Zach Neto has given the Angels plenty to like lately, and the latest burst has come with a side of franchise history.
Last week, Neto was named AL Player of the Week after torching pitchers on Los Angeles’s road trip. He hit .500 (14-28) with seven extra-base hits and nine RBI during that stretch, then kept the momentum rolling over his last 17 games through August 24. In that span, he posted a .292/.320/.528 line with three homers and four steals.
The biggest headline came from one monster game. Neto became the first player in Angels history with at least 5 hits and 7 RBI in a game, and he also turned in the first game in Angels history with multiple doubles, a triple, and a stolen base.
For all the buzz around the hot streak, though, the larger picture still comes back to the same question: how much more is in there? Neto has been a very good player for the Angels, but the leap from good to true superstar has not fully happened yet.
He made a big jump from his rookie season in 2023 to his sophomore year in 2024, then largely held steady after that. He put up identical 117 wRC+ marks in both 2024 and 2025, and has been on a similar, if not slightly worse, track in 2026.
There are real reasons the discussion has lingered. Neto has always struck out at a high clip, and that issue has gotten worse in 2026.
His defense at shortstop has also been shaky at times. That doesn’t erase the upside - he’s still only 25, which is why he drew so much attention as a trade deadline target - but it does explain why the conversation around him keeps circling back to growth.
The recent heater does show one encouraging change. Over his last 75 plate appearances, Neto has cut his strikeout rate to 21.3%, a sharp drop from the 30.6% mark he has carried this year and better than his 26.3% career rate.
The problem is that the gains have come with very little walk production. In that same stretch, he has walked only three times, a 4% walk rate.
That tradeoff has been part of Neto’s season. He came into 2026 as a player who rarely walked, with a career-best 6.5% walk rate before this year and a 6.2% career mark entering the season. This year, he has been more willing to take his walks, reaching 9.1%, but that has also coincided with the first strikeout rate above 30% in his career.
The pattern is pretty clear: when Neto is drawing walks, he can get too passive and the strikeouts pile up. When the strikeouts come down, the walks disappear because he’s swinging more often and putting more pitches in play, including some outside the zone.
If Neto is going to take the next step, that balance has to improve. He needs to lay off the junk without losing the aggression that makes him dangerous.
The talent is there for something bigger, maybe much bigger. The question is whether he can put it all together soon enough.
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