Aug. 16 is a date to circle if you’re a fan of the Los Angeles Angels or their first-round pick, Christian Moore.

On that day, the Angels welcome the Braves to Anaheim. More importantly, that day marks 44 days remaining in the regular season.

It’s the day a team could call up a new player without risking his rookie eligibility for next season. Anything under 45 days and 130 at-bats means the player is still considered a rookie the following season.

This is relevant for Moore for two reasons.
The first is his complete and utter dominance of minor-league baseball. He was drafted on July 14 and has since played eight minor league games. Moore is 19-for-35 with six home runs, two doubles and five strikeouts. He’s been almost impossible to get out.

The second is that this is the Angels. Last year they called up first-round pick Nolan Schanuel in that exact fashion after 22 minor league games.

“We’ll see, we’re going to take it day-to-day,” Angels GM Perry Minasian said on Aug. 1 when asked about moving Moore up quickly. “Hopefully he’ll get his feet wet. Similar to what we did with Nolan last year, get his feet wet, play some games, see how it goes.

“There’s no timeframe. It’s an individual that’s worked really hard to get to this point. He’s very talented. The makeup is outstanding. He’s someone that we feel like we can challenge to a certain extent. We’ll see.”

Later that evening, the Angels moved Moore from Low-A Inland Empire to Double-A Rocket City. And it’s fair to assume the next jump isn’t far off.

The Athletic chatted with Moore by phone and discussed his hot start and what it could mean for his big-league future.

The interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

How would you describe your minor-league experience so far?

It’s been pretty fun, honestly. Being with Inland Empire in Modesto and playing over there with those guys, and coming over here to Huntsville where the fan base is incredible, everybody’s pretty much into the game. It’s been pretty fun and pretty eye-opening for me.

You said eye-opening. I think it’s been eye-opening for everyone watching you. What’s gone into your transition to professional baseball and the way you’ve been able to hit?

It’s just understanding that it’s still baseball at the end of the day. Just having that mindset from college — no matter how big a situation is, it’s still 90 (feet) to the (bases) and the mound is still 60 feet away. It’s just baseball. I try to just slow the game down as much as I can. Take it day by day. Take it one at-bat or one pitch at a time. Try to just compete every single at-bat.

Obviously it’s only been a short amount of time, but are you surprised by how much you’ve dominated at this level?

I guess it’s a bit of a surprise, yeah. You’re so laser-focused. So focused on doing your tasks, doing your job. I guess you cannot really see what other people see. I’m super blessed to be able to do this each and every single day, and it’s been fun.

Have the organization and coaches given you things they want you to work on while you’re in the minors?

Every single day we do defensive drills, base-running drills. Just to fine-tune my game and understand that at every level, the game speeds up. It’s a game of inches, so little moves you make on defense and how you turn, running around the bases can cause you to be safe or out. It can cause wins or losses. Obviously the hitting is the hitting, but obviously there’s more to the game, and I think those things are just as important and need to be fine-tuned as well.

The scouting report on you is that you can make incredible defensive plays, but also have defensive lapses. Is that a fair assessment, and is that something you’re working on?

Yeah, for sure. We’re working every single day and being consistent with the drills we have. Obviously Ron Washington has his drill. We do those every single day, and understanding the routine play has to be made 100 percent of the time. So everything else can take care of itself. Just hammering the routine play. I’ve seen some growth, definitely, but it’s still got to continue.

Have you gotten a chance to talk to Ron Washington at all?

A little bit. We called way back during the draft, but obviously they’re in the middle of their season right now, so I didn’t want to take too much of his time. But yeah, he’s awesome. I met him when I was 14 at the Dream Series event. We went through his defensive drill a little bit. I don’t know how long it’ll take me to get up there, but I’m super excited to, hopefully one day get to work with him.

There’s a lot of speculation about you getting called up to the Angels imminently. It’s what the organization typically does. You’ve performed well. And there’s no risk of losing your rookie eligibility for next year in a few days.

Obviously the media says a lot of things, and people have a lot of speculation about things. I know there’s things I need to take care of each and every day. And if the Angels and whoever makes that decision decides to call me up, that’s great. But I’m not going to sit here every day and try to think about it. I’ve got to play ball at the end of the day, and that’s what I’ve got to focus on. Right now I’m a Trash Panda, and I’m worried about winning games for the Trash Pandas. If they want me to go up there and help them win games, obviously I’ll do it. But right now I’m worried about where my feet are.

Is there anything offensively that you feel like you need to do? Anything that would separate you from being an offensive threat in the big leagues?

Baseball’s a game of adjustments. You play every single day. There’s new pitchers out there every single day with different stuff. So no, I don’t think — I’ll say, yeah, I’m locked in. Obviously I want to lock myself in each and every day. But yeah, I’ll say I’m working on things also. Just trying to fine-tune and get ready for games, and get ready for competition.

Yesterday we faced a guy, 6-foot-10, throwing 97, 98. Obviously I had to prepare for that.

Understanding that some days you’re not going to feel good, but how can I still will my way to get some hits or get on base for my team? I’m learning that right now. You’re not going to have your best swing every single day. That’s part of it. But you have to have some grit and some type of mindset to get you to that. I’m definitely trying to work on that as well.

How much of a difference is high-level baseball in the SEC compared to Double A?

I think the SEC is really similar to minor-league ball. I don’t know what it’s like up in Triple A, but I won’t say it’s the same. There are some aspects of the game that are different. But as far pitcher-hitter, I’ll say it’s pretty similar. Obviously you’ll run into guys like I just mentioned, and you’re just like, “Alright that’s just insane.” But I mean, I won’t say I’ve seen a lot of the stuff that I’ve seen in college, but it’s pretty similar.

I was curious about your stolen base numbers. You had 16 in 2023 for Tennessee, but just five this year. Is that something you think you’ll try and bring back?

Just with the lineup we had this past year in college, man, I didn’t really need to run. No one really needed to run, and we knew that. So we just didn’t do it. I know it looks bad, but I just didn’t need to run. I think we had my sophomore year, compared to the offense we had my junior year, my last year, it was just a lot more home runs and extra-base hits. I didn’t really need to do too much.

I think a lot of Angels fans are really excited about the idea of a middle infield with you and shortstop Zach Neto. And generally just a younger team. Do you let yourself imagine that too, and what it could mean long term?

For sure. Obviously, Neto, he’s a stud. I got the chance to play against him when I was a freshman in the regional. I remember him getting three or four hits, making a diving play in the hole, and thinking, “Yeah, this kid’s really good.” I got to play with Nolan as well on the Cape Cod League that summer after playing against Zach. There’s a lot of young guys, and it would be pretty cool to get the chance to play with them and build something with them over the course of the years. But I’ve got to handle what I’ve got to handle first. And that’s getting there. I try not to think about it too much, but it crosses the mind a little bit.

You said when you got drafted that Neto texted you immediately. Have you guys kept up over the last few weeks?

Yeah, obviously social media is a big thing now. We can keep up (on) that, and we have a little bit. Mike Trout’s hit me up a couple times. I got to see him in the complex in Arizona, he was rehabbing his knee and I was down there. So (I) got to talk to him, and he reached out a good bit.

What did you guys chat about?

How to go about it. I have a lot of questions about pro ball and the different flow from college, and how you go about things. He’s just being a vet, being a pro, being a leader. He just gave me some tips, it was definitely helpful.

You mentioned social media. And every time I open up Twitter, I see Angels fans excited about your start. How much are you internalizing everyone’s excitement about you? Is there a part of you that blocks it out?

There’s things people said about performance. That doesn’t really play too much of a big factor in my life. I use it. Scroll through Instagram a couple times. I follow a lot of sports pages and stuff. A lot of the time, that’s what I see. Twitter’s Twitter. If you go on Twitter, then you’re gonna see yourself at least once or twice on there. I try to ignore that stuff and go about my business.

The Angels drafted Texas A&M pitcher Chris Cortez in the second round. You guys faced each other in the College World Series championship, and there’s a video of you a little frustrated with him. Have you mended fences?

We’re boys now, we’re good. I got a chance to see him after, literally a week after in New York for some medical testing for MLB. And we made up then. We understand what it’s like. That’s the biggest moment of your life, at least at that time, playing for a national championship. Sometimes emotions can get a little high. And let’s just say, at the time, I didn’t like what he did, but obviously now he’s a teammate and a brother of mine, so it’s all good.