Christian Moore

Moore singled in one in the first on a fly to center that Julio Rodríguez really should have caught but got a late break on. In the fifth, Moore fanned on a bounced strike three, only to wind up on second after hustling his way to first and taking advantage of an incredibly poor throw from Cal Raleigh that went into left. Moore’s one good at-bat came the next inning, as he doubled off the wall in center to plate two. He hit the ball 403 feet, topping his previous season high of 389.

Moore hit .198 with 184 plate appearances for the Angels as a rookie last year, but at least he had seven homers and 19 walks then. In 131 plate appearances this season, he’s managed only one homer and is sporting a 45/8 K/BB. It seems highly unlikely that he’ll enter 2027 with much chance of winning a roster spot.

Moore has 13 days left to give the Angels any reason to think he’s ready for a role on their 2027 club. He’s at .172/.231/.253 in 108 plate appearances so far, with an unfathomably low two runs scored and a 31 percent strikeout rate.

Moore hit four grounders tonight, ranging from 93 to 106 mph. Two went for hits, and the other two turned into double plays. Still, it’s good to see him hitting the ball hard, and groundballs aren’t typically a big issue for him. He’s batting .183 with one homer in 16 games since games since being recalled last month.

Moore gets another chance with Nolan Schanuel hurt and hopefully will stick as a regular for the rest of the season, even if Schanuel does make it back. The 2024 first-rounder was hitting .302/.431/.512 with 11 homers and 15 steals in 86 games at Salt Lake. He probably doesn’t need to be grabbed in shallow mixed leagues, but those in deeper formats could give him a shot.

Moore is hitting .309/.436/.518 with 10 home runs, 57 RBI, and 14 steals in 80 Triple-A games. Meanwhile, Denzer Guzman is hitting .157 in 16 games since the All-Star break and has just a .626 OPS in 49 MLB games this season.

Moore is hitting .307/.434/.517 in 78 games at Triple-A with 10 home runs, 56 RBI, and 13 steals with an 84/65 K/BB ratio. With the Angels out of playoff contention, it would make sense for them to call Moore up again and give him an actual chance at playing time.

Moore goes and Josh Lowe stays with Jose Siri back from the paternity list. It’s a little amusing that the Angels are still listing Moore as an infielder on their official transaction after using him in left field five times and second base just once during his stint in the majors. Moore was 4-for-20 with 11 strikeouts in nine days with the Angels. He’ll probably get a longer look at some point during the second half.

Moore is 1-for-8 with a sac fly as a left fielder on Thursday and a DH last night. The Angels are picking Donovan Walton and Denzer Guzman over him tonight.

At least the night doesn’t look quite as bad as it would have if Vaughn Grissom hadn’t gotten a hit to bring him to the plate with two outs in the ninth and given him a chance to collect a late single. Moore, though, had a really tough time in left field, a position he’d played just nine times as a pro and sparingly in college. He misjudged Nick Kurtz’s fly to deep left in the first and gave him a double that helped fuel a five-run inning, and he was charged with an error on a tougher play in the fifth, when he slightly overran Jonah Heim’s fly and had it go off his glove for an error. The Angels might keep Moore in left field for now, but he’d surely be more comfortable at second or third.

With Mike Trout (hamstring) landing on the injured list, Moore will get another opportunity to show what he can do at the big league level. The 23-year-old was sizzling at the Triple-A level, slashing .333/.468/.585 with nine homers, 45 RBI and 10 stolen bases in 252 plate appearances.

Moore was placed on the Triple-A injured list on May 4th with a leg injury. He wound up missing about a week and has been on fire since coming back, going 38-for-102 (.373) with three home runs, 28 runs scored, 25 RBI, five steals, and a 26/18 K/BB ratio. Considering he struck out 33.7 percent of the time in his 53 MLB games last season, that K/BB ratio is a major improvement. The 23-year-old has also been playing third base lately, which should expedite his path back to the majors since Denzer Guzman is currently playing there for the Angels. We could see Moore back up in the big leagues pretty soon.

The issue is considered “minor,” and the expectation is that he won’t be out long, but any absence is going to delay his potential call-up to the big leagues. Moore is hitting just .219 in 21 Triple-A games, but he has a .437 on-base percentage due to a 27.2 percent walk rate. He has a solid 40 percent hard-hit rate, but he’ll need to take that elite plate discipline and start to turn those at-bats into hits.

The move paves a relatively unobstructed path for veteran Adam Frazier to open the year as the Angels’ starting second baseman. Technically, Oswald Peraza, Nick Madrigal and Vaughn Grissom remain in the mix but they’ve struggled this spring and make more sense in bench roles. Los Angeles took Moore with the eighth-overall pick back in 2024, one spot before Pittsburgh grabbed baseball’s current top prospect Konnor Griffin. The 23-year-old second baseman has hit just .198/.284/.370 with seven homers in 53 games at the highest level and has struggled to emerge as an everyday option.

Moore struck out in two of his three at-bats today, but the homer was an impressive 390-foot shot to left center on a sinker running down and in on him. The Angels have Moore and Vaughn Grissom battling for the second base job in camp, with Adam Frazier, Nick Madrigal and Kyren Paris available as fallbacks. Grissom figures to make the team in some role, since he’s out of options, while the 23-year-old Moore figures to be sent down to Triple-A if he’s beaten out for the job.

Fellow youngsters Kyren Paris and Denzer Guzman are also working out in preparation of playing some third base. Moore, the eighth overall pick in the 2024 draft, has thus far only played second base as a pro. He isn’t guaranteed to open 2026 in the majors, but he did hit the ball harder as a rookie than his .198/.284/.370 line suggests.

Moore’s home run was his seventh of the year. The 22-year-old second baseman hit a two-run shot off Bradley Blalock in the second inning. Moore’s home run was his third in his last five games. He’s hitting .203 with a .702 OPS and 16 RBI this season.

Moore finally got the Angels on the board in the fifth inning with a 420-foot (106.1 mph EV) solo shot off of George Kirby, but all that did was pull the Angels to within 10 runs at 11-1. It was also Moore’s only hit in four trips to the plate in the ballgame. For the season, the 22-year-old infielder is slashing a disappointing .192/.285/.350 with five homers, 13 RBI and a 44/15 K/BB ratio over 138 plate appearances with the Halos.

Moore’s transition to the big leagues hasn’t gone as smoothly as he would’ve hoped, slashing a meager .195/.287/.336 with four home runs, 12 RBI and a 41/14 K/BB ratio in his first 130 plate appearances with the Angels. He should see ample playing time down the stretch as the Angels want to find out what they have in the 22-year-old infielder.