Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

Moniak having hot spring, but will he stick?

- By Jeff Fletcher jfletcher@scng.com

Mickey Moniak may finally have discovered the formula for success in the big leagues.

“I definitely feel like I’m back where I need to be,” the Angels outfielder said. “Now I just have to try to stay away from getting hit again.”

Moniak is once again enjoying a hot spring, with a .360 average and 1.047 OPS through his first 27 plate appearance­s. He was very good last spring with the Philadelph­ia Phillies, but the job he had won was lost when he broke his right hand getting hit by a pitch during the final exhibition game.

Moniak then fractured his left middle finger when he was bunting a few games into his Angels career. After a month on the injured list, he came back and was hit on a knuckle of his left hand by a foul ball in the final week of the season.

Asked if he’s going to wear a protective guard on his hand this year, Moniak joked, “I’m thinking about wearing two.”

Assuming Moniak can avoid another injury, his hot spring is providing the Angels with an interestin­g question.

General manager Perry Minasian said before spring training began that the plan was to have Brett Phillips as the fourth outfielder, with Moniak and Jo Adell in Triple-a. The Angels signed Phillips as a free agent over the winter, guaranteei­ng him $1.2 million.

With just over two weeks to go before Opening Day, Moniak is performing the best of the three. Phillips is 2-for-23.

“We’re gonna take the best guys,” manager Phil Nevin said. “I’ve said that all along. Contracts or whatever, we’re trying to win, so we’re taking the best group.”

It’s also possible that the Angels could prefer to have Phillips on the bench in the majors and Moniak playing every day at Triple-a, just to keep Moniak going. Playing time for the fourth outfielder will be limited behind starters Mike Trout, Hunter Renfroe and Taylor Ward. Moniak and Adell can both be optioned, but Phillips can’t.

“The argument can be made that he needs to play a lot, so those are things we’ll wrestle with when we get to the end,”

Nevin said.

Moniak, a 24-year-old in his eighth pro season, is well aware of what goes into those kind of decisions.

“Obviously, you want to be in the big leagues, contributi­ng to a big-league roster and contributi­ng to a playoff push, but I’m very aware of the situation here,” he said. “It’s a business. At the end of the day, I’ve seen the ins and outs of it over the last three years. The one constant is going back to just control what you can control. Whether I start in Triple-a or I start in the big leagues, I’m just going to use spring training to be ready for that day and just be able to go out there and kind of showcase what I can do.”

So far Moniak has not shown what was projected for him when he was selected by the Philadelph­ia Phillies with the first overall pick in the 2016 draft. The Phillies first promoted him to the majors in 2020, and he has hit .157 with a .486 OPS in 167 big league plate appearance­s.

It’s still too small a sample size to close the book on Moniak, though. For the sake of comparison, Adell has already accumulate­d 557 major league plate appearance­s. Taylor Ward had 534 plate appearance­s before his breakthrou­gh season in 2023.

“Some guys just mature within the game later than others,” Nevin said. “I was one of them as a player myself, so I’m drawn to that a little bit. He’s doing a heck of a lot of good things for us.”

Moniak said it’s helped that he’s been able to work with Angels assistant hitting coach Phil Plantier all winter. Both live in the San Diego area, so they got together a couple times a week throughout the offseason.

“It’s something I haven’t really been able to do in my career, to build a relationsh­ip with a hitting coach in the offseason, so I think that was good,” Moniak

said. “I think we got a lot of good work in and that kind of allowed us to hit the ground running.”

Plantier said Moniak is now getting past the “noise” of being the No. 1 overall pick, which makes him better able to shake that label and focus on what he needs to do to perform.

“Guys that are transition­ing to the major leagues, you have to know about yourself and who you are,” Plantier said. “If all of your work represents that, your mindset during the game is to go out and compete and play baseball like you were wired and designed to. I think he’s in the process of doing that. He’s been very consistent in spring training.”

Eyes on Joyce

One of the most intriguing questions of camp continues to be whether the Angels will keep hard-throwing reliever Ben Joyce when the season begins. Joyce has hit 105 mph with his fastball, and he’s improving two types of sliders and a cutter. Joyce, a third-round pick last July, still has pitched just 13 innings as a profession­al. He has not allowed a run in four innings in Cactus League games so far, plus one inning in an exhibition game against Team USA.

“The stuff is electric,” Nevin said. “Does the stuff play here now? Absolutely. There’s more involved in just coming out and throwing 103 mph. He’s got to know how to pitch, the secondary stuff’s gotta be good. He’s gotta field his position. There’s a lot of things that are involved with just coming in and pitching in a major league game.”

Also

The Angels are expecting right-hander Jaime Barría back in camp in the next couple days now that Panama has been eliminated in the World Baseball Classic . ... Nevin said he got a kick out of watching left-hander José Quijada’s performanc­e in Venezuela’s opening victory on Saturday. Quijada hit 96 mph with his fastball in a scoreless inning, with his unbuttoned jersey flying open. “He was ready for that moment,” Nevin said. “I’m not worried about him being overamped and throwing too hard. He got up to those numbers when he was here.”

 ?? DYLAN BUELL — GETTY IMAGES ?? Angels outfielder Mickey Moniak is having himself quite a spring with the bat, but he still might start the season in Triple-a.
DYLAN BUELL — GETTY IMAGES Angels outfielder Mickey Moniak is having himself quite a spring with the bat, but he still might start the season in Triple-a.

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