There's a media trope that doesn't get talked about often, that of the adultified child, someone who had to grow up far too quickly to take care of adults in their lives who weren't capable of taking care of themselves. A person who had to mature far sooner than they were meant to, and did so without thinking of the far-reaching consequences. The MLB version of this is far less depressing.
I can think of a few different cases of someone in the midst of minor league development who was rushed to the major league club due to the lack of healthy options, regardless of readiness. They used to do this all the time, have big-leaguers essentially skip the minors and come right in, and that's what the Padres did with Dave Winfield back in the day. These days there are some cases where a player's so good that they speed through the minors within a year, we saw this with Paul Skenes of course. But recently we've seen people in double-A get yanked up due to necessity, regardless of the rate of progression. Nico Hoerner was the big one, he was wrangled up in 2019, took a few seasons to really come into his own and is now one of the chief Cubs hitters.
The Angels have two of these guys. Zach Neto, who progressed through the minors so quickly that the Angels had to bring him up, and Nolan Schanuel, who was brought up literally two months after being drafted by the Angels. And if they had any other manager but Ron Washington I'd be worried.
The last few days you've been hearing a lot from Wash about his approach to these two players in particular, the two young gems of the organization. And these two are thankfully listening to him. Schanuel is still not hitting, which, while somewhat expected for a 22-year-old, is still upsetting for a starter. But Neto has been having an excellent season, and I think learning from Washington has definitely helped. So far he's notched 10 home runs, 35 RBIs and 10 stolen bases, aside from some very, very good defensive infield play. With Trout hurt, Neto is one of the most talented multi-tool guys on this team, and having versatile people like him, Luis Rengifo and Taylor Ward ahead of the curve gives the Angels more than a lot of lower-tier teams have.
I think Neto hitting his stride at 23 does give him a leg up on a lot of other people who likely won't get there til 25 or 27. And this is a year where we have a guy who's 20 that's already been told he's not MLB-ready yet, and a few other people up at 20 or 21 that are having the time to struggle. I think it's very circumstantial: Neto's learning curve was lessened a bit, and Schanuel's wasn't. Neto, however, might be the better player, though...again, it remains to be seen what peak Schanuel will look like, much like peak Jackson Holliday.
The Angels have perked up a bit recently, but are mostly waiting til Trout and Rendon get back. They just lost Patrick Sandoval for the year, are giving Zach Plesac a shot to worrying results, and are gearing up for Taylor Ward to be dealt for hopefully some future pieces. I hope Neto's around long enough to see this team gel together, much like Hoerner, but it'll take a lot of little moves.
Coming Tomorrow- To the end of my days, I'll never understand why the Mariners dealt this guy.
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