The Angels’ 2026 draft class gives them a little bit of everything, but the clearest thread running through it is bat-to-ball talent. At the top, they leaned into hitters who can put the ball in play, and the result is a group with some real variety: contact, power, speed, defense and a few arms with bite.
Georgia Tech second baseman Jarren Advincula, the club’s second-round pick, stands out as the purest hitter in the class. He was one of just four players in the 2026 crop to earn a 60-grade hit tool or better projection on Baseball America’s class grades, and his contact profile backed that up.
In 2026 at Georgia Tech, he hit .434 with a 5.3% strikeout rate. First-round outfielder Jared Grindlinger also fits the same general mold, with innate pure contact ability and a track record of rarely missing.
If the Angels added one obvious thumper, it was Texas A&M third baseman Gavin Grahovac, their third-round pick. He had already shown loud raw power going back to his prep days, homered 23 times as a freshman in 2024, then followed a mostly lost 2025 season with injury by belting 22 homers in 2026.
His spring included a 108.4 mph 90th percentile exit velocity, and he led all players in SEC home runs with 13. That power carried into pro ball, too, where he tied Justin Lebron and Carson Tinney for the most homers in the class with eight.
Grahovac also made the strongest first impression once he turned pro. In 24 games at Low-A Rancho Cucamonga, he hit .304/.402/.641 with eight home runs and five doubles.
The approach was aggressive, and the swing-and-miss issues that showed up in college were still there, but the game power was more than enough to support the production. Willits had a strong debut of his own, hitting .305/.437/.474 in 26 games while splitting time between shortstop and second base.
The speed piece belongs to Tennessee-Martin second baseman TJ Grines, the Angels’ 17th-round pick. He’s an 80-grade runner, and the number jumps off the page: 66 stolen bases, most in Division I by a wide margin.
Jack Cannon was second with 51. Grines did it with an 89% success rate, and his wheels have long been his carrying tool.
He was also the first Tennessee-Martin player to win Ohio Valley Conference player of the year and set multiple stolen base records for the program and the conference.
On the defensive side, Oklahoma shortstop Jaxon Willits, picked in the fifth round, gives the Angels a polished middle-infield piece. He may not be the flashiest defender in the class, but the instincts are excellent and the reliability is obvious.
The Angels are also higher on St. John’s catcher Adam Agresti’s receiving than their pre-draft report suggested.
On the mound, Georgia right-hander Justin Byrd, the sixth-rounder, brings the best fastball in the group and the best secondary pitch, too. His heater sat at 94.4 mph this spring while he closed games for Georgia, and he’s pushed it to 97 with solid ride and run.
Against college hitters in 2026, the pitch generated a 28% miss rate. His slider, a high-usage sweeper in the low 80s, gets more than 12 inches of gloveside movement and comes almost half the time when he faces righties.
The most intriguing family tree in the class centers on Willits and Grahovac. Willits is the older brother of Nationals 2025 first overall pick Eli, and his father, Reggie, played six seasons for the Angels.
Grahovac’s father, Mike, was a fourth-round pick by the Giants in the 1989 draft, and his cousin Garrett is an outfielder for the Brewers. The two also shared a Little League team in California.
It was called the Angels.
As for who could move fastest, Willits looks like the clean answer. His game is polished, and that usually travels quickly, especially in a draft where the Angels also took a higher-upside high school player in the first round.
The best late pick or undrafted addition in the group is San Diego State outfielder Jake Jackson, taken in the 20th round. He broke out this spring with a .348/.413/.626 line, 14 home runs and 18 doubles. At 6-foot-6 and 215 pounds, he’s a big, physical athlete with real tools and a chance to stay in center field if he can make enough contact and drive the ball more consistently in pro ball.
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