Angels' Perry Minasian Coy About Christian Moore Call-Up, But Writing is On the Wall

Will Moore get called up this season?

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

It's beginning to feel inevitable that Christian Moore will make his MLB debut before the end of the 2023 season. The Los Angeles Angels' first-round pick out of Tennessee was promoted to Double-A after just two games, and has already dominated in just eight games of action.

Through six games with Double-A Rocket City, Moore is slashing .542/.577/1.167 with 13 hits, nine runs, five home runs, and seven RBIs. He also recorded six hits, five runs, one home run, and six RBIs during just two games in Single-A.

Given that Moore has already skipped both the Rookie level and High-A, it appears there's a strong chance he will skip Triple-A and head straight to the major leagues for his debut.

Angels general manager Perry Minasian said the organization is taking Moore's ascent "day by day," and would like to see Moore see some game action like Nolan Schanuel did last year.

“We’ll see, we’re going to take it day-to-day,” Angels GM Perry Minasian said on Aug. 1, via The Athletic's Sam Blum. “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."

In 2023, Schanuel made his MLB debut after just 22 games in the minor leagues. The Angels' 2023 first round pick made quick progress to the majors, debuting on Aug. 18 of last year. He has remained in the majors for the entire 2024 season.

Still, Minasian did not have an exact date in mind for when Moore could get called up before the 2024 season ends.

“There’s no timeframe," Minasian said. "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.”

If Moore sees time in the majors as expected at this point, he would likely become the first player in his draft class to debut like Schanuel and Zach Neto did before him. Neto, the Angels' 2022 first-round pick, debuted in April 2023.

In the meantime, Moore remains focused on performing in Double-A, where he has already been named the Southern League Player of the Week. He signed with the Angels organization after spending his college career at Tennessee, where he led the program to their first ever College World Series title and broke the school's single-season record for home runs.