It seems inevitable that Christian Moore will make his MLB debut before the end of the 2023 season. The Los Angeles Angels’ first-round pick from Tennessee was promoted to Double-A after just two games and has already dominated in just eight games.
In six games with Double-A Rocket City, Moore has a batting average of .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.
Since Moore has already skipped both the rookie level and High-A, there is a strong chance that he will skip Triple-A and go straight to the Major Leagues for his debut.
Angels general manager Perry Minasian said the organization is watching Moore’s rise “day by day” and would like to see Moore get playing time like Nolan Schanuel did last year.
“We’ll see, we’ll take it day by day,” Angels GM Perry Minasian said on Aug. 1, via Sam Blum of The Athletic. “Hopefully he’ll get some experience. Similar to what we did with Nolan last year, we’ll give him some experience, play a few games and 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 quickly made it to the majors, debuting on August 18 of last year and remaining in the majors for the entire 2024 season.
However, Minasian did not have an exact date in mind when Moore could be called up before the end of the 2024 season.
“There’s no time frame,” Minasian said. “He’s a guy who’s worked really hard to get to this point. He’s very talented. The composition is outstanding. He’s someone we think we can challenge to some degree. We’ll see.”
If Moore spends time in the major leagues as expected, he would likely be the first player of his draft class to debut, like Schanuel and Zach Neto before him. Neto, the Angels’ 2022 first-round pick, debuted in April 2023.
In the meantime, Moore continues to focus on his performances in Double-A, where he has already been named the Southern League’s Player of the Week. He signed with the Angels after spending his college career at Tennessee, where he led the program to its first College World Series title and broke the school’s single-season record for most home runs.
