The Angels' outfield remains a glaring weakness, raising questions about their strategy for supporting superstar Mike Trout.
The Los Angeles Angels didn't have a very exciting offseason.
Sure, they spent some money, although not that much. They did land Vaughn Grissom and Josh Lowe in separate trades, but they moved on from outfielder Taylor Ward in exchange for recently-injured Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Grayson Rodriguez.
The Angels are coming off another 90-loss campaign, and the playoff drought continues. And, to make things worse, the Seattle Mariners, Texas Rangers and Houston Astros still look dangerous entering the 2026 season.
Bradford Doolittle of ESPN had one question for each team's offseason activity. For the Angels, it was about Trout.
Why the heck didn't the Angels get some help for Mike Trout in the outfield?
For starters, the Angels landed Josh Lowe in a three-way trade with the Tampa Bay Rays and Cincinnati Reds.
Lowe is a good player, and Jorge Soler is also slotted to be in the outfield, but that isn't a terribly exciting group out there in Anaheim. Jo Adell hits a lot of home runs but doesn't do much else.
And, with Trout hoping to play center field again, that would mean Soler likely moves to DH, making the starting outfield of Trout, Lowe and Adell.
ESPN even said it projects as a "bottom-three outfield" in the MLB, which is not entirely promising.
Now, there is one big caveat here: Can Trout return to his former level of play? If so, nothing else here even matters.
Trout hit a disappointing .232 with 26 home runs and 64 RBIs, but there wasn't much help around him in the lineup, either.
First-year manager Kury Suzuki is on a one-year deal with plenty of questions up in the air around the franchise and the game of baseball, with a lockout potentially coming in 2027.
Still, the Angels beginning the season with Lowe, Adell and Trout isn't exactly an outfield to write home about.
Maybe Adell can round out his game besides hitting home runs, and maybe Lowe is better than many expect. But, Lowe hit just .220 with 11 home runs and 40 RBIs for the Rays in 108 games last season.
Ward was a solid player for the Angels, and moving him was something that was discussed for some time, although trading him for a pitcher coming off an injury-riddled season was definitely a puzzling decision by the front office.
Maybe the outfield will surprise everybody, but right now, there isn't much to be excited about.