ESPN Insider's scathing review tells harsh truths the Angels need to hear

With the first month of the season in the books, the grades for all 30 teams in baseball are in, and the Angels didn't exactly fare well. ESPN Insider David Schoenfield broke out his red pen and gave the Halos a D- for their performance in April, dishing out some sobering truths but perhaps missing the bigger picture.

When it comes to Schoenfield, it's worth taking his comments with a grain of salt. He was just as critical of the team when they were riding high and in first place in the AL West as he is during the team's current struggles.

Still, some of his criticism is warranted, and Angels' brass would be wise to pay attention. The goal for 2025 has been to play competitive baseball and continue developing the young core, and at this point in the young season, it's too early to say whether they've done enough to achieve that objective.

What is for sure, is that the team has not yet been able to find consistency with a Jekyll-and-Hyde like performance over the first month. With that said, there are some nuggets of wisdom in Schoenfield's analysis that the club would be wise to take to heart.

The hard roster-building truths the Angels need to hear

Schoenfield points out that nearly all of the Angels' offseason acquisitions are on the wrong side of 30. That in and of itself isn't especially damning as even a young, rebuilding team needs the presence of veteran mentors to lead them through the rigors of a 162-game season.

More importantly, it's about the players they chose and how likely they were to raise the team's ceiling. Schoenfield wrote, "They signed a bunch of 30-something hitters; all except Jorge Soler are hitting under .200. They signed Yusei Kikuchi and Kyle Hendricks, hoping for consistency from Kikuchi and a comeback from Hendricks; those two are a combined 0-7 with a 5.27 ERA."

While true, some context is missing. Of the hitters they added, only Soler and Moncada were expected to play prime roles. Soler has always been a complementary piece rather than one that will carry a team, while Moncada's injury-prone nature makes him hard to rely on. Outside of that, while you can certainly quibble about the performances of Travis d'Arnaud and Kevin Newman, they were brought in as depth pieces rather than regular contributors.

On the pitching side, his point holds more water. Kikuchi, despite continuing to make adjustments, has never proven to be a consistent top-of-the-rotation arm, regardless of how good he was down the stretch for the Astros last season. Kyle Hendricks will need more than one dominant start to prove he still has gas left in the tank.

Point blank, through the first month, it appears that the Angels chose the wrong players to augment their young core. The club opted for potential floor-raisers -- players likely better than the ones they replaced but not real difference makers -- when what they really needed were guys who could raise the team's ceiling.

Of course, ceiling-raising players don't come cheap, and with the exception of Kikuchi, nearly every addition the Halos made this past offseason was on a value contract. There are reasons why those guys came cheap, and the Halos are seeing it play out in real time.

The unfortunate truth is that the Angels' core isn't strong enough to be supported simply by complementary pieces and players looking for a rebound. The club needed to add talent with upside that could grow and contribute alongside the young core for the long haul. That means spending some serious cash, something that owner Arte Moreno has proven time and time again he is unwilling to do.

Until that happens, a tremendous amount of pressure will be put on the young players to rise to elite levels in order to break the cycle of mediocrity, and unfortunately, that just doesn't seem to be a likely outcome.

The lesson is that the Angels need to invest more in bringing in talent, but as a decade's worth of losing continues, that truth is likely falling on deaf ears.

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