The Angels are staring at another lost season, and the latest grade only makes the picture uglier. Bleacher Report’s Tim Kelly handed Los Angeles an “F” at the halfway point of the 2026 season, and with good reason: the club is 36-50 heading into Tuesday and buried in last place in the American League West.
The record leaves the Angels 7.0 games back of a Wild Card spot, but that sliver of hope can be deceptive. It’s exactly the kind of number that can convince owner Arte Moreno to stand pat, and his reluctance to move pieces at the trade deadline is once again part of the problem.
This is now on track to be the 12th straight year without a postseason berth and the 11th season with a sub-.500 record, unless something impossible happens in the second half. For a franchise that has had players like Mike Trout, Shohei Ohtani, Albert Pujols, and plenty of others come through Anaheim, that kind of return is hard to defend.
Moreno’s latest refusal to embrace a seller’s role is playing out in real time. Reid Detmers and Jose Soriano have put together career years, and there has been interest in Jo Adell, but Moreno is not moving any of them.
That stance may have helped push Perry Minasian out the door. Moreno fired the general manager last week, and it’s entirely possible Minasian had concerns about keeping the roster intact despite the same strategy failing over and over again.
The on-field results don’t leave much room for optimism. The Angels sit in the middle of the pack offensively, but they also have the eighth-worst team ERA and one of the weakest bullpens in baseball. Put it together, and last place in the AL West starts to look inevitable.
If there’s any path to salvaging this season, it starts with the Angels admitting what they are and acting accordingly. That would mean selling at the deadline, collecting future value, and building something sturdier instead of leaning on short-term fixes and players already past their peak.
That’s not the way Moreno has operated, and the source of the frustration is obvious. He has even gone so far as to say winning isn’t a priority for the fans. Until that changes, another laughable season in Anaheim feels like the norm.
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Jose Soriano's All-Star Push Suddenly Faces An Angels Problem
Jos Sorianos All-Star case has been strong enough to get him mentioned in the conversation, but the problem for the Angels is that he is not standing alone. Reid Detmers and rookie Walbert Urea have also built credible rsums, giving Los Angeles a rare but awkward kind of summer depth: three starters who can each make a case for a trip to the 2026 American League All-Star Game.
Sorianos numbers keep him in the mix, and Detmers brings a different profile with more workload and a sharper strikeout edge, while Ureas recent run has made him impossible to ignore. The catch is the roster math. The AL is unlikely to have room for more than a small handful of starting pitchers, which means the Angels may end up with a problem that good teams love in theory and hate in practice: too many deserving arms, and not enough spots to fit them all. [Read more 🡒]
Angels Waste Another Strong Soriano Night In Frustrating Loss To Seattle
Jos Soriano gave the Angels another outing they could live with, even if the result never cooperated. He worked five innings, struck out nine and limited Seattle enough for Los Angeles to stay within reach early, a familiar kind of performance that has not always translated into support on the scoreboard.
The frustrating part came when the game finally broke open, and the Angels could not keep the Mariners from turning a tight contest into an 8-3 loss. Los Angeles did make a brief push to cut into the gap, but Seattle answered quickly and left the Angels to head toward Thursdays series finale still looking for a cleaner finish. Jos Urea is slated to get the ball next. [Read more 🡒]