Saturday night in Seattle saw the Los Angeles Angels debut an infield prospect in place of shortstop Zach Neto.
Neto, who is dealing with wrist soreness, missed Saturday’s game against the Seattle Mariners, leaving a hole in the infield waiting to be filled. Shortstop Denzer Guzman was the man to fill that void in the infield, making his MLB debut.
Guzman showed off his defensive skills, making a slick sliding play off a groundball from the Mariners’ Eugenio Suarez.
The night at the plate wasn’t as great for Guzman, recording two strikeouts in three at-bats. Although it wasn’t shown during his debut, Guzman has become a promising batter in the minor leagues. The Angels were defeated by a score of 5-3 at T-Mobile Park.
In 2025, the 21-year-old put up a slashline of .247/.343/.426 with an OPS of .769 in 129 games split between Double-A and Triple-A. Guzman is ranked as the number nine overall prospect in the Angels' farm system according to MLB Pipeline.
The Angels signed Guzman for $2 million as part of the 2021 international signing class of the Dominican Republic.
Angels interim manager Ray Montgomery will miss two games for the Angels, handing managerial duty to bench coach Ryan Goins.
“Just seeing him coming today, you can tell he's nervous, right?” Goins said about Guzman. "Like, same with me. I'm going to be nervous when I manage the games. It's fun to see. It's fun to kind of share some of the nerves with someone. But he’s really good at short, he's really good at third. He gives you a good at-bat. He really enjoys to play the game.”
Guzman joined fellow infielder Christian Moore in being called up to the big leagues ahead of Saturday’s game. Moore has now played 40 games with the Halos, recording an unimpressive slashline of .190/.286/.328.
Neto is currently listed as day-to-day, leaving Guzman’s future in the Angels lineup a question mark. For now, Guzman looks to take advantage of his time in the bigs. The Angels take on the Mariners again on Sunday, with the first pitch scheduled for 1:10 p.m. PST.