With teammates at WBC, these young Angels get golden opportunity

With nine Angels major leaguers (and nine minor leaguers) playing in the World Baseball Classic, including superstars Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, these Los Angeles players have chances to impress in spring training. Here's an assessment of each:

Outfielder Mickey Moniak

With Trout, a three-time American League MVP, captaining Team USA, Moniak must take advantage of the gap left in the Angels outfield.

Moniak was the first overall draft pick in the 2016 MLB Draft, but after rising through the Phillies organization relatively smoothly, the center fielder hit a roadblock once reaching the majors in 2020. Since then, he has struggled to hit big-league pitching and hasn't remained in the majors for long.

At the 2022 trade deadline, he was dealt to Los Angeles, where he quickly found success, only to then get injured and have his first somewhat successful stint in the majors cut short.

In Trout’s absence, he is getting significant playing time in center, and so far, he is taking advantage. At the halfway point of spring, he is hitting .400 with a 1.104 OPS and five extra-base hits.

If Moniak keeps this up, Brett Phillips (who is struggling so far in spring with a .077 BA) could lose the backup outfield role on the 26-man roster.

Outfielder Jo Adell

In a similar situation is former Angels first-round draft pick Adell, who has never lived up to the hype that surrounded him throughout his rise in the minors.

The power-hitting outfielder flew through the Angels farm system with impressive numbers at every level, but he struggled after his MLB debut in 2020.

Since then he has been up and down between the majors and Triple-A, with his biggest opportunity coming in 2022, when he played 88 games at the big-league level but had an abysmal 37.5% K-rate and 3.9% walk-rate, per FanGraphs.

With Trout’s absence, he had a chance to show he can still swing it, but with 16 strikeouts in 37 plate appearances, he hasn't. Time is running out.

Pitcher Griffin Canning

Canning had a promising start to his career with the Halos but has been derailed the past two seasons by lingering back injuries.

The former second-round pick from UCLA has shown promise this spring with two successful starts and a 1.80 ERA, and he could still earn a place in the rotation.

With the Angels using a six-man rotation (to manage Ohtani’s innings pitched) as opposed to the league-standard five-man unit, another spot is open in the back of the rotation. The top three spots are locked up by Ohtani, Tyler Anderson and Patrick Sandoval.

Jaime Barria, one of Canning’s primary competitors for a starting spot, is playing for Panama in the WBC.