The Angels’ 2026 season was a rough one in every obvious way, and the defense was no exception. A 62-100 record told part of the story, but the numbers behind the glove work were even harsher: FanGraphs had Los Angeles near the bottom of the league at -39.8 Defensive Runs Saved, while the Fielding Bible ranked the club 25th overall at -13 DRS.
Still, buried inside that mess were a few players who gave the Angels something to build on.
Zach Neto sat at the center of it all. While he put together a major offensive year with 27 home runs and 24 stolen bases, he also handled a full-time workload at shortstop and became the team’s defensive anchor.
Neto played 1,304.1 innings over 153 games at short, and even though Statcast tagged him at -8 Outs Above Average, other measures were much kinder. The Angels’ shortstop position finished at +11 DRS, and Neto led all regular Angels everyday starters with a 1.9 Defensive WAR.
He also turned 74 double plays, a big part of why the middle infield held together as well as it did.
Oswald Peraza was another quiet win. He appeared in 119 games and made 84 starts, moving around the infield when needed to help cover for Kurt Suzuki’s lineup choices.
Peraza posted a .987 fielding percentage across 778 innings, with just four errors in 314 chances. The 26-year-old utility man finished with 0.8 dWAR, second among the team’s regular infielders, and the Fielding Bible credited him with 4 Defensive Runs Saved.
That kind of steady work gave the Angels a dependable backup plan, especially when veteran Yoan Moncada was out of the lineup and later at second base. Because he came up as a shortstop, Peraza can also give Neto a day off without creating a defensive drop-off.
The biggest late-season surprise may have come from Wade Meckler. Claimed on waivers, Meckler spent most of his 83 games in left field, where the defense was rated negatively, before moving to right field after the trade of Jo Adell.
The switch worked. Meckler, a high-energy “hustle player” who won the August 30 MLB Play of the Week, showed that his game speed plays in the metrics too.
With elite spring speed of 28.8 feet per second, he finished the season with +1 Outs Above Average and 6 DRS from the Fielding Bible in just 119 innings.
In 22 games and 13 starts in right field, Meckler was perfect. He handled 27 chances, made 26 putouts and added an assist without an error, finishing with a 1.000 fielding percentage. That kind of late-season audition leaves him in the mix for 2027, especially since he also profiles as a solid leadoff hitter.
There’s no hiding the larger picture: the Angels still have a lot of work to do, especially on the dirt. But the outfield can get better quickly if Mike Trout moves to left field, and the club could see a boost in center once Trout vacates the position. Meckler’s speed could make him part of that answer in center field, particularly if the Angels add a platoon partner like Tyrone Taylor.
The infield is where the pressure really sits. There aren’t internal fixes waiting there, so the Angels will need free-agent help at second base and third base.
For a team trying to rebuild around a young, solid rotation, defense has to matter. The staff doesn’t miss bats in bunches, so the balls in play have to turn into outs.
For the Angels, the path to a better 2027 may come down to run prevention more than run production.
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