The Los Angeles Angels will be entering the 2024 season ready to surprise some people. The roster has some talented players on it, and the future is bright for the Halos.
One of the brightest individual outlooks belongs to outfielder Mickey Moniak, the first overall pick in the 2016 amateur draft. Moniak had his best season of his career in 2023, hitting .280 with 14 home runs and 45 runs batted in over 85 games.
Moniak made an appearance on the Angels Recap podcast this week, and gave some thoughts on what he is trying to improve on next season. His biggest goal is to cut down his strikeout rate.
“That’s a big focus of mine going into this year (cutting down on strikeouts). There’s little things you can do in the cage. Not much compares to being on the diamond. But having conversations about it, getting talk to J-Wash (Johnny Washington) our new hitting coach, go over a plan going into 2024. Just talking to him, one thing I told him is to make sure he holds me accountable. He was right there with me. He was on the same page. The main focus is to swing at better pitches, to cut down that strikeout rate. The recipe for that is more complicated than saying ‘I’m going to strike out less."
Moniak struck out 113 times over 311 at-bats (323 plate appearances). If he is able to minimize his strikeouts a little bit, it should allow him to make a solid difference in production.
“Kind of just finding stuff that I can do here in the offseason: facing live arms more often. I’m trying to get out there; got a lot of guys down here in San Diego (where he lives in the off-season). I’m very fortunate to be able to do that starting here pretty soon in January. I try to get better at all facets of the game each and every off-season. The number-1 goal is to stay healthy, be ready to play a full 162 if my name’s called. Last year was a step in the right direction. I had some minor stuff there at the end and missed some time unfortunately, but last year I proved to myself I can play through some minor injuries there in the middle and beginning of the year. Yeah, just looking forward to staying healthy for a full 162 in 2024, trying to cut down that strikeout rate, become more of a complete hitter, put all the pieces together.”
The Angels are looking for more improvement from Moniak, as he looks to build on his 2023 season. They have a new-look coaching staff, led by manager Ron Washington and hitting coach Johnny Washington (no relation).
Moniak's off-season work with his new tutors will be instrumental to his development and the team's success, as the Halos look to recoup the offensive firepower they lost when Shohei Ohtani left in free agency.
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