Are Angels fans buying the rampant Jo Adell hype heading into 2025?

The big question surrounding Jo Adell for years can be boiled down to this: will he put it all together? Since being drafted 10th overall out of high school in the 2017 MLB Draft, Angels fans have been waiting for everything to click for the once top-10 prospect.

Just take one look at Adell and you see an athletic, strong, prototypical outfielder, but he simply has not applied his athleticism and strength in an effective, consistent manner on the field. He shows flashes, but only flashes. Adell has tantalizing tools, which include a 98th percentile swing speed and 86th percentile sprint speed. The issue? He has great swing speed, but strikes out constantly (27.9% K%). He has great sprint speed, but is a terrible baserunner (15 stolen bases and 10 times caught stealing). However, Angels staffers are praising Adell's maturity and development after the 2024 season concluded.

“Known as the worst defensive player they have ever seen, he turned his game around,” Ron Washington said of the young outfielder. “He worked his butt off in spring training. He applied the things that were given to him. He went out there and did what he had to do.”

Angels GM, Perry Minasian, praised Ron Washington for both administering a learning-centric environment and heightening the young players' sense of personal accountability. Jo Adell needed that more than anybody, and praised his skipper for his tactics. “You got to take the brutal honesty when he shoots it straight,” Adell said. “We’ve gotten better because of it. And even though sometimes it’s really blunt, it’s the way that it should be.”

While Jo Adell showed signs of life in 2024, are Angels fans re-upping their investment in Adell?

This is a big step forward for Adell. In 2022, following a demotion to AAA Salt Lake, Adell provided the media with some seriously immature comments. “Obviously it was not my decision,” Adell said following his move to Salt Lake. “I don’t think there is an exact science to get back to the big leagues. I don’t really know what exactly it will take or what there is left to show.” It was fairly obvious what Adell needed to work on. He could not make contact with the ball, was swinging at too many pitches out of the zone, did not know how to run the bases, and was playing second-rate defense. Adell had no feel for his game and could not self-evaluate.

Adell is putting in the work needed to stick in the majors, both off and on the field. He clearly has several points of emphasis he is working on tirelessly, while attempting to sustain what he does well already. He had his first 20 HR season and posted a respectable .402 SLG.

It still feels difficult to trust Adell, even if he is deployed in a part-time platoon role with Mickey Moniak. He played a career high 130 games this season, but has to work through two major oblique injuries. Adell did, in fact, improve his defense. Adell's 3.8 Range Runs Above Average tied for 21st in all of baseball, and lead the Angels. However, the defensive fWAR was frightening, as his -5.5 mark was the third worst on the team (trailing Willie Calhoun and Nolan Schanuel). It seems that for every aspect of his game that Adell develops, there is still another thing he needs to work on that is majorly lacking.

Adell spent the majority of the Angels' games this season in the bottom 3rd of the lineup, and his numbers reached frightening lows from late-June to mid-July (.182/.231/.364/.594). Adell salvaged his season, and there is still a lot to like. He has three more years under contract before reaching free agency. Maybe he will become the player Angels fans have always hoped during that time.