through).<\/p>\n

It was a disappointing offseason for Halos fans who have endured the sport\u2019s longest active playoff drought at 11 years. That was even before owner Arte Moreno\u2019s baffling comments<\/a> last week, in which he claimed that surveys indicated that \u201cwinning is not in (fans\u2019) top five\u201d concerns when attending games. Even if one believed that to be true of the fanbase, it\u2019s a bizarre statement for an owner to make on the record, knowing it\u2019ll get the attention of the players and coaches.<\/p>\n

Neto told Shaikin he \u201creally (doesn\u2019t) have an answer to that\u201d when asked if Moreno\u2019s comments would be a concern for him in extension talks. However, he spoke broadly about valuing loyalty and said he\u2019d be amenable to a long-term deal. \u201cIf it happens, it happens. I would love to stay here. I would love to be here. But, if it doesn\u2019t, then not every road is meant to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

That may all be a moot point. The Angels terminated their local television deal with Main Street Sports this offseason, subtracting an important revenue source. MLB is handling their in-market distribution this year. Neto is coming off consecutive seasons that Baseball Reference valued around five wins above replacement. He\u2019s on track to hit free agency at 29. There\u2019s a decent chance it\u2019d take a $200MM+ offer if the Angels wanted to buy out multiple free agent years.<\/p>\n

Neto will be a fixture in the middle of the diamond for the next few seasons in either case. There\u2019s far less certainty around him around the infield dirt. The Halos brought back Yo\u00e1n Moncada<\/a> on a one-year, $4MM deal to work as the primary third baseman. Christian Moore<\/a> is the favorite at second base, where Vaughn Grissom<\/a>,\u00a0Denzer Guzman<\/a> and non-roster invitees Nick Madrigal<\/a> and Adam Frazier<\/a> could all be in the mix.<\/p>\n

Moore, the eighth overall pick in 2024, played 411 2\/3 innings at the keystone as a rookie. He has been a full-time second baseman in pro ball and for the majority of his college career at Tennessee. The Angels gave Moore four innings at third base after subbing Moncada out of Saturday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n

Suzuki told reporters (including Jeff Fletcher of The Orange County Register<\/a>) that Moore could get a start at the hot corner while Moncada is playing for Cuba at the World Baseball Classic. They\u2019d ideally expand the second-year infielder\u2019s versatility, which could make it easier to carry a veteran second baseman like Frazier or Madrigal on the bench.<\/p>\n

In one bit of injury news, offseason trade pickup\u00a0Josh Lowe<\/a> is battling what appears to be minor soreness in his left oblique (via the MLB.com injury tracker<\/a>). Lowe said he\u2019ll miss a few days but doesn\u2019t anticipate it threatening his availability for Opening Day. The right oblique has given Lowe problems over the past two seasons, so it\u2019s a relief that the current issue on the opposite side.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Angels and franchise shortstop Zach Neto worked out a $4.15MM arbitration settlement in January. That covered the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,35441,78642,462,82,40885],"class_list":["post-510925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-christian-moore","tag-josh-lowe","tag-mlb","tag-sports","tag-zach-neto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}