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Alden Gonzalez
The Los Angeles Angels agreed to a one-year, $5 million contract with free agent third baseman Yoan Moncada, a source confirmed to ESPN on Thursday.
The move, first reported by The New York Post, probably rounds out the Angels’ lineup for the 2025 season.
Moncada notably plays the position previously occupied by Anthony Rendon, who has been a disappointment since signing a seven-year, $245 million contract in December 2019.
Angels general manager Perry Minasian indicated throughout the offseason that, moving forward, the organization can’t necessarily count on Rendon, who played in less than a third of the Angels’ games and produced only a .666 OPS over the past four seasons.
By adding Moncada, who has played strictly third base over the past seven seasons, Rendon no longer has a clear pathway for playing time. He can spell Moncada at third base on occasion and perhaps replace the left-handed-hitting Nolan Schanuel at first when the Angels face a tough lefty. If he is healthy and productive, the Angels will undoubtedly find a consistent place for him in the lineup, with the designated-hitter slot also an option. But with two years left on his contract, Rendon’s future is cloudier than ever.
Moncada, a 29-year-old switch-hitter, also has something to prove. Once the jewel of the Red Sox farm system, Moncada broke out in 2019 and turned in a solid season with the Chicago White Sox in 2021. But he has slashed just .236/.291/.387 while playing in only 208 games over the past three seasons.
Last year, for a White Sox team that lost a record 121 games, Moncada played in only 12, sitting out five months because of an adductor strain. He returned Sept. 18, taking one at-bat, then sat out the rest of the season.
The White Sox declined Moncada’s $25 million option, sending him into free agency.
Now, he represents the latest addition in an Angels offseason headlined by the trade for corner outfielder Jorge Soler and the signing of starting pitcher Yusei Kikuchi.
Notably, Moncada also represents some necessary insurance for Rendon, who’s heading into his age-35 season and has been beset by injuries to his oblique, lower back, hamstring, shin, wrist, groin, hip and knee since 2021.
“We have to be open to at least looking at that spot and seeing if there are other alternatives that will make us better,” Minasian said during the winter meetings in December. “Obviously a healthy Anthony Rendon makes us better, but with the last four years being the last four years, we need to take a look at what else is out there.”
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