Angels shortstop Zach Neto underwent shoulder surgery and could miss the start of the 2025 season. General manager Perry Minasian informed reporters such as Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com (X link) and Sam Blum of The Athletic (X link), though didn’t specify the exact nature of the injury or procedure.
Per Minasian, Zeto sustained the injury playing in Chicago during the club’s final week of the season. While playing the White Sox on September 26, Zeto was on first base and tried to take second on a ball in the dirt (video link from MLB.com). After sliding headfirst into the bag and getting thrown out, he was clutching at his right shoulder and clearly in pain. The Angels then hosted the Rangers for the final three games of the season but Neto didn’t play in those.
Over a month has now passed since that injury. Per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register (X link), Neto tried rehabbing but still had some lingering issues, so it seems he had to go under the knife.
Though the exact details of the situation haven’t been relayed, the timetable is not good news for the Angels. Neto has less than two years in the big leagues but has taken over the club’s shortstop job and performed well. He just wrapped up a 2024 season in which he hit 23 home runs and slashed .249/.318/.443 for a wRC+ of 114 wRC+. The reviews of his defense were mixed but he stole 30 bases on the year. Putting his total performance together, FanGraphs graded him as worth 3.5 wins above replacement on the year, tops on the team.
The club just wrapped up their worst season in franchise history, going 63-99. Despite that, owner Arte Moreno said last month that they planned to increase payroll and try to compete in 2025. They have already acquired slugger Jorge Soler from Atlanta and signed pitcher Kyle Hendricks as they attempt to upgrade the roster.
Turning a 99-loss team into a contender was always going to be a challenge, especially for a franchise that has continually fallen short of expectations. In recent years, they have had two-way star Shohei Ohtani and something near peak Mike Trout on the same roster but couldn’t even get their win-loss record over .500. Now they’ve lost Ohtani while Trout has become increasingly absent due to injuries as he pushes towards his mid 30s.
Cobbling together a winner in 2025 will now only become more difficult as their top contributor from 2024 will be missing time. Since Neto will presumably be back at some point, they probably won’t go after a big free agent like Willy Adames to fill the spot for a temporary absence. Perhaps they will keep an eye out for multi-positional players that could fill the void and then move to another spot once Neto is healthy.
It’s also possible that they’ve already been on this path. Super utility player Scott Kingery was sent from the Phillies to the Angels last week, with the Halos adding him to their roster shortly thereafter to prevent him from reaching minor league free agency. Kingery played mostly shortstop in Triple-A this year, also spending some time at second base and center field. He hit 25 home runs and stole 25 bases, slashing .268/.316/.488. He has a line of just .229/.280/.387 in his major league career but would be a fine utility guy if he performed the way he did in the minors in 2024.
Luis Rengifo is also on the roster and can play all over the diamond, though he’s not really considered a strong defender anywhere and is probably better suited for a less-demanding spot like second base. Kyren Paris is on the 40-man but has just 105 major league plate appearances with a rough line of .110/.214/.165 in those. Perhaps the club will keep an eye out for other depth options in free agency, the trade market, or on the waiver wire.
How the roster shakes out will be determined in the months to come. For today, it’s a setback for the Halos. They have a roster with plenty of question marks but shortstop wasn’t one of them before this news.
Big loss for the Angels. Expected to give the Angels 3-4 WAR next year, so their win projection just dropped a bit more. Unfortunate…
So from 65 wins down to 61 or 62.
114 wrc+, 3.5 fangraphs war and made $750k.
Future Rizzo, as according to his Wikipedia entry: “Neto was hit by a pitch seven times in his first 15 major league games, an MLB modern era record”
Or Biggio.
The season ended over a month ago and Ohtani gets surgery before Neto.
The people in this organization has given me no reason to trust their judgement.
Although the article doesn’t state when he underwent surgery. Nor explained exactly what was done.
1968, Very good point. You’re right, until I get word when the surgery took place I should not use this as an example of the organization’s competence.
Will you alter your views if it was weeks after the season ended?
@halo11 There are plenty of other examples of the organization’s lack of competence.
O’hoppe played 425.1 innings in 2023 and 1064.1 innings in ’24. That is a bit too much. He should be rotated at 1B or DH but a very smart GM traded for a DH only dud. How crazy is it?
@aragon they need to trade the dh/ backup catcher we have, and just resign wallach.
You’re mad at the organization for a decision they had no control over?
this is a weird thing to be upset about, unless you know the inner working of how this all happened
you technically can’t make someone get surgery
No you cannot. I felt the same way when Glaus and Richards thought they could rehab surgery.
I’ll take a step back until it is known when the surgery took place.
How bad are the Angels? Last year the Dodgers needed a SS fill-in and they plugged in Mookie Betts. The Angels’ options are Kingery and Rengifo. Halos in 2025!
Guggenheims money makes a world of difference.
That partially explains acquiring Kingery. He played SS all season for Lehigh Valley in 2024. He’s not great there, but good enough to fill in temporarily…
If so, the surgery should have happened a week ago.
There’s nothing wrong with attempting to rest and rehab an injury before committing to a surgery. Quit acting so high and mighty about someone else’s health decisions.
People have made solid points. I jumped to conclusions.
I’m my defense, they completely missed the mark on Rendon’s and Trout’s injuries. They had their worst record ever, and their farm system is ranked 29th.
I’m a frustrated Angel fan and assumed this was another bad evaluation regarding a player’s health.
Bummer.
Could you imagine what Arte asked from the devil for the other side of the deal to be this level of cursed?
Any theories?
@bkbk. He did it for the stadium deal. The devil never explained it would be shot down because of corruption, now he’s having buyers remorse.
if i had a wallet the size of arte’s i would happily run a franchise with 50x worse luck than the angels
Well, that pokes a big hole in an already Swiss Cheesy infield. There is no one in the system other than Kingery to take his place even if he is only out a a couple of months. What glove first never has been will Arte allow Perry to sign? Or are they seriously going to go with Kingery?
@outinleftfield. They need to sign Rosario. Shouldn’t be expensive.
Sign Polanco to hold second base down, let Rengifo move around as needed until Neto comes back.
At the trade deadline deal both Rengifo and Polanco for prospects and let the rebuild continue.
it isn’t like losing an extra 2 or 3 games the first month is really going to impact our post season chances.
Your Angels better not get any ideas here. White Sox want to have the worst record in baseball again, so don’t be getting any ideas here! You take your 60 wins and be happy!
Zeto…
2nd paragraph.
A new nickname is born…
Nice
Don’t fix it Darragh.
That’s awesome
Anthopoulous on Zoom, offering Arcia . …