Below is an analysis of the prospects in the farm system of the Los Angeles Angels. Scouting reports were compiled with information provided by industry sources as well as my own observations. This is the fifth year we’re delineating between two anticipated relief roles, the abbreviations for which you’ll see in the “position” column below: MIRP for multi-inning relief pitchers, and SIRP for single-inning relief pitchers. The ETAs listed generally correspond to the year a player has to be added to the 40-man roster to avoid being made eligible for the Rule 5 draft. Manual adjustments are made where they seem appropriate, but we use that as a rule of thumb.
A quick overview of what FV (Future Value) means can be found here. A much deeper overview can be found here.
All of the ranked prospects below also appear on The Board, a resource the site offers featuring sortable scouting information for every organization. It has more details (and updated TrackMan data from various sources) than this article and integrates every team’s list so readers can compare prospects across farm systems. It can be found here.
Other Prospects of Note
Grouped by type and listed in order of preference within each category.
Fringe Position PlayersCole Fontenelle, 3B/1BGustavo Campero, C/OFJoe Redfield, OF
The players in this group would have a better case for the main section of the list if they could more comfortably play a premium position. I liked the switch-hitting Fontenelle in high school and would have given him $500,000 or so to sign. He ended up going to college and bounced around, going from Washington, to McClennan JC (TX), and then finally to TCU for his draft year. He went in the 2023 seventh round for a little over $250,000 and was off to an okay start at Double-A in 2024 when he suffered several different severe injuries to his leg on a slide into second base. The 22-year-old missed the rest of the regular season and then really struggled to recognize spin in the Arizona Fall League. He looks like a 30-hit, 50-power, 40-glove corner utility guy right now (basically an org guy), but be mindful that this is a pretty young switch-hitter who has dealt with change and instability basically every year since he left high school.
The powerful 5-foot-6 Campero is one of the better Colombian players in pro ball and has performed well through the upper minors; he got a cup of coffee this year. He had some prospect clout a couple of years ago when he was still developing behind the plate, but now that he’s exclusively a corner outfielder, he fits into more of a fringe 40-man role. Redfield transferred from Temple College to Sam Houston and had an absurd 2023 draft spring, slashing .402/.485/.683 with as many walks as strikeouts. He looks similar to former Mississippi State outfielder Jake Mangum, a tweener defender and line drive hitter.
Young PitchersDavidxon Lara, RHPDioris De La Rosa, RHP
These two were up from the DSL for instructs in Arizona. Lara is an undersized 18-year-old Venezuelan righty with a plus curveball. He sat 90-92 as a DSL reliever last year and threw a ton of strikes. It would be interesting to see him stretched out as a starter to see if his little frame can still develop velocity in that role. De La Rosa was 17 during the 2024 season, but he’s a relatively mature-bodied prospect with below-average velocity.
Power OnlyEric Wagaman, 3B/1BNiko Kavadas, DHRandy De Jesus, OFAlexander Ramirez, OF
This group has power but not enough other stuff to make the main section of the list. Wagaman was a minor league Rule 5 pick from the Yankees last year. He had a strong performance at Rocket City and Salt Lake, and was added to the active big league roster late in 2024. A powerful corner bat, Wagaman’s Double- and Triple-A data was rather strong (above-average contact rate, plus peak exit velocities), but a visual assessment of his feel to hit leads one to take the under. Kavadas was a great college hitter at Notre Dame and has generated huge hard-hit rates in pro ball (including a 50% mark in 2024). He’s a stiff, dense, DH-only athlete with a sub-70% contact rate. De Jesus (19) and Ramirez (22) are young corner outfield prospects with enormous raw power, but both have posted A-ball strikeout rates of 29% or more, and have struggled enough against breaking stuff to conclude that’s likely to continue.
My Favorite Couple of ExtrasCaleb Ketchup, UTILChris Clark, RHPNick Mondak, LHPDawry Segura, RHP
I had a glove-driven fringe 40-man grade on Ketchup last year when he looked like a plus shortstop defender with plus speed (but very little offense). In 2024, he made several errors in April and was moved off of short for most of the rest of the year. He still did a bunch of ridiculous stuff on defense at second base, but I’d like to see him play short again, please. Clark was a 2023 fifth rounder out of Harvard. He’s a low-90s sinker/sweeper starter with a loose, whippy arm action, loose enough that there’s a chance he’ll yet throw harder. It looked like his changeup was improving late in 2024. He’s a depth starter type who might trend into a backend starter grade next year if it turns out he’s found a third pitch. Mondak is a 26-year-old vert slot lefty with a sneaky low-90s fastball and good changeup. Segura is a projectable 21-year-old low-slot righty with a tailing 89-92 mph fastball and a promising changeup.
Depth ArmsBrett Kerry, RHPEric Torres, LHPVictor Mederos, RHPLuke Murphy, RHPNick Jones, LHPKenyon Yovan, RHPHayden Seig, RHP
Kerry is a little starting pitcher who signed for just shy of $300,000 out of South Carolina in 2021. He sits about 91 mph with upshot angle created by his lack of size, and he commands an above-average mid-80s slider. Kerry’s bat-missing ability took a nosedive after he was promoted to Salt Lake in 2024, but he throws enough strikes to be in the depth/spot starter convo entering 2025. Torres is a loose 25-year-old southpaw with a deceptive low-slot delivery that helps his 88-90 mph fastball play way, way up. He didn’t pitch with a frequency anywhere close to what would be required of a big league reliever, but he missed a ton of bats across 35 innings at Double-A in 2024. A famous prospect since his high school underclass years, Mederos threw 5.1 big league innings in 2024 after debuting the year before. He flashes plus breaking stuff and has a 94-97 mph fastball, but his lack of command has caused his pitches to play down since he first burst onto the scene.
A pure relief prospect since his college days at Vanderbilt, Murphy has a 93-95 mph fastball that Double-A hitters could not lay off of last year. He hides the ball well and consistently lives at the top of the strike zone with it. He also has an average slider, which functions more as an in-zone pitch than it does a chaser. The lanky, 6-foot-6 Jones sits 90-93, and the 25-year-old’s low slot makes his average slider extra tough on lefties. Yovan was a good two-way amateur prospect who began his pro career as a hitter and has now reached Triple-A as a reliever. He sits 93-94 and has a fairly nasty cutter/slider. Seig is a super weird undrafted arm (St. Joe’s) from 2021 who has performed into the upper levels of the minors. He’s a 6-foot-5, low-ish slot guy who produces a downhill fastball because of his height and upright delivery. He fills the zone with his funky sinker/slider combo.
System Overview
The Angels’ approach to drafting and developing has, especially at the top of their classes, tended to prioritize polish and proximity rather than pure talent and upside. This has been the case since 2021, the year of the “All Pitchers” draft, though the Angels have done a pretty good job mixing in an over-slot high school pitcher or two in each of the drafts since then. They hit it big on Caden Dana, and three prominent young members of their current farm system (Trey Gregory-Alford, Dylan Jordan, and Barrett Kent) were picked in similar fashion. It felt as though part of the reason this strategy was employed was to rush support to the big leagues in an effort to win while Shohei Ohtani was still part of the org, but the Angels have continued drafting this way even though Ohtani is gone. Part of the reason their farm system is so light up top is due to this strategy. Zach Neto and Nolan Schanuel graduated so fast that they’re not part of the system anymore, while many other teams’ players from the 2022 and 2023 drafts still are. Prospect graduations are a good thing, but they detract from the way your prospect group looks on paper.
Still, there’s no getting around it — this isn’t a very good system. Remember that the Angels were still making buyers’ deals in the 2022-23 offseason and at the 2023 deadline for one last Trout/Ohtani playoff push. Not all of who they dealt away has become consequential, but Elvis Peguero had a nice 2024, and Edgar Quero and Ky Bush are still relevant prospects. Perhaps worst of all, the Halos failed to realize Reynaldo López’s potential as a starter (though kudos to them for seeing that José Soriano could be one). Of course, who knows what they could have gotten for Ohtani at that deadline had they decided to move him (Junior Caminero is a common industry rumor). I thought it was defensible to keep Ohtani and try to sneak into the postseason, but the system might look very different had they decided to sell. Of course, Ohtani got hurt and the plan immediately failed, and now we have a 99-loss team with a below-average farm system.
This system is full of potential high-leverage relievers and a lot of up-the-middle hitters who are very young and risky. Perry Minasian and Co. have been adding cogs to the big league team as if they’re going to compete in 2025, and perhaps if all of their key players can actually stay healthy — and if Dana quickly becomes the impact starter I think he’ll eventually be (something the rotation really needs) — they’ll have a better shot in a funky AL West than any of us would care to predict at this moment.
