4 harsh truths the Angels may have to face regarding their young core's future

The Angels might have to come to grips with the idea that Jo Adell may never figure it out

Once upon a time, Jo Adell was MLB.com's No. 6 overall prospect, and Angels fans dreamed about an outfield consisting of superstar Mike Trout and the freakish potential of Adell joining forces with two-way mega-star Shohei Ohtani to form the core of the next great Angels' powerhouse.

Oh my, how that dream has been shattered over the years. Since that COVID-shortened season, Trout has suffered injury after injury, Ohtani bolted to the cross-town Dodgers, and the Angels are still waiting to see what they have in Adell, adjusting down their aspirations of future stardom to mere competence.

Today in 2025, the club is no closer to understanding who Adell will become as, or are they? Despite playing in parts of six seasons the 26-year-old Adell has racked up just 1189 plate appearances, approximately two seasons worth, as injuries and inconsistencies have impacted his ability to get regular playing time.

Standing 6-foot-2, 215 pounds, Adell is an athletic specimen with the requisite speed and power to become a five-tool player. In reality, he's shown very few tools on the baseball field as his baseball instincts lag far behind his physical gifts.

No matter how many adjustments to his leg kick or hand placement he makes, Adell simply hasn't been able to string together more than some brief flashes of production.

Offensively, his game in 2025 has taken a step back from an already alarming performance in 2024, as he's slashing just .204/.244/.381 on the season, watching his walk rate drop from 7.8% to a wholly unacceptable 4.2%.

Adell ranks in the 99th percentile in bat speed at 77.1 miles per hour, but that number doesn't mean very much given his lack of control of the strike zone. On the year, Adell ranks at the very bottom in chase rate, 35.5% (10th percentile), and whiff rate at 29.7% (18th percentile), which combined to unsurprisingly yield an underwhelming strikeout rate of 28.6% (12th percentile).

All the power in the world is meaningless if you consistently chase and whiff on pitches outside of the zone, and 2025's issues on these fronts are just more of the same from Adell.

The story in the field is similar. Despite above average speed and good arm strength, Adell typically grades out as a below average defensive outfielder who takes poor routes to balls and lacks the requisite instincts to make the best use of his athletic tools.

The longer these issues linger, the more clear it becomes that Adell shouldn't be a part of the Angels' future core. Mechanical adjustments will do nothing to fix instinctual issues like pitch recognition and plate discipline, and the body of work that proves Adell will never figure these things out in an Angels uniform is large and growing.