2023 has been an excellent season for latent #1 overall picks. Recent #1 overall picks have been doing well too, Adley Rutschman and Henry Davis are certainly getting their fair share of publicity, and Jackson Holliday's already burning up the minors, but the ones that took a while to find their footing in the bigs are also making waves this year. Dansby Swanson has finally hit his prime and the Cubs are loving what he's been putting up for them. Royce Lewis is finally healthy, and he's been an excellent addition to a Twins squad that's needed his help. Matt Bush, 19 years after being drafted, is still on an active MLB roster and is still a decent enough relief piece.
And then there's Mickey Moniak, a guy who most Phillies fans wrote off a few years back when he didn't make the majors immediately like they thought he would. Moniak struggled with injuries throughout his development period, and right when it seemed like centerfield was his, Moniak gets injured and the team has to resort to Odubel Herrera again. Then, even as Moniak was still a multi-faceted outfield piece, the team dealt him in exchange for, essentially, a trustier centerfield piece in the form of Brandon Marsh.
However, the Angels currently have the better record and are closer to first, so Moniak gets the last laugh.
As the Angels have come back into their own, so has Mickey Moniak. Since coming up from AAA, Moniak has a .314 average, 7 home runs and 20 RBIs, and that's just in 30 games. Moniak was also a very big piece of the offensive barrage in Denver earlier this week, being responsible for a nice slice of the pile-on alongside Trout, Ohtani and all the usual suspects. Moniak is a good outfielder with power perks and contact abilities. It's nice that this has all fallen into place at 25; there's a lot of 21 year olds burning up the leagues right now, but with the way development has wound up lately, having shorter MLB careers and later development periods is more welcome, and more common than someone like Juan Soto bursting onto the scene at 19.
Moniak has been a great help to the Angels' outfield, but at the current moment the infield is the piece of this team that's gone through the most retooling. With Rendon and Neto hurt and Jared Walsh in the minors, the only pieces of this infield to survive were Brandon Drury and Luis Rengifo, and Drury at the very least was doing well. This is why both Eduardo Escobar and Mike Moustakas had to be carted in from other markets, as they needed some level of experience to make this infield work. Escobar joined the team just in time to help out with the rout against the Rockies. Moustakas joined the team DURING the rout against the Rockies. The timing makes it look like he defected. Both are hitting very well in initial games in Anaheim, but we'll see if they have legs beyond that. Also, Andrew Velasquez is back up and he's doing what he usually does, excellent defense without a great deal of hitting.
The Angels are still a contender, but they've been lapped by the Astros in the last 24 hours, and have to play the D-Backs and Padres this week while they're both still relatively hot. I really hope they can hold onto their positive momentum and keep a hand on second place til at least the ASG break. They're more fun than the alternative creeping up to compete.
Coming Tomorrow- As I'm writing this we're not sure whether or not he nailed the starting catcher position for the NL, but if so it's about time.
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