3 Angels' veteran hitters that have held the team back so far in 2025

The once potent Angels' offense was riding high on the backs of some young bats in the early going. As those young players have cooled, the offensive performance has cratered, and the lack of contributions from certain key veterans has become more glaring.

Despite a nearly three-week-long cold spell, the Halos are still sixth in the majors with 44 homers through 32 games, showcasing just how hot they were in the early going. Contrast that with the league's second-highest strikeout rate at 26.8%, while walking at a league-worst 5.9%, and you can see why, despite the early-season power surge, the team ranks 25th in runs scored with 116, good for just 3.63 runs per game.

It's been feast or famine in the early going for a multitude of reasons. The Angels' approach at the plate leaves much to be desired. Injuries have cost them, first with Yoan Moncada landing on the IL in early April, leading to a whole lot of Tim Anderson in the lineup, and even more critically, leaving the team without Mike Trout at the present moment.

However, despite all of these other hurdles, the production of three key veteran bats has left a lot to be desired and held the team back greatly as they look to improve on last season's disastrous 63-99 campaign.

Taylor Ward has been the Angels' most-reliable player in recent years, yet he's been MIA all season

Since becoming a regular in 2022, Taylor Ward has been a fixture in the Angels' lineup. Aside from missing extended time in 2023 after he was hit in the head with a pitch, Ward has been mostly healthy, save for some minor bumps and bruises, and productive each and every season.

From 2022 to 2024, he posted wRC+ numbers of 136, 107, and 111, respectively, while showing an ability to hit for power and average. His high-water mark for homers came in 2024 when he clocked 25 dingers, and his career-best batting average came in 2022 when he hit .281. Throughout this time period, he's also posted better-than-average walk and strikeout rates, proving that he is a complete hitter.

However, 2025 has been a far cry from his past reliability. He's played in 31 of the Angels' 32 games to start the season, yet slashed just .172/.215/.352. That performance has been good for a 53 wRC+, 47% worse than league-average.

His struggles have been further detrimental to the team, given his place in the batting order. Ward started the year as the leadoff man, batting first in 22 contests. As Ron Washington has tweaked the lineup, looking for a spark, Ward has most often batted cleanup these days, with eight starts batting fourth. He also has one game in which he hit third.

There is some good news, however. Ward is a streaky hitter who is prone to getting extremely hot while also having some extended cold spells. His power, with six homers on the year and a .180 ISO that's a tick above his career mark of .176, has also been on display during this dismal stretch.

For the Angels to play winning baseball, they're going to need Ward to snap out of his funk, and soon. He's one of the best all-around hitters on the team, and his struggles so far in the young season have been an anchor dragging the offense down. The sooner he snaps out of it, the better things will be.

Luis Rengifo has gone from a jack-of-all-trades to a pure negative in the Angels' batting order

Over the last year, Luis Rengifo's name has consistently been bandied about in trade rumors, and for good reason. Clubs have salivated over the possibility of adding an extremely versatile player in every sense of the word to complement whatever core they have built.

Whether it's positional versatility, Rengifo has primarily played second and third but can play some shortstop or outfield in a pinch, switch-hitting, or an offensive approach that can provide both reasonable contact and power production, the 28-year-old has established his value in a multitude of ways.

Like Ward, Rengifo started getting regular playing time in 2022, smacking 17 homers in 127 games. He followed that up the following year with 16 homers in 126 games for nearly identical power production. In 2024, he upped his contact game, batting .300 with just six homers in 78 games before being lost for the season with a wrist injury.

2025 has been a different story for Rengifo. Never known as a great defender at any of his various positions, his value has primarily been tied to his bat over the years. Now that has disappeared.

Rengifo is batting just .227/.252/.300, good for a Ward-like wRC+ of 53. After years defying the quality of his contact, it appears that those concerns have finally caught up with him, bringing up questions as to whether or not the previous three seasons were nothing more than a mirage.

The Angels need Rengifo to get back on track in a bad way. Not only is he an important part of a weak infield that has featured a lot of Tim Anderson (and not in a good way) so far this season, but he was also one of the team's best trade chips.

Rengifo also desperately needs a return to form, and quick, as well. In his last year of team control, he'll hit free agency this offseason, and the longer he struggles, the more money he'll be costing himself.

The Angels need a rejuvenated Mike Trout to quickly return from the IL

It appears, for now, that the Angels have avoided a potential long-term absence from franchise icon Mike Trout. Still, until Trout is cleared and back on the baseball field, no one will be breathing a sigh of relief.

Trout is the Angels' most important player by far. The team does not sniff being competitive without him healthy and at the peak of his powers. Whether or not he still has that MVP-caliber juice within his aging and injury-ravaged body is the real question.

In many ways, Trout has personified the Angels' offensive performance this season. He's put on impressive displays of power mixed with strikeout woes, a relative downturn in walks, and an inability to make consistent contact.

With nine home runs on the year, the three-time MVP is batting just .179/.264/.462. His 29.8% strikeout rate is the worst mark of his career. He's only once posted a walk rate lower than the 9.9% he's currently running, which came all the way back in 2011 when he played 40 games as a 19-year-old and walked just 6.7% of the time.

It could be chalked up as nothing more than a small sample size blip, destined to regress back to Trout's career averages as time wears on, if these issues weren't struggles that have carried over from recent years.

A career .297 hitter, Trout's average has fallen from .283 in 2022 to .263 in 2023, and plummeted to .220 last season. His walk rate has consistently been 2-4% below his career average of 14.7% during that same time frame, while his strikeouts have risen.

Trout still hits the ball hard, but the line drives that he peppered all over the field have given way to fly balls that either leave the yard or land in outfielders' gloves. The underlying reason is hard to discern. Is it that, after years of his body taking a beating, he's lost a split second of reaction time and has compensated by swinging for the fences more? Or is there something else at play?

If Trout is able to get back to some approximation of the player he was at his peak, the Angels' outlook will get a whole lot brighter. Even 80% of peak Trout would be a very welcome development. However, if this is the new normal for Trout and he is the kind of player who produces all-or-nothing results, the Halos will be in a lot of trouble.

What is for sure is that the team needs him back desperately. Back from injury, yes, but also back to swinging the bat like his old self.

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