Can Oswald Peraza Be Fixed Based On His Hot Start?

The Los Angeles Angels had some promising players ride the performance roller coaster this season, and infielder Oswald Peraza was one of them. Peraza was once a star in the New York Yankees’ farm system, and YES analyst Paul O’Neill once said that Peraza had what he called 30/30 potential. 

For the first two months of the season, it looked like Peraza might fulfill that potential. He had a shot to become the Angels’ third baseman of the future, to the point where it looked like the Angels had found something with the combination of Peraza and fellow infielder Denzer Guzman. 

Sadly, it wasn’t to be. Peraza slumped badly after those first two months, and the Angels were never able to help him right the ship. Peraza wound up hitting just .226 for the Angels, although that was actually a significant improvement from 2025, when Peraza split time between the Yankees and the Angels. 

Peraza actually had a slash line of .277/.341/.465 through 53 games, and he homered in three consecutive games in early April, including two against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. The fall back to .226 was precipitous, but there is talent and power there. 

The Angels have a new ownership group coming in, which raises the automatic question: Can Peraza be fixed? And just as importantly, is he worth the effort? 

The answer to the “fix Peraza” question is a very qualified “yes.” He undoubtedly receiver poor coaching from an organization that tends to operate in ongoing chaos, with Brady Anderson hired on as a full-time hitting coach for the first time in his career. 

There were reports that the Angels had no idea what they were doing when it came to coaching hitters and their approaches in multiple player surveys, so that may have had a lot to do with it. 

Like many Halos hitters, Peraza lost the ability to control the strike zone, and the result was strikeouts galore. He was making loud contact during those two months where he hit well, and the talent is certainly there to get Peraza back on track with a unified approach to help him find himself. 

The question of whether Peraza is worth it is very different, however. He’s 26, and the infielder failed to produce in four years in New York. The Angels have devoted a lot of resources trying to fix players like Peraza, and their lack of success suggests that the new ownership group might want to go in a new direction, especially with infielder Arjun Nimmala playing well and about to arrive in Anaheim.