It’s Time You Got To Know Angels Youngster Kyren Paris

After a 63-99 season, followed by an offseason filled with head-scratching moves, there was doubt as to whether or not the Los Angeles Angels would find a way to put an end to their decade-long postseason drought in 2025.

After all, this is a team that has essentially been without arguably the franchise’s two biggest names in recent seasons. Shohei Ohtani signed with their in-state rivals ahead of last season, and Mike Trout hasn’t played anything close to a full season since the COVID-shortened 2020 campaign.

Somehow though, within the first two weeks of the new season, the Angels find themselves in the thick of the competitive picture in the American League with an 8-4 record.

Now, some of the more familiar names, like youngsters Nolan Schanuel and Logan O’Hoppe in the lineup and veteran closer Kenley Jansen out of the bullpen, are helping to lead the charge in Anaheim.

However, there’s one name who is truly leading the way for the Angels that isn’t the typical household name in today’s game.

Enter Kyren Paris, the 23-year-old utility man who’s been on a scorching tear at the plate to open the season that has minimized the effect of a slow start from Trout and the absence of promising shortstop Zach Neto.

In 34 plate appearances across 11 games, Paris is slashing .393/.485/1.000 with five home runs, eight RBI, and a 313 wRC+, all culminating in a 1.1 fWAR.

His video game numbers currently rank him as one of the best players in baseball across the board, amongst hitters with 30 or more plate appearances.

So, who exactly is the Los Angeles Angel that’s currently hitting the cover off the ball, and what exactly should you know about him?

All statistics taken prior to games on April 11.

We’ve Never Seen Anything Like This From Kyren Paris

Paris, a California native, was selected out of high school in the second round of the 2019 MLB Draft by the Angels.

He played a three-game “cup of coffee” in rookie ball upon being drafted but really didn’t get a chance to get acclimated to professional baseball until 2021 at the age of 19, when he combined for 206 plate appearances across three stops at the complex, Low-A and High-A.

That minor league season, he posted a combined .267/.388/.459 slash line with four homers, 25 RBI, 22 stolen bases and a 127 wRC+.

The following season, Paris saw his first taste of baseball in the upper minors, with a strong 205 wRC+ in 51 plate appearances after a late-season promotion to Double-A.

From that point on, though, the Double-A and Triple-A levels weren’t as kind to Paris as his first glimpse was. He dropped to a respectable but definitely lower 123 wRC+ in Rocket City in 2023, and in 2024, across stops at both Double and Triple-A Salt Lake, he combined for just a 40 wRC+ across 251 plate appearances.

Mixed in there were Paris’ first few tastes of big league baseball, after he made his debut in 2023. However, those call-ups were nothing to write home about whatsoever, as he posted a putrid -13 wRC+ in 46 plate appearances with the Angels in ’23 and improved to just a 28 wRC+ in 59 plate appearances in ’24.

All of this to say, we’ve never seen the type of show Paris is currently putting on, other than maybe his 205 wRC+ cameo in Double-A in 2022. He’s been a relatively pedestrian-looking hitter (on his best days) who strikes out a ton, with a career 30.7% strikeout rate in the minors.

So, how is Paris doing what he’s doing at the major league level this season?

Whether it’s luck or purely skill, Paris is simply seeing the ball better than anyone would’ve expected. If we dive into his underlying metrics, he’s barreling the ball up at an elite 97th percentile rate of 23.8%, resulting in a 57.1% hard-hit rate, placing him in the 91st percentile.

He’s controlling his usually high strikeout rate with an average-looking 20.6% clip, which is a stark contrast from the 35%+ marks he put up in his first major league cameos and the 35.1% clip he posted across the upper minors in 2024.

He’s also managing to continue walking at a respectable rate, which he did throughout the minors. His 11.8% BB% places him in the 69th percentile of league hitters.

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While It May Not Be Sustainable, It Sure Is Fun

At the end of the day, holding a 313 wRC+ and a 1.485 OPS over the course of a season is wishful thinking for any big leaguer, so these remarkable numbers will surely drop off, and Paris will eventually come back down to earth at some point.

At the end of the day, he’s taken advantage of being an unknown entity to some degree, and that’s evident in the splits. When there’s no one on base and no reason for a pitcher to throw with any hesitancy, Paris has taken full advantage, posting a .375 AVG, 1.537 OPS and four homers.

Then again, he’s batting .417 with a 1.396 OPS in 17 plate appearances with runners on base.

The opposition now has reason to view Paris as more of a threat. This means they could pitch around him more to try to induce more chase, or throw more breaking and off-speed pitches to avoid getting punished with the fastball – Paris is hitting .500 against four-seamers and .750 against cutters – in an effort to bring out the version of him that’s been susceptible to striking out in the past.

However, even if Paris does come back to earth, the fact that he’s been able to show that this type of hitter is within him is massive for both him and the Angels.

Pair that offensive prowess with the ability to play multiple positions and his 97th percentile speed on the basepaths, and Kyren Paris has proven he can hack it as a major leaguer and isn’t simply a Quad-A-type player.