Angels’ offense repeating dangerous habit that doomed them last season

The Los Angeles Angels are off to an innocuous 6-7 start in 2026 as of Friday afternoon, save for the benches-clearing brawl that Jorge Soler incited with the Braves. Speaking of Soler, he's off to a power-happy start, crushing three homers en route to a strong 127 wRC+. However, he's struck out in 37% of his trips to the plate, which is a problem for a cleanup hitter. Even more problematic? That figure doesn't even lead the team.

Through their series with the Braves, the Angels lead all of Major League Baseball in strikeouts... again. Their lineup has accrued 142 through 13 games, which is nine more than the next-worst team (the Seattle Mariners).

Fans will likely remember that the Angels "won" that title by a considerable margin last year, finishing with 1,627 strikeouts as a team. That was 96 more than the 29th place Colorado Rockies and 164 more than the 28th place New York Yankees.

Can the team curb the trend this year before it's too late?

Angels' lineup will remain inconsistent until they can stop striking out so much

Among the regular starting nine, there are four Angels players that own a strikeout rate above 30% so far this year: Soler, Oswald Peraza (30.0%), Josh Lowe (38.5%), Yoán Moncada (40.0%). Expand your search to the bench, and you can add Bryce Teodosio (37.5%), Travis d'Arnaud (40.0%), and Jeimer Candelario (40.0%) to that list.

That means that over half of Los Angeles' 13 position players this year are punching out at a well-below-league-average rate. And none of them (save for Soler) are hitting for enough power to make up for their swing-and-miss tendencies.

Despite this particular struggle, the Halos haven't been quite as destitute on offense as they were a year ago. They rank middle of the pack in runs scored (51, 16th place) and inside the top 10 in home runs (15, fifth) and walks (51, tied for eighth). Unfortunately, when you're giving away so many free outs by way of the K, your overall numbers will still look ugly (they rank 25th in team OPS at .642).

All those figures are how you arrive at a boom-or-bust offense. Through 13 games, the Angels have scored six or more runs five times, and three or less eight times. This was an early problem in 2025 as well, and the Angels never recovered from that strikeout-induced tailspin. It's imperative that the team try to nip this in the bud now, though that may prove impossible to do with the personnel on the roster.