Angels’ Mickey Moniak off to a hot, healthy start in spring

TEMPE, Ariz. — Mickey Moniak may finally have discovered the formula for success in the big leagues.

“I definitely feel like I’m back where I need to be,” the Angels outfielder said. “Now I just have to try to stay away from getting hit again.”

Moniak is once again enjoying a hot spring, with a .360 average and 1.047 OPS through his first 27 plate appearances. He was very good last spring with the Philadelphia Phillies, but the job he had won was lost when he broke his right hand getting hit by a pitch during the final exhibition game.

Moniak then fractured his left middle finger when he was bunting a few games into his Angels career. After a month on the injured list, he came back and was hit on a knuckle of his left hand by a foul ball in the final week of the season.

Asked if he’s going to wear a protective guard on his hand this year, Moniak joked: “I’m thinking about wearing two.”

Assuming Moniak can avoid another injury, his hot spring is providing the Angels with an interesting question.

General manager Perry Minasian said before spring training began that the plan was to have Brett Phillips as the fourth outfielder, with Moniak and Jo Adell in Triple-A. The Angels signed Phillips as a free agent over the winter, guaranteeing him $1.2 million.

With just over two weeks to go before Opening Day, Moniak is performing the best of the three. Phillips is 2 for 23.

“We’re gonna take the best guys,” manager Phil Nevin said. “I’ve said that all along. Contracts or whatever, we’re trying to win, so we’re taking the best group.”

It’s also possible that the Angels could prefer to have Phillips on the bench in the majors and Moniak playing every day at Triple-A, just to keep Moniak going. Playing time for the fourth outfielder will be limited behind starters Mike Trout, Hunter Renfroe and Taylor Ward. Moniak and Adell can both be optioned, but Phillips can’t.

“The argument can be made that he needs to play a lot, so those are things we’ll wrestle with when we get to the end,” Nevin said.

Moniak, a 24-year-old in his eighth pro season, is well aware of what goes into those kind of decisions.

“Obviously you want to be in the big leagues, contributing to a big league roster and contributing to a playoff push, but I’m very aware of the situation here,” he said. “It’s a business. At the end of the day, I’ve seen the ins and outs of it over the last three years. The one the one constant is going back to just control what you can control. Whether I start in Triple-A or I start in the big leagues, I’m just going to use spring training to be ready for that day and just be able to go out there and kind of showcase what I can do.”

So far Moniak has not shown what was projected for him when he was selected by the Philadelphia Phillies with the first overall pick in the 2016 draft. The Phillies first promoted him to the majors in 2020, and he has hit .157 with a .486 OPS in 167 big league plate appearances.

It’s still too small a sample size to close the book on Moniak, though. For the sake of comparison, Adell has already accumulated 557 major league plate appearances. Taylor Ward had 534 plate appearances before his breakthrough season in 2023.

“Some guys just mature within the game later than others,” Nevin said. “I was one of them as a player myself, so I’m drawn to that a little bit. He’s doing a heck of a lot of good things for us.”

Moniak said it’s helped that he’s been able to work with Angels assistant hitting coach Phil Plantier all winter. Both live in the San Diego area, so they got together a couple times a week throughout the offseason.

“It’s something I haven’t really been able to do in my career, to build a relationship with a hitting coach in the offseason, so I think that was good,” Moniak said. “I think we got a lot of good work in and that kind of allowed us to hit the ground running.”

Plantier said Moniak is now getting past the “noise” of being the No. 1 overall pick, which makes him better able to shake that label and focus on what he needs to do to perform.

“Guys that are transitioning to the major leagues, you have to know about yourself and who you are,” Plantier said. “If all of your work represents that, your mindset during the game is to go out and compete and play baseball like you were wired and designed to. I think he’s in the process of doing that. He’s been very consistent in spring training.”