2 Angels players have already shown a lot of improvement in a short amount of time

Perhaps the most underrated part of a player's development is having a normal, healthy offseason in which to hone their craft. Well, Nolan Schanuel and Taylor Ward clearly had a normal, healthy offseason, and the fruits of their labor have been on full display so far during the regular season. Eno Sarris penned a fantastic story recently for The Athletic, in which he illuminated a couple facets of Schanuel and Ward's games that were augmented during the offseason.

2 Angels players have already shown a lot of improvement in a short amount of time

For Schanuel, the Angels and he were on the record as to saying he was going to spend the offseason working on his swing speed. Well, according to Sarris, Schanuel's had the largest difference in swing speed in the league (from 65.4 MPH in 2024 to 69.1 MPH in 2025). As a result, Schanuel's max exit velocity yearly difference is the second highest in the league to Arizona's Corbin Carroll. Schanuel's max exit velo last year was 106 MPH, and this year it's 110 MPH.

Oh, and another Angels' player to increase his bat speed from '24 to '25, per Sarris? Logan O'Hoppe. No surprises there. His four home runs in four straight games probably indicates that he was getting after it during the offseason and spring training.

Taylor Ward, on the other hand, is improving markedly with his legs. The 31-year-old's sprint speed is up in 2025, he is running 1 MPH faster from 2024 (from 26.8 to 27.8 MPH). Tim Anderson is also running faster from last season, but it's more so because he was out of the league for the majority of last season. With Ward, he posted nearly every game in 2024, went to the offseason and trained hard enough that he came into 2025 more spry. That's super impressive, especially given that he is now the Angels' leadoff hitter. At this point, the fact that the Angels have not extendeed Ward is getting more and more glaring.

Kyren Paris has been receiving all the love for the work he put in during the offseason with Aaron Judge's personal hitting coach. His swing is starkly different, and he is now a high impact player thus far in the regular season. However, Paris' accomplishments and massive successes in 2025 are outshining Schanuel and Ward's. In theory, Schanuel and Ward are more important to the Angels this season than Paris, so it's nice to see that at least three Angels were getting to work in their respective baseball labs.

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