Article: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/hows-my-driving-2018-top-100-audit/

The first thing you’re probably asking is, “what does a compilation of prospect rankings from 2018 have anything to do with the Angels?”

Why do I have this six-to-seven year cutoff? If you’re acquiring a player while he’s a prospect or young big leaguer, you’re doing so for those years. Once a player hits free agency, the process by which teams evaluate players and decide how aggressively to pursue them is completely divorced from their prospect evaluation. You’re starting fresh. When Player X is in his early 20s, teams don’t have to decide if they’d feel comfortable giving him an extension that takes him into his mid-30s.

I think in summary, 6-7 years is around the right amount of time that most of these players either have recently hit free agency or will hit it really soon. We have a good idea of whether these guys are hits, busts, or somehow still on the wait-and-see fence.

Also, Shohei Ohtani was a part of that group, and has been one of a small handful of amazing players to have come out of this group (others include Juan Soto and Ronald Acuna Jr.).

Anyways, my main premise. Scroll down just a little bit, and you’ll see a surprising number of familiar names.

Recent Angels legends (average rank across lists):

• Keston Hiura (38.8), 2024
• Scott Kingery (31.0), 2025
• Willie Calhoun (44.5), 2024
• Carter Kieboom (67.0), 2025
• Monte Harrison (66.4), 2022
• Touki Toussaint (75.0), 2022
• Cole Tucker (74.0), 2024
• Mickey Moniak (88.0), 2023-
• Magneuris Sierra (56.0), 2022

I excluded these guys because we originally drafted or signed them.

• Jo Adell (53.4)
• Jahmai Jones (78.0)
• Chris Rodriguez (91.5)
• Jaime Barria (62.0)
• Brandon Marsh (92.5)

A lot of players in the first list also pop up on their 2019 list, with further more names like Yusei Kikuchi, Jose Suarez, and Griffin Canning.

In short, these are all guys who we acquired one way or another who did not originate on our roster. Them being available before hitting free agency usually means they were reclamation projects. None of them panned out so far; only Moniak is left and TBD on the other two active guys. At the time of acquisition, they were all in that stage where they’re young enough for us to convince ourselves that they might save their career, but bad enough that another team has cut bait on them. Other than Moniak, we let them all go (one way or another) after (less than) one season.

Who are we going to acquire next?