As spring renews the natural order once again, America’s national pastime is ready to swing off for its 157th time. The first pitch is almost upon us as the Major League Baseball regular season is finally ready to commence. Renewed hopes abound for fan bases across the country looking to see if their team can go through the gauntlet of a 162-game schedule and be successful enough to make the postseason in October. For me, the beginning of the baseball season always has that nostalgic feel. More sweet than the kickoff of football season and the tipoff of a basketball season. Baseball just has all the right stuff to open up a season, with the starting lineups announced and the team rosters announced to the viewing audience at the ballpark. The national anthem and flyovers always get the goosebumps going for millions of baseball fans throughout the U.S.

Personally, for me, I’ve always enjoyed throughout the years the coverage of Opening Day regarding my favorite team, the Los Angeles Angels(of Anaheim, that part has been taken off their team name for roughly a decade now). The Angels always seem to open up the season on the road away from Orange County, with their home opener coming a week after Opening Day. The local regional sports network that has covered the Halos has always done well to shine the spotlight on our best players and biggest unknowns on the team. All 26 gentlemen on the roster are given due respect to the position they play and what is expected of them.

But as the 2025 season is set to commence, it seems like this is less of a make-it-or-break-it year for the Angels and more of a test run year for them. Things have not been so fortunate for my Angels in recent years as star power has not led to as much success as expected. The media outlets covering baseball would tell you as much, but this is more of an inside opinion from(in my view) one of the most devoted fans to the team. The Halos are in a bit of a tough position when it comes to balancing production from older players versus their younger players. A collision of philosophies between the general manager and coaching staff has been an issue that has occurred in this new P.S(Post-Shohei) era of Angels baseball. Unburdened by the expectations of winning with one of the biggest baseball stars in the world and burdened by their inability to get out of their own way, the Angels baseball club is simply stuck in the mud and they are looking for a way out of the pit they find themselves in.

With great power comes great responsibility, and unfortunately the Angels’ leadership and brass has been irresponsible for years in terms of how money is spent. Under Arte Moreno’s ownership, the team has been more focused on acquiring talented batters rather than acquiring skilled pitchers on the free agent market. Not willing to pay premiums for pitching, Moreno has had his general managers give big paydays to the great star batters that have come through Anaheim and unfortunately left without delivering another World Series title to the Angels’ mantle. Vladimir Guerrero was great, but sadly playoff defeats are what defined the Halos during his tenure. Albert Pujols was aging out and he accomplished many great individual milestones as an Angel, but his presence only yielded one playoff appearance that ended in a bitter sweep. Don’t even get me started on Josh Hamilton and how much money the Halos had to pay to him after he only spent two years on the ballclub. And most recently, Anthony Rendon has been the biggest free agent bust that any major league team has ever known due to his constant injury woes and lack of production across seasons that have him playing on the field less than his time on the injured list. Trying to be a copy of Pujols of coming to the Angels after winning a World Series title with his previous team, Rendon has missed so much time and the Angels have stunk either way, with or without him. Mediocre with him and bad without him. Clearly, he needs to be released and the team can start anew at having a consistently available third baseman, something that hasn’t been the case in nearly two decades.

As for the Angels in the present, they are trying to bounce back from their worst season ever from a winning percentage standpoint. Only winning 63 games and losing 99 of them is a good way to know that you’ve hit rock bottom as a baseball team. And this on the heels of seeing the biggest two-way star in baseball history sign with the team up the road in Los Angeles proper and winning a World Series ring in his first year on that team. A bittersweet taste can be the only way to describe the state of Angels fans upon seeing that. Success with Mr. Shohei Ohtani would have been possible had the Angels had a couple of things go their way. One is the availability of the other big swingers on our roster. Specifically, the face of our franchise since 2012 in Mike Trout has gone from being the best player in baseball to the most incognito star in the game due to all the injury woes he has suffered throughout these past several years. Missing more games than anyone can count in their head or on their fingers, Mike Trout has been inactive for way too much time in his career. When he is healthy, the Angels are simply a better team and good enough to at least contend in the later months of the season for a playoff spot. When he is not healthy, the team falls apart into mediocrity and they can’t find a way to fill his void. So, keeping him healthy is one of the many goals of the Angels in 2025. Moving him to right field is definitely a move in the right direction. Although it is hard to track any of his injuries to all the time he spent out in center field, the game has taken a toll on the body of a man who probably wasn’t built to play full baseball seasons across two decades of playing time. Appearances as a designated hitter should become more common for Trout as well going forward.

Around Trout, the Angels have a lot of great young stars that can potentially be catalysts to lift the team into being competitive for years to come(as long as they stay healthy). It helps to know that they have confidence in Jo Adell to be the everyday center fielder in place of Trout and the team has given him that stamp of approval even though he has spent most of his time in the corner outfield positions in his major league career. That was only confirmed deeper when the team recently released Mickey Moniak, who played the majority of games in center field last season after Trout suffered a season-ending injury a month into the season. Other young stars include catcher Logan O’Hoppe, first baseman Nolan Schanuel and shortstop Zach Neto(who will begin the season on the injured list, but will come back sooner rather than later). That trio of youngsters has the potential to be the consistent cornerstone pieces in the Angels infield for many years into the future, along with recent first round pick Christian Moore, who is the second-baseman of the future. Moore will begin the season in the minor leagues, but he might not be down there for long. However, the Halos have plenty of middle infielders to supplant them while Moore waits in the wings(no pun intended).

In the middle infield, the Angels have a plethora of veteran options. Luis Rengifo returns after only playing a half season worth of games last season, being an option at second base and third base. New additions to the infield include Kevin Newman(who can be a shortstop for the Halos while waiting for Neto to get fully healthy), Tim Anderson(a veteran who is looking to recapture his groove that he had when playing for the Chicago White Sox), Yoan Moncada, and the recently acquired Nicky Lopez. However long each of the new guys stay on the active big league roster will be determined by their ability to produce offensively and field well defensively. Another notable infield addition is veteran catcher Travis d’Arnaud, who will look to be a good backup option at catcher behind O’Hoppe.

The outfield saw a new addition as well in the offseason with the Angels acquiring a big slugger in Jorge Soler from the Atlanta Braves. Soler has playoff experience and a World Series MVP on his résumé and he can be a guy who can platoon right field on days when Trout needs to be off his feet. Along with Taylor Ward and a surprise roster addition in Kyren Paris, the Angels outfield is definitely a unique one in spite of a lack of depth. And watch out down the road for Matthew Lugo, who the Angels acquired in a deal last season before the trade deadline. He can be the ultimate all-around outfielder with a powerful bat in his hand for future years and could very well make his major league debut this season along with Christian Moore.

Other notable acquisitions in the offseason for the Angels were a couple starting pitchers(surprise!). Veteran pitchers with plenty of experience in the starting rotations of other big league clubs. Yusei Kikuchi, a Japanese southpaw who spent part of last year on the vaunted Houston Astros, is the Opening Day starter for the Angels and he will look to hold down a rotation spot after having some struggles as a starter for the Seattle Mariners and Toronto Blue Jays. Kyle Hendricks has come home to SoCal(he’s an Orange County native) and he’s looking to recapture the magic that made him the ace of the Chicago Cubs rotation for many years. So, a couple of pet projects there for the Angels to experiment on. And finally, in order to take the heat(literally) off Ben Joyce from being the fireball closer that the Halos know he can be, the team brought in an all-time great to soak up some save opportunities in Kenley Jansen, who used to be the closer up the road for the Dodgers for a decade plus, but now he’ll have the chance to get saves as an Angel. The fourth-most saves by a pitcher in baseball history and looking to add onto his career tally of 447, Jansen will spearhead a bullpen filled with mostly young relievers with plenty of nasty pitch types. The bullpen was actually a strong suit for the Angels last season believe it or not, but they hopefully will have less pressure to eat up innings with more productive outings from the starting rotation. Besides Kikuchi and Hendricks, the starting rotation will begin the season with veteran Tyler Anderson and youngsters in Jose Soriano and Jack Kochanowicz(silent cs) rounding it out. There’s always room for change, as the bulk guy in the bullpen is now Reid Detmers, who can serve as a sixth starter in the rotation during stretches when the Angels are playing many consecutive days in a row and there are a few young arms down in the minor leagues itching to have their chance in the majors.

With the roster explored, the competition will be examined. At least in the AL West, where the bar for winning the division title seems to be lower than it has ever been. The class of the division are a Houston Astros, who have won the division title in seven consecutive non-pandemic-shortened seasons. In spite of losing two of their biggest stars in free agency or via trade in Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker, Houston is still powerful with sturdy batters in Jose Altuve, Yordan Alvarez, Jeremy Peña and Chas McCormick. New additions include Isaac Paredes and Christian Walker, who will look to elevate the batting totals in the absence of those departed stars. The starting pitching has been plagued by injuries to plenty of the arms for Houston, who will be getting back Lance McCullers Jr after roughly two seasons of inactiveness due to throwing arm procedures. They will also get back Luis Garcia from a season-ending procedure from last year while waiting on Christian Javier to return from elbow surgery. Along with other young hurlers, the Astros will look to keep themselves at the top of the chain concerning their starting pitching. Their bullpen is filled with young inexperienced pitchers with closer Josh Hader and set-up man Bryan Abreu at the top. Under the leadership of second-year manager Joe Espada, the Houston Astros will look to return to the playoffs for the tenth straight season and have better results than they did last postseason should they make it.

Next up are the Texas Rangers, who were once managed by current Angels skipper Ron Washington. Coming off a lackluster year as defending World Series champions, the Rangers will look for better luck and health from their starting pitchers, something that really hurt them last season. Having a healthy Jacob deGrom would really help them. Veteran starters in Nathan Eovaldi and Dane Dunning will make up the Texas starting staff along with newcomers Patrick Corbin and Tyler Mahle. The Rangers batting order still has most of their big hitters in Marcus Semien, Corey Seager and Adolis Garcia while adding on new faces such as Joc Pederson(who had a JocTober to remember in the 2020 title run that he had with the Dodgers when all of their games past the Wild Card round that year were held at the indoor ballpark of the Rangers) and Jake Burger. Under Bruce Bochy for the third year, the Texas Rangers seek to return to the playoffs and win their first division title in almost a decade in 2025.

Onto the Seattle Mariners, who have been just a game or two short of the playoffs for three of these past four seasons. 2022 was the year where they finally ended the longest active playoff drought in North American sports at the time, but they were defeated ironically by the Astros in the ALDS. Close losses to many teams in the regular season, including a lot of them at the hands of the Angels, have come back to bite the Mariners, who are in the fourth year of the Julio Rodriguez-era. In order to maximize their time with J-Rod and make him a member of their organization for his whole career(and not suffer the same fate they did with a guy called Alex), Seattle must rise to the occasion and find a way to build a winning roster around the younger Rodriguez. The mid-season acquisition of star left-fielder Randy Arozarena definitely helped the Mariners get a guy who has as much star potential(and playoff experience) as Julio, but they had to improve their team while having one hand tied behind their back due to a complicated payroll situation caused by negotiations with their local RSN. Familiar faces such as J.P Crawford, Cal Raleigh(who just got signed to a big contract extension), Dylan Moore, and others were aided with offseason acquisitions such as Donovan Solano(a journeyman infielder), Rowdy Tellez and the return of Jorge Polanco. Bottom line is that Seattle needs better hitting to complement their strong pitching staff, with a powerful rotation featuring veteran hurler Luis Castillo and young arms like Logan Gilbert, George Kirby, Bryan Woo and Bryce Miller. The Mariners bullpen is a stout fleet as well with closer Andres Munoz leading it. Under the first full year of Dan Wilson’s leadership after he stepped in for Scott Servais in August of last year, Seattle looks to win their first division title since putting up 116 wins in 2001 and return to the playoffs with a greater goal in mind of making it to the World Series, being the only active team in MLB to never make an appearance in the Fall Classic.

Finally, you have the Athletics baseball club, a team with no moniker after they disgracefully left Oakland behind in the dust and are in a state of limbo playing at a minor league ballpark many miles north of the city they called home for almost sixty years. The A’s are playing their home games at Sutter Health Park in West Sacramento, Calif., until their glitzy indoor palace is built on the Las Vegas Strip and ready for hosting events in a few years time hopefully. While in this state of limbo, the vagabond Athletics will look to create a culture of winning with young stars such as Brent Rooker, Lawrence Butler, Zach Gelof and Shea Langeliers. The A’s front office made some modest front office moves that they intentionally didn’t make while they were still in the Bay Area by acquiring veteran starter Luis Severino, relief arm Jose LeClerc and a once-heralded prospect from the Yankees in Miguel Andújar. Along with new infield additions Gio Urshela and Luis Urias, the Athletics will look to win their first division title since winning the AL West in the shortened 60-game regular season in 2020, whereas they haven’t won the West over the course of a full season since 2013. Also watch out for Mason Miller, a fireball pitcher with an almost similar repertoire as Ben Joyce for getting batters to strike out with 100+ mph pitches. He’s the closer for the A’s and probably the best one they have ever had.

So, the Angels start a new season with a tight competition in a division that they used to win plenty of times before the Astros arrived in the division in 2013 and eventually started dominating it through their state of rebuild that took them roughly a decade to go through. Will this Angels team require so much time to reach success? They haven’t made the postseason in a decade, but they’ve been in the middle of that path. The fork in the road has come to a rear and it seems as if the Angels are still trying to compete. That’s all any baseball team can do across a long schedule lasting from the beginning of spring to the beginning of autumn. Compete and hope that you can be in contention for a playoff spot. Something that there’s more of ever since the Halos last made the playoffs. Six playoff spots for each league, American and National. Three for the division winners and three for the non-division winning teams with the best three records. The bar is still pretty high to make the postseason and actually do stuff in it. The best-of-3 wild card round definitely gives those teams on the edge of the playoff picture in July and August some more hope to keep grinding. But with a lot of road games to start out and facing teams with more recent playoff appearances than them, are these Angels truly a contender or rebuilder? Has the window to compete with Mike Trout closed completely shut or is there still a possibility for team success with one of the most individually-accomplished players in modern baseball history? The answers to those questions will be answered in due time as the Los Angeles Angels continue to grind on with their present and future very much on their minds. Other off-field issues are being handled by ownership and lawyers, but that isn’t worth discussing. The Halos will try to make their fans proud while looking to finally capture some good fortune and ride it to a playoff appearance that’s been too long in the waiting. Let’s hope this spring will blossom a more fruitful baseball season for the team with the Big A with a platinum circle around its peak.