{"id":581437,"date":"2026-02-19T18:09:22","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T18:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/581437\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T18:09:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T18:09:22","slug":"angels-shortstop-is-a-sneaky-selection-to-be-teams-biggest-star-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/581437\/","title":{"rendered":"Angels Shortstop Is A Sneaky Selection To Be Team\u2019s Biggest Star"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Angels do have their share of stars<\/a>, especially when it comes to power hitters. There\u2019s Mike Trout, of course, who could be returning to center field after a season as a full-time DH, and outfielder Jo Adell is always a power threat who could step up to become the team\u2019s biggest new star.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not who Theo DeRosa, Brent Maguire and Shanthi Sepe-Chepuru<\/a> of MLB.com selected as the team\u2019s biggest star. They chose shortstop Zach Neto, describing him as \u201cunquestionably\u201d the team\u2019s top player for the last two seasons.<\/p>\n

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Statistically, it\u2019s hard to argue with their choice. Neto had a WAR of 3.1 last year and 3.5 the year before that, and they projected him to step up to 4.3. That\u2019s a big jump, but it makes sense given that Neto played in 128 games last season.<\/p>\n

Neto is also a sneaky power threat in his own right. He hit 26 home runs, which is the same number Trout hit, and given the fact that he stole 26 bases last year, it\u2019s not hard to imagine him becoming a 30\/30 player in 2026.<\/p>\n

The shortstop is considered a plus defender with good instincts, a strong arm and reliable hands, although he comes out lower in some defensive rankings that focus more on range. Unfortunately, it looks like Neto will be playing next to Yoan Moncada as his third baseman, and the fact that Moncada is a virtual statue at the hot corner will undoubtedly hurt Neto\u2019s defensive rating this season.<\/p>\n

Neto has talked a lot about using mental focus to improve his defense, as he occasionally struggles to separate his offense and defense and ends up taking bad at-bats into the field. That\u2019s a minor weakness as far as the Angels are concerned, and Neto is one of the most underrated shortstops in baseball at this point in his career.<\/p>\n

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If there\u2019s a big concern about Neto, it\u2019s about his future in Anaheim. Specifically, does he actually have one? He\u2019s going to get paid in the very near future, and the fact that the Angels haven\u2019t extended him after his performance the last two seasons doesn\u2019t bode well for his long-term outlook.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Angels fans should enjoy Neto while they have him on the field and in the lineup. He plays hard and does things the right way, which isn\u2019t exactly common in the field and up and down the lineup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Angels do have their share of stars, especially when it comes to power hitters. There\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2390],"tags":[291,5,2179,1165,446,3223,774,56,3224,3222,603,4,66114,3511,2052],"class_list":["post-581437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-angels","tag-angels","tag-baseball","tag-jo-adell","tag-la","tag-la-angels","tag-laangels","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-angels","tag-losangeles","tag-losangelesangels","tag-mike-trout","tag-mlb","tag-shanthi-sepe-chepuru","tag-yoan-moncada","tag-zach-neto"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116098641221256125","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}