The Angels have signed first-round pick Christian Moore with a signing bonus of $4,997,500, per Carlos Collazo of Baseball America on X. The fact that the bonus is $2,500 shy of $5MM probably isn’t a coincidence. As explained by Jim Callis of MLB.com on X, players get a bonus of that amount when the signing is executed. The slot value for that pick is just over $6.5MM, so this comes in well under slot.
Moore, 21, has spent the past three years putting up huge numbers at Tennessee. He hit 61 home runs in 186 games over those three campaigns and slashed a combined .338/.447/.698. That includes 34 home runs in 2024 alone, with a monster line of .375/.451/.797 this year.
His power is considered better than his hitting ability, but he made some positive strides in that department lately. He struck out at a 24.3% clip last year but dropped that all the way to 14.5% this year. Defensively, he has played all three outfield spots and the three infield positions to the left of first base, but he’s spent the majority of his time at second base.
Despite the concerning elements of his game, the power is strong enough for him to have been placed highly on pre-draft rankings, though not as high as where he was ultimately selected. Keith Law of The Athletic had him in the #37 slot, FanGraphs at #23, MLB Pipeline at #13, while both Baseball America and ESPN had him at #12. Law expressed skepticism that Moore’s power would hold up with a wooden bat and also suggested his limited defensive abilities would eventually push him to left field. BA expressed optimism that his improved contact would play well with his natural power.
Though Moore was taken eighth overall, his bonus actually falls between the slot value of the 14th and 15th pick, which aligns more closely to his pre-draft rankings. By signing Moore to an underslot deal, the Halos will have some money to work with in signing players taken in later rounds.
How Moore fits into the club’s future will depend on his ultimate defensive home. Players like Luis Rengifo and Brandon Drury have seen most of the playing time at second base in recent years but Drury is an impending free agent while Rengifo is a trade candidate with one arbitration season remaining.
So this is Adell 2.0…??
If someone train Adell properly he would hit much better as he showed earlier in the season.
How is this anything like Adell?
How is this anything like Adell?
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A combination of plus power and contact issues, combined with being relegated to LF.
How do you feel this is different?
Please, enlighten us regarding your post, princess?
A ton of power but strikes out entirely too much. Translated to the big leagues. He’ll hit on average 15-20 useless moon shot HR’s and strikeout the vast majority of the time. I’ve seen this movie before.
Yep, seems repetitive, but I’ll watch just in case
I don’t agree with your logic, Adell should have spent more time in the minors, I’m sure moreno was the one rushing him during the shortened covid season, nonetheless, you are describing Adell. Moore is a polished college hitter, yes, some swing and miss, yet, far and away a better hitter than Adell will ever be.
Does he suck at running the basepaths as well or is it because he’s black. He’s had good numbers. Most of the analysts were critical on the pitchers. Drafting someone that was projected at 12 with the 8th pick isn’t much of a leap
It wasn’t 12th. It was #23, 37, 13 AND 12. I’m not sure why Angel fans get so defensive about this. I said the Angels were crazy for promoting Adell in 2020, and Angel fans went apoplectic..
@joebrady 3-5 say he’s 12-13. I would trust baseball America and espn. Must of the draft grading is from the pitchers they selected, it doesn’t really bother me they have them graded as relievers since the whole bullpen is going to be gone after this year.
If they hurry perhaps they can get him into the lineup tonight.
Don’t laugh, this kid will be on the field by September. Konnor Griffin was sitting right there for them and they blew it. They could have signed these prep kids to go along with him and let them all mature together and come up together in three or four years. They can’t wait that long, they need to be mediocre to bad NOW!
It was a joke but yeah obviously the Angels are gonna rush him to the big leagues.
Griffin is a tough one. I am a Cardinals fan and am happy we got Wetherholt I thought there was a big 7 and he was the only guy left at pick 7 from that group. Griffin I did have at 8 where the Angels picked but he’s risky. He looks a lot like Bubba Starling to me. I think he could be the best player in the draft but I also think he could never make it. Huge risk reward there. And I do like thst the Angels are paying Moore less than slot. I think he’s worth more than the money he got. But I do hear you Griffin has big time potential for sure.
Part of the angels to the big leagues strategy is their clear lack of faith in their position player development system. So Griffen wasn’t “right there”
LOL
So that’s $1.5 million here plus the 5% tolerance of about $600k which means over $2.1 million to convince the late round high school kids to skip college.
One has already stated he will.
Yes, and it’s the second high schooler that is the concern and who they will have to throw at least $1.5M at in order to get him to forgo college. The Colorado kid wants to play badly, so they can save on what they pay him– the other kid is another story, but they need both of these high schoolers to sign in order to have a chance at this being a successful draft. I really question a lot of their picks.
Most sites rate it C-D.
Grading a baseball draft data after it ends is foolish.
It sure may be but you know drafting a 2B at 8th is questionable especially when there is a question mark in his defense Drafting 2 future bullpen arms in the second round seem outright stupid.
The methodology is easy to criticize.
It is much easier to criticize the resulting product on the field. I don’t know about you but I finally started not caring much about all this losing. You can analyze whichever way you want to but it ain’t gonna get better. Not for several years.
drafting a 2B at 8th is questionable especially when there is a question mark in his defense
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I think teams are tending towards skill positions or pitchers, but this was a poor pitching class. And, imho, drafting a lower-ranked player early is okay, so long as you have a higher slotted player drafted later (to spend the savings on).
Trey Gregory-Alford has confirmed that he will forego college and sign with the Angels, while Dylan Jordan already agreed to a signing bonus of $1,247,500.
Gatwood has stated that he’s keeping his Auburn commitment. It would take a large amount of money to make him change his mind, but it worked with Trumbo, so you never really know. It would be quite a coup if it happened.
Keith Law says 37th top prospect. It’s Keith Law, so we can already assume he is always wrong
Lets see if this guy pans out.. they’ve been lucky with some of their recent first round drafts.
Well if Schanuel was called up in mid August and we were told would hit 25 homers a year, then surely Moore will be called up in early August if not go straight to the bigs like David Clyde and be penciled in for a good 50 homers a year.
Can’t wait for yet another BS not a dry eye in the house moment with the family flown in and the in bat interview with Erica Weston, just like just about everyone else that gets sent back down eventually.
He will be assigned to the minor leagues immediately and if he does well like Neto and Schanuel did– he will be a September call up to see if he is a viable option at second for next year.
But Erica Weston…!!!
Gubicza’s gonna be insufferable comparing him, O’ Hope, Neto, and Schanuel to the great core fours of the Yanks or Dodgers.
I’m still trying to understand why the Angels didn’t take Konnor Griffin? The kid is an 18-year old beast, who will be a big star in 3-4 years– and taken right after the Angels. This mistake is going to haunt them. MArk DeRosa said he would have taken Griffin #1 overall.. He had 85 stolen bases in 30 games– and he’s a power bat at 6″4″, 215. A special talent.
LA Angels of Anaheim is why.
Cause the Angels front office is chicken you know what. They don’t want to be the guys who miss in the 1st round or make the big trade that blows up in their face. So all these “aggressive” moves are really the safe way. They always pick the guy who they think can play in the majors the soonest. It doesn’t matter that his talent level is 2nd round caliber like this year. So they always say their “numbers” show something else or they do it for the marketing ploy of “fastest draft pick of the class to the majors”. And they can’t develop talent but fans blame it on Moreno not investing but it’s their system too
And that’s why the roster is full of mid level former 1st round draft picks. “The most in the in the MLB” again another marketing ploy so we’re supposed to be impressed at the talent level. a guy can be 3rd round talent and the Angels will let you know he was a first round pick until they’re blue in the face
The Angels had 2 years of consecutive first round picks choosing catchers, and passed on Will Smith for Matt Thaiss. Logan O’Hoppe is their catcher now. Their approach to the draft and development has been questionable and aimless considering the GM turnover. Right now the organizational approach seems to be let’s throw it at a wall and see what sticks. The fans deserve better.
Most baseball sites rank this draft somewhere between C and D. great job, Angels!
Half of Angels scouting is simply watching the College World Series.
You would think having a professional baseball team in “Los Angeles” one of the hotbeds of young baseball talent in America they would at least TRY to tap into their own backyard. Do they even scout the local high schools anymore?! I can’t see one pick of a local high school player, not even in the later round, since Minasian took over. It’s always the same crap.i.e SEC, Florida, Texas, Ohio University, etc. Year after year local high school players get picked just after the Angels pick some 4 yr college bum that doesn’t pan out.
@devo what about schanuel, neto, and bachman, they weren’t in the sec.
I support the strategy. Instead of putting all of their eggs in one basket they spread them out with a focus on pitching, the organization’s greatest need. Because they didn’t take Griffin, or the next top talent is really irrelevant when you have more holes than one top 10 prospect or free agency can fill. Take a 2nd round talent player to save money to use later to entice high end pitching talent out of high school. Yep, I’m all for it.