3 Angels players who are on thin ice going into the 2025 season

As much as you can point to blossoming young players on the Angels roster who appear on the verge of making the leap toward stardom, there are a number of others who have failed to establish themselves despite multiple opportunities.

2025 will be a year of transition for the Angels as the team looks to leave behind a dreadful 2024 campaign and build towards ending Major League Baseball's longest active playoff drought. Likely 2026 is the year that the Angels hope to truly contend, but in the meantime, the club aspires to be more competitive in 2025.

As a result, four players find themselves firmly in the crosshairs. With patience wearing thin, they will need to prove their worth or risk finding themselves on the outside looking in on the team's future plans.

With the ice getting thin, they may or may not survive the season with a poor performance, but even if they do their position on the roster in 2026 and beyond will very much be in jeopardy. On the other hand, a strong showing may cement their standing for the future.

It's going to be put up or shut up time for Jo Adell with the Angels

Once the no. 3 overall prospect in all of baseball, Jo Adell is now entering his age-26 season and looking for a breakout. Injuries and inconsistencies have limited his playing time, but to date over parts of five big-league seasons, the once promising outfielder owns a .211/.268/.381 line and -1.1 fWAR.

Mired in what has been an extremely underwhelming battle with teammate Mickey Moniak to win the starting center field job, Adell's last chance to establish himself with the Angels may be in 2025.

There have been some brief bright spots like his 2024 performance after ditching his leg kick for a toe tap, and some underlying reasons for optimism. Adell's tools are without question. His bat speed in 2024 was in the 98th percentile, which generated a hard-hit rate of 44.7% (71st percentile) and an impressive barrel rate of 11.7% which ranked in the 79th percentile.

While Adell has shown he can do damage when he makes contact that has happened way too infrequently so far in his career for him to be a positive offensive force. If he doesn't show an increased plate discipline and pitch recognition in 2025 that will continue to be the case.

Defensively, the same story is true. Adell has elite sprint speed (86th percentile) and a better-than-average arm (63rd percentile) but it took a long time for his baseball instincts to catch up to his physical gifts in right field. Now, moving to center, he'll be tasked with adapting to a new defensive challenge all over again.

Adell is making just $2.1 million this season, his first arbitration year, so even with a good 2025 he'll be an affordable option in 2026. That said, it's not the money that will matter in determining his future.

If he fails to establish himself as a positive major-league contributor in 2025 he could see himself non-tendered in the offseason as the Angels will hopefully be in a position to build a contending team in 2026. With only 26 roster spots the team will have to be judicious in how it leverages them and may decide they can no longer afford to carry a player who is mostly potential and little production.

On the flip side, if Adell has a solid 2025 campaign, he can establish himself as a key piece alongside the other members of the Angels' young core as they look to finally graduate from the doldrums of the American League.