Christian Moore’s newfound versatility means nothing if Angels can’t fix this key flaw

The Los Angeles Angels are trying to create versatility in order to generate the maximum amount of options to fill their many roster holes throughout spring training. In some regards, it's not a bad thing. You want the best nine players on the field, but sometimes defensive responsibilities get in the way of that goal.

To that end, the Angels are giving Christian Moore some reps at third base. This isn't new. They toyed with the idea around this time last year as well.

While we appreciate developing versatility, we're not sure we approve of the way Los Angeles is going about it. Last year, Moore was a top prospect drafted in the first round of the 2024 draft who had just 25 games of minor league experience under his belt when Opening Day rolled around.

The Angels put a lot on his plate, rushed him up, and watched him struggle to the tune of a .198/.284/.370 line. Much ink has been spilled on the club's failures to develop talent, and by that performance, it was clear that the strategy (if we can call it that) it employed left something to be desired.

To be fair, Kurt Suzuki recognizes the mistakes the past regime made with the talented 23-year-old, but in a different way, he might be setting up the youngster for failure again.

Angels adding third base to Christian Moore's plate could take focus away from fixing his fatal offensive flaw

One of the reasons the Halos selected the University of Tennessee product No. 8 overall was the perceived polish he had coming out of college. The team loves to rush their top prospects through the minors, so the more ready they seem coming out, the easier it becomes for them to justify the breakneck speeds at which they develop their guys.

But even an accomplished college hitter needs some sort of seasoning before being thrown into the fire, and that's proven to be the case with Moore. Despite his big league struggles in 2025, Moore demonstrated a mature approach at the plate, rarely chasing pitches outside of the zone (23.9% chase rate) and drawing an above-average amount of walks (10.3% walk rate).

However, Moore posted a bottom-of-the-barrel whiff rate at a whopping 36.9%. Filling in the blanks, if Moore rarely chases outside the zone but whiffs at an alarming rate, that means he's really struggling to make contact in the strike zone. That deficiency has the potential to be disastrous. Failing to correct it will severely limit his offensive upside, and that was something that was supposed to be Moore's calling card.

So far this spring, Moore's .294/.333/.471 line through seven games seems encouraging, but with a 33.3% strikeout rate, almost identical to last year's 33.7% clip, shows he's still whiffing far too often.

Moore is expected to be the front-runner to become the starting second baseman, so adding hot corner responsibilities that he might not even need to flex seems like an unnecessary strain on his attention.

Right now, his entire focus needs to be on doing whatever is necessary to fix the holes in his swing. If not, it won't matter how many positions he can play because he won't hit enough to get on the field. Maybe one of these days, the Halos will learn how to properly develop a talented youngster, but their experimentation with Moore proves that we're still waiting for that day to come.