The Angels moved Zach Neto out of the leadoff spot and into the No. 6 hole on Sunday, a change Kurt Suzuki said was meant to take pressure off the 25-year-old shortstop. Neto responded in the series finale against the Cleveland Guardians with a two-run homer and his first multi-hit effort in more than a week.
The timing mattered. Neto entered Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers with a.224/.330/.408 batting line and an 11-for-59 run over his previous 15 games, production that had left him vulnerable to another afternoon of questions about a season that has not quite matched the promise he showed in 2023. Suzuki’s move was not a punishment so much as a reset, a way to ease the load while the Angels tried to steady themselves after being swept by Cleveland.
There was at least some reason to believe Neto could rebound. He carried a 107 wRC+ into Sunday, along with a career-best 12.8% walk rate that showed he was still finding ways to reach base even when the hits were not falling. But the strikeouts have been too frequent and too predictable. His chase, whiff and strikeout rates were all above 30%, and his work against pitchers without the platoon advantage had sagged to a.208 batting average with a 33.1% strikeout rate.
That drop-off is more than a bad week. Neto’s bat speed has fallen 1.3 miles per hour from last year to 70.1 mph, a loss that helps explain why the contact he is making is not carrying the same force. The Angels said the wrist issue Neto suffered in spring training was only a minor scrape at the time, but the numbers now suggest it may have left a longer mark than anyone expected.
For the Angels, that makes Neto’s slump part of a larger problem. He no longer looks like the hitter who appeared to have solved right-handed pitching in 2025, and the gap between the player they thought they had and the one they are getting has become harder to ignore. The move down the order may ease the pressure for a night or two. The harder question is whether it can help bring back the exit velocity and contact quality that made him look like a centerpiece again.
