The Angels are a confusing baseball team. But what would you expect from a team that once went by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, had a Rally Monkey, and were the stars of a Disney movie from 1994?
Confusion is on brand for them. Luckily, what’s also on-brand for the organization is having some excellent ballplayers around, regardless of the quality of the actual team. Some all-time greats, some active and some retired, have come through Los Angeles/California/Anaheim in the franchise’s 65-year history, enough so that some difficult decisions had to be made.
Manager: Mike Scioscia
It’s surprising that the Angels have had 23 managers in their history, given that the franchise has only existed for 65 years, and 19 of those featured Mike Scioscia in the dugout. Bill Rigney, who managed the second-most games in Angels’ history, compiled 1,332 of them: Scioscia has more career wins than that. Losses, too, but that’s how baseball works, especially in a near-two decade sample. Scioscia managed 2002’s World Series winner — the lone champion in Angels’ history — and wrote the vast majority of this team into his lineups at some point in their and his career.
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Starting pitcher: Nolan Ryan
MLB’s all-time strikeout leader, Nolan Ryan, spent eight of his 27 (yes, 27) years in the majors with the then-California Angels. Of his 5,714 strikeouts, 2,416 of them came for the Halos, and they’re also where he picked up 138 of his 324 wins, and just under half of his total wins above replacement. Ryan threw nearly 2,200 innings across 291 games with California, which is a career unto itself, and four of his seven (yes, seven) career no-hitters came in their uniform, as well. Unsurprisingly, Ryan has the lowest career hit rate among all Angels’ starters.
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Reliever/closer: Troy Percival
Nolan Ryan doesn’t have the lowest hit rate among all Angels’ pitchers, however, because that honor belongs to Troy Percival. In 10 years with California/Anaheim, during the most offense-heavy period in MLB history, Percival produced a 2.99 ERA — third among qualifying Angels’ hurlers — and racked up a franchise-high 316 saves, 108 more than the next-highest closer, Francisco Rodriguez. His 10.4 strikeouts per nine also bested Ryan, and despite being a one-inning reliever, Percival cracked the top-10 in pitcher wins above replacement for the Angels. In the 2002 postseason, Percival saved seven games with a 2.79 ERA.
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Catcher: Bengie Molina
Bengie Molina never wowed with the bat — the only offensive leaderboards you’ll find him on are those measuring how often a player struck out or how many double plays they grounded into — but he didn’t have to hit to be effective: Mike Scioscia, a former catcher himself, understood Molina’s value to the team, and kept him behind the plate. He was a defensive standout, a winner of multiple Gold Gloves who knew how to get the most out of a pitching staff even before pitch framing was regarded by the analytical community as something both real and measurable.
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1B: Rod Carew
While Carew spent the bulk of his career — and his best years — with the Minnesota Twins, he still had seven to give the Angels. He batted .314 between the ages of 33 and 39, adding another 968 hits to his total — California is where he’d collect his 3,000th career base knock — as well over 400 more walks. Whatever power he had earlier in his career was gone, but Carew stopped striking out as often, drew more walks, and hit singles and doubles regularly enough to make the All-Star team in six of his seasons in California.
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2B: Howie Kendrick
Howie Kendrick’s Angels made the postseason often, but in five of those six years, came up against the eventual pennant winner or World Series champion. Still, there’s plenty to love from his regular seasons in Los Angeles of Anaheim: Kendrick hit .292/.332/.424 across nine years while playing quality defense at second. While Kendrick arrived on the Angels too late to win a World Series, he was on the 2019 champion Nationals, and even secured NLCS MVP honors against the Cardinals for batting .333/.412/.600 with four doubles and RBIs a piece in four games.
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3B: Troy Glaus
Troy Glaus’ low batting averages and high strikeout rates commanded far too much attention in the late-90s and early aughts: such was the state of baseball analysis at the time. What should have been the focus was that he was capable of drawing over 100 walks in the same year he hit 47 home runs: from 2000 through the Angels’ championship 2002, Glaus averaged nearly six wins above replacement per year and a .903 OPS. He’s third in at-bats per homer, behind just Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout, sixth among Angels in homers and OPS, and seventh in walks.
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SS: Erick Aybar
Erick Aybar’s batting line doesn’t jump off the page, but his glove was where he put in the real work. Aybar won the 2011 Gold Glove, but that might not have even been one of his five best defensive seasons — it’s just the one where his defense was finally recognized. Aybar did hit sometimes, too, and when he did, he was one of the better players on his team. Aybar ranks fourth in franchise history in triples (43), sixth in steals (141), and made up for the lack of hits a little bit by taking 42 for the team.
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OF: Garret Anderson
Garret Anderson wasn’t a lifetime Angel, but his best seasons were with them. He’d develop homer power as he hit his late-20s, but doubles were his calling earlier, and more significantly: Anderson led the majors in two-baggers in 2002, with 56, and followed that up with another 40 in 2003 to lead the AL. While he wasn’t a very patient hitter, he did hit for a high average to make up for it: across 15 years with the Angels, Anderson batted .296. He’s the franchise leader in extra-base hits with 796, until Mike Trout passes him in the near future.
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OF: Mike Trout
Mike Trout is already the Angels’ leader in WAR (86.5), runs (1,153), homers (391), walks (1,016) and times on base (2,815). He’s second in extra-base hits (760) and total bases (3,293), while leading rate stats like on-base (.408) and slugging percentage (.575). If he retired after you read this, he’d already be the greatest Angels’ player ever, and a Hall of Famer five years later without question or debate. Trout amassed more WAR in his 20s than Ken Griffey Jr., is the active leader in all of MLB, and has won three MVPs. He’s 34.
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OF: Tim Salmon
Tim Salmon toiled away on a bunch of California Angels teams that couldn’t sniff the postseason, winning Rookie of the Year honors in 1993, and continuing to mash almost incessantly for the next decade, helping the Angels win their first — and only — championship in 2002. Salmon crushed the ball in that Fall Classic, too, batting .346/.452/.615 with a pair of homers. He trails only Mike Trout among Angels in home runs (299), and sits third in hits, runs, and total bases. Imagine what Mike Carp’s career would have been like if he’d been on the Angels, too.
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DH: Shohei Ohtani
If Shohei Ohtani had stuck with the Angels, he could have been their top pitcher someday, too. As is, he was unfathomably good with his first Los Angeles team: the two-way player hit .274/.366/.556 across six seasons, turning things on after a few tougher early years — remember, Ohtani was just 23 when he debuted, not a seasoned veteran like many former NPB players. He’d win the 2021 MVP award as well as 2023’s, and, of course, it must be pointed out that he managed a 3.01 ERA across 86 starts and 481 innings while hitting like that.
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Honorable Mentions:
- Jered Weaver (starting pitcher)
- Mike Witt (starting pitcher)
- Chuck Finley (starting pitcher)
- Frank Tanana (starting pitcher)
- Francisco Rodriguez (reliever/closer)
- Scot Shields (reliever/closer)
- Bob Boone (catcher)
- Darin Erstad (1B)
- Wally Joyner (1B)
- Bobby Grich (2B)
- Chone Figgin (3B)
- Douglas DeCinces (3B)
- Andrelton Simmons (SS)
- Jim Fregosi (SS)
- Brian Downing (OF)
- Vladimir Guerrero (OF)
- Jim Edmonds (OF)
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