Zach Neto Has Been Terrific for the Angels

Stats were taken prior to play on May 31.

We’re about a third of the way into this year’s MLB season, and so far things have been extremely bleak for the Los Angeles Angels. They currently find themselves in fourth place in the American League West, just four games better than the last-place Athletics.

In addition to this, the Angels currently possess the 24th-worst team wRC+ (92) as well as the 25th-worst staff ERA (4.77) in the sport. Mike Trout has dealt with injury and has missed significant time this year, hurting the team even more.

Amongst all of these dark spots, though, a star has prevailed.

The team’s shortstop, Zach Neto, has performed better than he ever has to this point in his career, truly becoming one of the best shortstops in all of baseball. He’s been the top performer for the club offensively, adding much-needed help to the offense.

Neto has transformed his game and made a big name for himself in this lineup, something Angels fans have been hoping for since he was drafted in 2022. Without further ado, let’s examine how Neto has transformed his game and what makes him so valuable to the Angels.

How Neto Has Improved in 2025

When examining Neto’s game a little closer, we see that he’s made a lot of adjustments at the plate and improvements across the board, all playing a minor role in his newfound success in 2025.

For starters, when watching Neto, the main thing that stands out is that his approach is more simplified when compared to last season. Neto was always known for his big leg kick, which separated him from almost every other hitter in the sport as it was unique to his game.

When he was in a non-two-strike count, Neto would bring his knee up over his waist, allowing him to coil into his back hip and generate more power. However, the inconsistencies that came from this approach were vast.

He first made this adjustment in June of last season, which Neto spoke about in an article with Jeff Fletcher of The Orange County Register.

In this story, Neto talks about how he and Ron Washington would choose when to use his leg kick or use his simplified, two-strike approach. Now in 2025, it appears as though Neto has ditched this leg kick altogether, and he’s a far better hitter because of it.

Most notably, Neto is hitting fastballs better than he ever has in his career. For most players, this type of success often comes down to timing, and it’s reasonable to assume that Neto’s simplified approach has contributed to this change.

Neto is currently posting an xBA of .312 against heaters, a large increase from his .278 mark last season. In addition to this, he’s posted a noticeably higher xSLG, xwOBA, and a higher launch angle against heaters.

Not only this, but at his current pace, he’s expected to hit more homers against fastballs than he ever has before.

Neto still has some work to do against breaking balls and off-speed pitches. However, he’s noticeably improved against both types of pitches.

As far as breaking balls are concerned, Neto’s quality of contact is much improved against the pitch type, highlighted by a 41-point improvement in xwOBA and a 6.5 mph increase in average exit velocity.

Against off-speed pitches, Neto has repeated these same positive results. The most noticeable improvement here is in his exit velocity, which has improved by nearly 14 mph. If Neto has less movement in his swing and has more time to react, it gives himself more time to adjust and drive the ball with authority.

Neto’s improvements against virtually every pitch type he’s faced this season as led to overall better results across the board. He currently sits inside the 83rd percentile or higher in xwOBA, xBA, xSLG, average exit velocity, barrel rate, hard-hit rate, and launch angle sweet spot rate.

Not only are these all improvements, but they’re massive improvements. For example, his average exit velocity has jumped nearly five ticks from last season.

This isn’t shocking to see considering his barrel rate has seen an improvement of 8.1%. In fact, this is such a large improvement that his 8.1% jump forward is nearly the same mark as his actual barrel rate from 2024.

To put it simply, Neto has seen himself become elite in almost every area of the game in just one season. He’s hitting the ball extremely hard, and he’s getting better results in every area of the game.

The only areas Neto could improve upon are his plate discipline and his fielding abilities. He’s struck out over 30% of the time this season while walking just 4.6% of the time, which are both in the bottom 10 percent of MLB. Likewise, his -2 OAA mark is well below average when compared to the rest of the league.

However, if he continues to improve his overall game as we’ve seen him do this year, we could see these numbers follow suit. Overall, this season has been full of improvements for the youngster, and he’s become one of the game’s brightest young stars.

Why Is Neto So Valuable?

As I touched on in the introduction, the Angels have been one of baseball’s worst offensive teams in the 2025 season. However, Neto has been one of the few bright spots for their offense.

Although the power department is a place where the Angels have actually done fairly well this season, Neto is the best of the bunch. He’s one of four hitters on the team with nine or more homers. However, one thing stands out about his production in comparison to these hitters.

Neto’s 133 wRC+ is the best mark for any of these hitters, and he stands decently far above the rest. Logan O’Hoppe possesses the second-highest wRC+ for this group with a 126 mark, seven points lower than Neto’s.

This has been a valuable addition to the team’s offense, considering their wRC+ as a team ranks 24th in baseball. If you were to take away Neto’s offensive production from this squad, the offense is in a far worse position, likely sitting near or at the bottom of the league.

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Neto is also leading the team in fWAR, including pitchers. His fWAR of 1.3 is only challenged by José Soriano’s 1.2 fWAR, showing Neto’s value. In fact, he’s the only position player who has reached the 1.0 fWAR threshold so far this season.

Having this type of production from Neto has also been incredibly valuable for the Angels, considering they’ve used him mainly in the leadoff spot. With the Angels having a few threatening hitters directly behind him, he’s allowing the ball club many more RBI opportunities.

Neto’s unique blend of extra-base hit potential and success when it comes to regularly driving the ball with authority has created the perfect blend of a hitter the Angels have really needed.

It’s difficult to truly encapsulate how much Neto has meant to this offense, and how much worse off they’d be without him. However, this couldn’t be truer, as Neto’s presence in this lineup has completely changed the team for the better.

Final Thoughts

Given what we’ve seen from Neto at the plate so far this season, it’s hard to imagine he won’t continue to grow and improve as a player. We saw him go from a below-league-average hitter to a great hitter in just three seasons, making it easy to keep dreaming on his potential.

This is even more true when we remember that his game is still far from perfect or completely polished. As was discussed earlier, his glove is still not exactly up to par, and the plate disciple and whiff numbers could be better.

But if Neto could hone in on his approach at the plate and cut down on the strikeout numbers while drawing more walks in the process, we could see him take yet another leap forward. He could go from a great hitter to one of the best hitting shortstops in the league.

However, Neto is still having a tremendously successful season, cementing himself as one of the game’s brightest young stars. For the Angels, they’ve been blessed with another talented player, with the chance to build a new core on his shoulders.