Five Best, Five Worst Value Contracts For Angels In 2026

Taking a look back at the 2026 campaign for the Los Angeles Angels, it doesn't take much to see it was far from a pretty one. Statistically, it was actually the worst in the franchise’s history, as they lost 100 games for the first time. In a dreadful AL West division in which no team had a winning percentage over .500, the Angels were a different type of bad.

Only the Colorado Rockies recorded a worse record in 2026 than the Angels, but they don’t have the type of players that the Angels have. There is no Mike Trout in Colorado, or a Reid Detmers or Zach Neto, for that matter. Still, the Halos found a way to have a historically bad season despite having real talent on the roster.

The problem with the Angels clearly isn't their top guys, but the lack of depth outside of them. With new owner Stan Kroenke taking over the club, his pockets should help to change that in the future, but the past decade for the Angels has been much of the same story.

With their history of being a cheap team, let’s take a look at how the Angels fared in 2026 in terms of value vs. price. In Bleacher Report’s ranking, the Halos ranked No. 23 with a net value of $44.1 million.

The top-value guys from the Angels last season were fairly as expected, with Neto and Detmers leading the way with a $37.5 million and $31 million value, respectively. Right-hander Jose Soriano also made the cut for the top five values despite being traded at the trade deadline.

The other two making their way into the top five most valuable were rookie pitcher Walbert Urena and outfield waiver claim Wade Meckler. Being on small contracts obviously helps in terms of their value, but both Urena and Meckler stepped up in huge ways for the Halos in 2026 and made them a much more competitive team than they would’ve been without their 3.8 and 2.4 bWAR, respectively.

On the flip side, there were quite a few bad-value guys on the Angels in 2026. No player was worse in terms of value than designated hitter Jorge Soler, who was paid $13 million to put up a -0.3 bWAR. The Angels paid over $21 million for lefty Yusei Kikuchi to produce just 0.5 bWAR, making him the second-worst-value contract in 2026. Reliever Robert Stephenson, infielder Christian Moore, and former catcher Logan O’Hoppe rounded out the bottom-five value contracts from 2026.

Despite having the second-fewest wins last season, the Angels don’t rank at the very bottom of these value rankings. Interestingly, they place ahead of clubs like the Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets, and Toronto Blue Jays.

The reality is that’s the case because the Angels don’t pay many substantial salaries, making the likelihood of underperformance lower than for clubs like the Mets or Phillies, which have some of the highest payrolls in baseball. Still, we can take those small wins, right?