The Angels have scored enough runs this season. That is not a sentence that has been written about this franchise without irony for several years, so let it sit for a moment. They have scored enough runs. The problem is that enough runs, in the hands of this particular bullpen, is a number that keeps turning out to be insufficient by one or two.
Let's start with Mike Trout, because with Trout you always start with Trout. Seven home runs. .938 OPS. Playing centre field again. The man is 34 years old and is on pace for somewhere between 40 and 50 home runs if the body cooperates, which it has, so far, in a way that creates a specific kind of anxiety if you have watched this team closely since 2017. He is healthy. He is playing well. Every day he stays healthy is a day worth having. We are 25 days in and he is healthy. That is the news.
Zach Neto has five home runs and is batting .237, which is lower than his career line but is attached to an .805 OPS that suggests the underlying quality is there even when the average isn't climbing. Shortstops do not usually lead teams in home runs through April. Neto is doing things at the position that justify every word written about him on this site and then some. Jorge Soler, who arrived quietly on a one-year deal that nobody particularly celebrated, has matched Neto with five and is doing it with a .791 OPS from a lineup spot that was a genuine question mark in March.
These are the people carrying the offence, and they are carrying it well enough that the Angels are competitive in most games. Jo Adell is batting .270 and has been a pleasant surprise in a role that suited him better than the roles he was asked to play in previous seasons. Adam Frazier, on a bench deal that raised no eyebrows at signing, is hitting .263 in a utility capacity and providing the kind of quiet contribution that only gets noticed when it disappears.
Now for the rest, because there is a rest.
Logan O'Hoppe is batting .191 through 23 games. Yoán Moncada, who the Angels signed to give the lineup depth and left-handed balance, is at .176. Josh Lowe — who had that memorable home run in Houston on Opening Day and generated genuine excitement about what he might become — is at .159. These are not the numbers of a functional middle of the order. These are the numbers of three players who have not yet started the season they're supposed to be having, combined into a stretch of the lineup that opposing pitchers are currently attacking with something approaching relief.
The mathematics of the situation are worth understanding. The Angels are scoring an average of around 4.4 runs per game. That is, against most pitching staffs, a winnable number. When your starter gives you six innings of one-run ball and you score four, you should win. The issue is that you need the bullpen to hold the lead, and the bullpen has not been holding leads. The connection between the offensive output and the record is being broken by the thing that goes wrong between the sixth inning and the final out — not by the hitters failing to produce, but by the production being cancelled before it can matter.
The optimistic reading of all this is that three hitters being below their reasonable expectations — O'Hoppe, Moncada, Lowe — represents regression to the mean waiting to happen in the Angels' favour. O'Hoppe had a terrible 2025 and is off to a terrible 2026 start but has shown enough in previous stretches to believe he is capable of more. Moncada is a 29-year-old switch-hitter who can hit .260 when he is locked in; he is not locked in yet. Lowe has raw power and athleticism and a swing that works over the course of a full season more than it has over the first 22 games.
Whether you believe the optimistic reading depends on how long you have been watching this team. The ceiling of this lineup, when everyone performs at their reasonable upside, is genuinely impressive. The floor, which is what is currently in operation for about a third of the roster, is a team that gives the bullpen enough to work with but not enough margin for error. Given that the bullpen is currently generating all of the errors, the margin matters. Trout and Neto and Soler can only do so much covering for what's happening at the back end of the order. At some point the whole lineup needs to arrive at the same time. It hasn't yet.