Like many other things about the Los Angeles Angels, their farm system is a bit on the strange side. The Angels do produced top prospects from time to time, as witnessed by contributions from the likes of shortstop Zach Neto, outfielder Jo Adell and starter Jose Soriano, among others, but scouts continually rank the system 25th or worse.
The latest poll from MLB.com, their MLB Executive poll, verifies this once again, and it doesn’t make the Angels look good at all. The poll starts with who’ll be taking home the Rookie of the Year award in both the National and American Leagues, and several other questions are included.
The poll is impressively accurate, too. It correctly identifies every RoY on an annual basis, and if it’s also accurate in 2026, an Angel won’t be taking that award home this year.
That’s a little surprising given the buzz that Nelson Rada has been generating this offseason. He’s going to be given a full shot in centerfield, and according to the Angels’ forecasts and scouting reports, he at least has a chance to not only make the club, but have a big year.
To make matters worse, according to Page, the AL West is well-represented in the poll, which means the Angels’ competitors is doing better than they are. Specifically, the Athletics had three prospects get mentioned—left-handed pitchers Jamie Arnold and Gage Jump, and shortstop Leo De Vries. Seattle Mariners shortstop Colt Emerson also received a vote from an executive.
Those aren’t the top candidates, though. Kevin McGonigle is a shortstop for the Detroit Tigers, while Trey Yesavage is a more familiar name who will join the Toronto Blue Jays rotation after making a strong contribution to Toronto’s deep playoff run.
There’s another link in this poll that could end up being important to the Angels and their fans. The National League version of the poll had infielder JJ Wetherholt of the St. Louis Cardinals getting just over 30 percent of the vote for NL RoY, and as a result the Cardinals are currently shopping infielders.
The link is that the Angels are currently interested in Cards third baseman Nolan Arenado, so if the Halos do deal for Arenado they may actually play a role in Wetherholt getting early playing time at third base this season.
The good news here is that it’s just a poll. As recently as last year, the Angels put all of their #1 draft picks on the field at the same time in a single game, which means they’re doing something right at the top of the system. It’s the rest of the operation that’s falling short in ways that obviously need to be fixed.