{"id":656177,"date":"2026-04-01T08:18:50","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T08:18:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/656177\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T08:18:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T08:18:50","slug":"it-only-took-the-angels-one-series-to-have-instant-regret-over-polarizing-offseason-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/656177\/","title":{"rendered":"It only took the Angels one series to have instant regret over polarizing offseason move"},"content":{"rendered":"

Third base was a mystery for the Los Angeles Angels<\/a> during the offseason. The Angels weren’t overly motivated to find an upgrade at the position, and that led to the return of Yo\u00e1n Moncada on a one-year deal worth $4 million. <\/p>\n

It was a cheaper deal than his contract with LA last year, so no one really batted an eye, but spring training was a reminder that Moncada may not be the answer at the hot corner. Four games into the regular season, that reminder remains valid. <\/p>\n

Moncada’s adventure at third base over the weekend was awful in every way. Watching Moncada in the field was an adventure, as he registered both a fielding error and a throwing error. At the plate, he wasn’t any better. The former top prospect collected one hit in 19 plate appearances with four strikeouts. <\/p>\n

No one was expecting the Angels to be serious suitors for Alex Bregman or Eugenio Suarez during the offseason, but there was reasonable hope that they would have found a more sustainable option than Moncada<\/a>. He was fine during his run as the Angels’ last year, but important context is that it was only 84 games<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Angels can’t avoid the Yo\u00e1n Moncada problem for too long<\/p>\n

not being the answer at third base isn’t news to the Angels fanbase. During spring training, the Halos opted to give Christian Moore a run at third base<\/a>. While he was vying to be the Angels’ Opening Day second baseman, there was a thought that his experiment at third base could be seen as the team looking for different answers at the position. <\/p>\n

The Angels shouldn’t feel tied to Moncada. Given the contract he signed, he’s a trade chip if things go according to plan. If not, the Angels have no reason to give Moncada an extended look at third base. <\/p>\n

Along those lines, Angels fans should already be on Christian Moore watch. The 2026 season needs to help LA identify players at positions who could be long-term answers. Moore certainly could be an answer at second base in the years, but for now, the move needs to give him a run at third base. Continuing to start Moncada would just be a waste of everyone’s time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Third base was a mystery for the Los Angeles Angels during the offseason. The Angels weren’t overly motivated…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":656178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2390],"tags":[291,5,1165,446,3223,774,56,3224,3222,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-656177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-angels","8":"tag-angels","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-la-angels","12":"tag-laangels","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-los-angeles-angels","15":"tag-losangeles","16":"tag-losangelesangels","17":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116328475000220076","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656177","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=656177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/656177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/656178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=656177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=656177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=656177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}