ANAHEIM, Calif. — Much like the last 11 years, things haven’t gone the Angels' way to start 2026.
Through the first 46 games of the season, the Angels are off to their worst start in franchise history. Their 16-30 record is tied for the worst start along with the 1969, 1964 and 1961 Angels. It’s also the worst record in baseball in 2026.
This record-tying start comes after the Dodgers trounced the Angels, 15-2, on Saturday at Angel Stadium.
After starting the season 11-10, the Angels have spiralled since, losing 20 of their last 25 games.
“No sugarcoating it, 20 out of 25, it's not great,” Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said. “But at the end of the day, we've got to come back. We've got to play tomorrow. We've got to get ready to play. Forget about this game and move on.”
You could say this is just a bad stretch, and they can turn it around, but this is an Angels team that wasn’t expected to be very good, and they aren’t proving their doubters wrong in many aspects of the game.
As a disclaimer, all the team stats in this article will be heading into Saturday’s game.
Offensively, the lineup looks similar to last year’s, but without the 36 home runs and 103 RBIs that Taylor Ward produced in left field as he was traded in the offseason. Last year’s offense ranked 25th in baseball in runs scored per game. Heading into Saturday’s game, the Angels' offense ranks 26th to start the season.
Now, they also have ridiculous home and road splits. The Angels are hitting .244 with a .757 OPS on the road and are hitting .206 with a .606 OPS at home.
Evened out for the season, the Angels rank 27th in batting average (.228) and 18th in OPS (.697). The plate discipline has taken a half-step forward from last year, as the lineup is now walking at a 9.9% clip, but they’re also striking out 26% of the time, which is the worst in baseball. But both are slight improvements from last season.
“We're facing some tough pitching, chasing some balls out of the zone,” Suzuki said. “That being said, we are hitting some balls hard. You've got to look at the positive things as well as some of the stuff that we know we need to work on. But I think we build on the positives. We're swinging the bat, we're hitting the ball hard, and just not getting a show for it. We just got to keep staying with the work.”
The biggest bright spot for the Angels’ lineup is their superstar, Mike Trout. The three-time MVP is enjoying his best start since 2022 and has stayed healthy while holding things down in center field on a daily basis.
But even then, he’s now hitting .216 in May and his slugging percentage is .294 as well. Trout’s recent slump has cratered his numbers to a .238 batting average and .883 OPS on the season.
After taking another step in his development that saw him four home runs and stolen bases shy of the first 30-30 season of his career, Zach Neto hasn’t been the catalyst that fans have been accustomed to seeing.
Neto is hitting .228 with a .746 OPS and has the fifth-most strikeouts in baseball. It also hasn’t been his best defensive work at shortstop either, as he also leads the league in errors with six. He attributes the slow start to him being too hard on himself.
“I get told all the time that I'm the spark plug that gets everybody going,” Neto said. “When I'm not going, it's hard for us to get up. I was trying a lot, and I think I was trying too much, which caused me to play the way I was playing.”
On the mound for the Angels, the rotation has been middle of the road, posting a 4.24 ERA that ranks 18th.
Where the rotation gets its success is from producing ground balls, which they do 46.8% of the time, the fourth-best mark in baseball.
“We take pride in getting deep in the games,” Reid Detmers said. “It's not like we're trying to go out there and punch out everybody. It's more just how quickly can we get outs and get out of the inning, so we can get deep in the games, pitch six, seven, eight innings every five days.”
The downfall, though, has been getting ahead of hitters. The rotation has the third-worst first pitch strike rate in baseball at 57.1%. Because of that, they also have the second-worst walk rate at 11.0%.
What’s interesting about having one of the worst walk totals, they’re 14th in pitches thrown in the zone. The problem is they can’t get hitters to chase out of the zone. Their 31.9% chase rate as a staff is 19th in baseball.
And for the bullpen, it’s been bad.
Whether you want to look at ERA (5.17), blown saves (nine), strike zone percentage (37.3%) or walk rate (12.6%), it all ranks in the bottom four in baseball.
“We're going to take accountability for it, and we're going to make some adjustments and keep on attacking, but the key is we've got to keep wanting the ball,” Brent Suter said. “Once you fold the tent and don't want the ball or don't want accountability, that's when stuff really goes wrong. So you've got to keep warrior effort and warrior mentality and keep wanting the ball.”
Chase Silseth and Sam Bachman have been the lone bright spots in the pen, with Silseth posting a 2.40 ERA in 15 innings with 14 strikeouts and Bachman with a 3.10 ERA in 20 ⅓ innings and 22 strikeouts.
After having a stretch where he gave up nine earned runs in nine innings, Ryan Zeferjahn has now only allowed one run in his last 10 innings.
Jordan Romano, Drew Pomeranz and Kirby Yates were brought in over the offseason to battle for the closer role, but neither has panned out.
Romano gave up nine earned runs in eight innings and was released. Pomeranz has given up 12 earned runs in 15 innings pitched and is currently on the 15-day injured list for elbow inflammation. Yates began the season on the injured list with knee inflammation and has given up two earned runs in 2 ⅔ innings.
That’s a combined 8.06 ERA from the guys who were brought in to close ball games out.
“There's no pointing fingers,” Brent Suter said. “There's no blame. If they were, I wouldn't be mad at them. I totally understand it. A lot of these losses you can put right on the bullpen shoulders, and I'll be the first to wear that individually and as a group, but that's part of the game. You need all the phases of the game. You need the defense. You need starting pitching. You need offense. You need bullpen execution. Right now we're that missing link right now.”
The Angels have the worst record in baseball as summer nears, and yet the clubhouse is still intact.
It’s not uncommon for teams at the bottom of the standings to have some hostility in the clubhouse. It’s Major League Baseball, jobs and millions of dollars are at stake. Wins and losses can have a massive impact on clubhouse dynamics.
And for better or worse, it’s not affecting the Angels.
“I think after games, definitely frustration,” Suzuki said of the mood in the clubhouse. “They want to win, but at the same time, that's a tight group in there, and they want to win for each other. We have conversations every day, I talk to them every day, I talk to the guys individually, and they seem like they're in a good spot, so, obviously, not the results that we want, but understanding that the time will come, and when it flips, we'll be in a good place.”
Everyone is different and every team is different. Some let their frustrations show more than others.
Some teams need a kick in the butt to get back on the right track, and some teams need positivity.
Time will tell as to what the Angels need.
They’ve had more hard-nosed coaches and more “players first” coaches over their 11-year streak of losing seasons, and neither have yielded promising results.
The Angels are going to remain positive as much as they can in 2026. Because it appears that’s all they have left.
“It's early in the year,” Detmers said. “Everybody's going to get their struggles. We just happen to be struggling early in the year right now. Obviously, it hurts. We just got to get focused and push away all the outside noise and just focus within ourselves and just try to keep getting better and better every day. Try not to overthink and overdo stuff. Just go out there and play the game we know how to play, the game we played early in the season. I have no doubt we're going to get back to that. It's just we're going through a little funk right now. Look, it is what it is. Every team goes through a funk.”