Despite some offseason moves, the Los Angeles Angels will remain near the bottom of the league's standings. Can new arms and a star duo ignite any spark in Anaheim?
Every spring brings excitement as Opening Day looms, even for fans of teams that aren't expected to win many games during the season. The Los Angeles Angels are certainly one of those teams, yet again, but the excitement for regular-season baseball remains – for now.
Let’s see how long that buzz lasts, as it likely won’t take long for the Halos to establish their spots near the bottom of the MLB standings. It’s harsh, but it’s the truth for the Angels, and when it’s been the truth for as long as it has been for the club, there’s no point in beating around the bush anymore. The Angels will be a bad team yet again in 2026.
They didn't make significant changes in the offseason that would pull them out of the depths that they’ve been stuck in for some time now. For this, the Angels unsurprisingly ranked as the No. 26 team in baseball according to Bleacher Report’s pre-Opening Day power rankings.
If you really want to be positive, you can look at how they just scraped out of the bottom tier in the rankings, instead of being the final team in the fifth tier of Bleacher Report’s rankings. Still, the Halos will certainly be fighting to win more than 73 games in 2026, something they haven’t done since 2021.
Though there hasn’t been much change in the grand scheme of things, that doesn't mean there wasn’t any movement during the offseason.
The Halos made a big move in trading away slugging outfielder Taylor Ward for right-hander Grayson Rodríguez back in November. Several bullpen arms were brought in, such as Kirby Yates, Drew Pomeranz, and Jordan Romano. General manager Perry Minasian also sorted out other, less-significant trades than the Ward-Rodriguez deal, such as the ones to land infielder Vaughn Grissom and outfielder Josh Lowe.
There's a decent number of new names on the Angels roster, so it’s not fair to say they’re just running back the same team that lost 90 games last season, but there still isn't much hope to be had in Anaheim this year. Largely, the roster remains the same with new fill-ins that won’t have a real impact on the standings.
Stars Mike Trout and Zach Neto will once again be the main two players still garnering some excitement out of fans during the 2026 campaign, but the fans need more. They crave a winning team – something they haven’t seen since the 2015 season. Despite the belief from owner Arte Moreno that the fans don’t actually prioritize winning, that is all real Angels fans desire. For as long as Moreno is in charge, however, that’s unlikely to happen – and it’s certainly not happening this season.