The Best Players in Los Angeles Angels History, Position by Position

By 4Baseball Staff · November 5, 2026 · 11 min read

An all-time Los Angeles Angels lineup, rotation and bullpen built from franchise career leaders, award winners and Hall of Famers, with the criteria spelled out and the limits of the numbers admitted.

The Angels have one of the strangest talent profiles in the American League. In 65 seasons the club has won one pennant and one World Series, in 2002, and finished with a record of 5,093 wins and 5,205 losses through 2025. Yet the same franchise employed Nolan Ryan at his most unhittable, Rod Carew in his late prime, Vladimir Guerrero at his most dangerous, and, for fifteen seasons, Mike Trout, whose three Most Valuable Player awards are among the most decorated individual résumés any club has had in modern times.

That mismatch is the reason an all-time team is worth building. A franchise that wins only a little more than it loses can still produce a lineup that looks like a Hall of Fame exhibit, and the arguments about who belongs are better than the arguments in most clubhouses. What follows is a full nine-man lineup, a designated hitter, a five-man rotation and a closer, chosen from the franchise career leaders and the award lists in the historical record through the 2025 season.

The club has carried four names: Los Angeles Angels (1961 to 1964), California Angels (1965 to 1996), Anaheim Angels (1997 to 2004) and Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (2005 to 2015), a name the club shortened to Los Angeles Angels in 2016. This article uses "Angels" for all of them, and every figure counts only what a player did while wearing the franchise's uniform. For the whole story of the club, read the Angels franchise history; for the home park, see the Angel Stadium guide.

The rules I used to pick the team

An all-time team needs criteria, or it turns into a list of favorites. Here are the five used below, in order of weight.

1. Production while with the Angels. Career totals for the franchise count, not totals elsewhere. That is why Albert Pujols, a three-time MVP over his career, is judged on what he did in Anaheim and not on his years in St. Louis.
2. Peak and awards. A Most Valuable Player award, a Cy Young Award or a Rookie of the Year award breaks ties between players with similar totals.
3. Longevity. A player who gave the club 12 or 15 seasons gets credit over a brilliant visitor of two or three.
4. Position fit. Each player is placed where he spent most of his time, or where the club needed him, and I say so when a player is a stretch.
5. October. The 2002 title matters, but it cannot decide close calls alone. That club won it as a wild card, with a roster of very good players rather than the franchise's biggest names.

The limits matter just as much. The historical record holds counting statistics, rate statistics, awards and postseason series. It does not hold wins above replacement, defensive runs saved or park adjustments. A shortstop who saved 20 runs a year with his glove looks the same as one who cost his club 20, if their bats are equal. Where this article makes a defensive case, it rests on the reputation of the player or on Gold Gloves, and it says so.

The lineup at a glance

Here is the team before the arguments begin. Every statistic is for the Angels only.

The catcher spot is the weakest by raw numbers, and nobody should pretend otherwise. The other eight slots are close to a who's who of the franchise.

Center field: Mike Trout and the argument that ends itself

Mike Trout leads the franchise in home runs with 404, in runs scored with 1,196 and in walks with 1,067, all in 2011 through 2025. He is second to Garret Anderson in hits (1,754 against 2,368) and second to him in RBI (1,018 against 1,292). He was the Rookie of the Year in 2012 and the American League's Most Valuable Player in 2014, 2016 and 2019. His .294 career average with the club places him fourth among Angels with at least 3,000 at-bats.

There is no real debate, which is unusual for an all-time team. The only honest caveat is about October: Trout reached the playoffs once as an Angel, in 2014, when the club won 98 games and was swept by Kansas City 3-0 in the division series. Greatness and winning are different things, and a franchise can have the former without the latter. If you want the full list of what the club did win, see the Angels' best seasons and postseason history.

Left and right field: the franchise's hit machine and its best pure hitter

Garret Anderson is the Angels' answer to the question of who played the longest and produced the most. His 2,368 hits are 614 more than Trout's, and his 1,292 RBI are the franchise record. He was a 15-year Angel (1994 to 2008) and a lineup fixture on the club's best teams of the 2000s. He is a classic example of what a counting-stat leader looks like: not the most dangerous bat on any given day, but the one who showed up for 15 seasons. His .296 average ranks third among Angels with 3,000 at-bats.

Vladimir Guerrero had far less time with the club, six seasons from 2004 to 2009, but his numbers per season are among the best any Angel has produced. His .319 career average with the club is the highest of anyone with 3,000 at-bats, and he won the 2004 Most Valuable Player award in his first season in Anaheim. He hit 173 home runs and drove in 616 in those six seasons. He is also one of four Hall of Fame players who spent at least four seasons with the club, along with Nolan Ryan, Rod Carew and Reggie Jackson.

Tim Salmon is the man left out, and his case is strong. He is third in club history in home runs (299), third in hits (1,674) and third in RBI (1,016), and he was the American League Rookie of the Year in 1993. He leads all Angels in walks except Trout (970 to Trout's 1,067). A career spent entirely in one uniform, Salmon is the perfect figure to name as the first man off the bench. Anderson wins at left field because hits and RBI both favor him by a large margin; Guerrero wins at right field because the quality of his peak was higher.

First base and designated hitter: Carew, Ohtani and the Pujols problem

First base has three real candidates. Rod Carew hit .314 in seven seasons with the Angels and is a Hall of Famer. Wally Joyner hit .286 and was one of the club's popular early stars. Albert Pujols hit 222 home runs and drove in 783 runs from 2012 to 2021, which ties him for fourth in franchise home runs and puts him fifth in RBI, but by then his best years were behind him.

Carew gets the nod because, pound for pound, he was the better hitter in an Angels uniform, and because a lineup with this much power can use a man who puts the ball in play. The designated hitter spot goes to Shohei Ohtani for a different reason: it is the only slot where the club can use a player who also ranks among the best pitchers in the league. Ohtani hit 171 home runs for the Angels in six seasons, won the American League Rookie of the Year award in 2018 and the Most Valuable Player award in 2021 and 2023. Only one other Angel (Trout) has won that award more than once.

Pujols still belongs on the all-time bench as a power bat. He is tied for fourth in franchise home runs and fifth in RBI, and a team should take him seriously. But a hitter who came in at 32 and left at 41 was a different player from the one who won MVP awards in St. Louis.

Second base, shortstop and third base: three generations of infielders

The infield draws from three different decades, and none of them feels forced.

Second base: Bobby Grich. Grich spent 1977 to 1986 with the club and ranks seventh in runs (601) and fourth in walks (630). The historical record does not carry his defensive value, but his reputation as a fielder was among the best of his era. His on-base skill is the thing the old statistics hide; a player who walks 630 times in ten seasons is making far fewer outs than his batting average implies. Howie Kendrick (a .292 hitter with 1,204 hits from 2006 to 2014) is the best alternative.

Shortstop: Jim Fregosi. Fregosi played 1961 to 1971 and ranks sixth in franchise hits (1,408) and sixth in runs (691). He was the club's first great player, and he later managed it for four seasons, going 237-249. Erick Aybar (1,223 hits, 141 steals, 2006 to 2015) is the stronger modern choice for defensive value, but Fregosi's bat and his place in the early years of the franchise outweigh it.

Third base: Troy Glaus. Glaus hit 182 home runs in seven seasons (1998 to 2004), the sixth-highest total in club history, with 470 walks. He was a cornerstone of the 2002 team that beat the Giants in seven games. Chone Figgins, who stole 280 bases for the Angels (a franchise record), is the other serious option, and a manager looking for speed might choose him. But Glaus's power and his role on the championship team settle the argument.

Catcher and the bench

Catcher is where the Angels' all-time team is thinnest in the historical data, because no catcher appears among the club's leaders in the major categories. Brian Downing, who began his career as a catcher and later moved to the outfield and designated hitter, is the nearest thing to a franchise leader at the position: 222 home runs, 846 RBI, 866 walks and 889 runs from 1978 to 1990. But for the lineup, Bob Boone gets the glove. He caught for the club from 1982 to 1988, during which the Angels reached the playoffs twice, and he was known as one of the best defensive catchers in the game.

The bench, then, is long: Downing, Salmon, Pujols, Joyner, Darin Erstad, Kendrick, Aybar and Figgins. Erstad deserves a closer look. He played 1996 to 2006, collected 1,505 hits and scored 818 runs, and was a crucial member of the 2002 championship team. He was a center fielder, a left fielder and a first baseman at different times. A manager who wanted a defensive substitution in the late innings would call him first.

The rotation: Ryan, Finley, Weaver, Tanana and Chance

Pitchers are easier to rank than hitters, because the club's career leaderboards fall into a clear order.

Nolan Ryan is the top of the rotation despite finishing second in wins, because his strikeout total (2,416) and shutouts (40) are far ahead of everyone else's and because he is a Hall of Famer who spent eight seasons with the club. Chuck Finley has the most wins in franchise history (165) and the second-most strikeouts. Jered Weaver was the ace of the 2009 and 2014 division winners.

Frank Tanana deserves attention because his ERA (3.08 in more than 1,000 innings) is one of the best on the club. Dean Chance won the Cy Young Award in 1964 and holds the best ERA of any Angel with 1,000 innings, 2.83. His number comes with a note: the early 1960s were a low-scoring time, and a 2.83 ERA then is not the same as one in another era. Also considered were Mike Witt (109 wins), John Lackey (102 wins) and Ervin Santana (96 wins). Bartolo Colon won the Cy Young Award in 2005, but one season does not outweigh the longer careers above.

The bullpen: a closer and a record that matters

Troy Percival is the franchise's all-time leader in saves (316) and in games pitched (579), both from 1995 to 2004. Francisco Rodriguez is second with 208 saves, between 2002 and 2008. For a team that has to protect a lead in one game, Percival is the choice, partly because of his longevity and partly because he finished the 2002 postseason as the club's closer. Rodriguez pitched in the same October as a young reliever and later became one of the most productive relief pitchers of the 2000s.

Scot Shields deserves a mention for 491 appearances (second on the club) as a setup man between 2001 and 2010, a role that does not produce saves but often decides games.

What the all-time team teaches about the franchise

The first lesson is that the Angels have built through stars, not depth. Few of the lineup's nine players reached the postseason together; the 2002 champions were a team of solid contributors, led by Glaus, Anderson, Salmon, Erstad and an excellent bullpen, and it is notable that it won the franchise's only title with a record of 99-63 and a wild-card berth rather than a division title.

The second lesson is that eras overlap less than fans remember. Fregosi and Chance played in the 1960s, Ryan and Tanana in the 1970s, Carew, Grich and Downing in the late 1970s and 1980s, Finley and Salmon in the 1990s, and Guerrero, Weaver and Anderson in the 2000s. Trout and Ohtani were teammates from 2018 to 2023, which is why those years produced three MVP awards in six seasons for a club that did not make the playoffs.

The third is that the historical lack of defensive data is a real handicap. Aybar, Erstad, Boone and Figgins might all rank higher in a metric that measures fielding. Readers who want to compare players more closely can use the Angels team page and the site's leaders pages to check the numbers themselves.

Common questions

Who is the best Angel of all time? Mike Trout, by a wide margin, on the strength of 404 home runs, 1,196 runs, three MVP awards and a career spent entirely with the club. Nolan Ryan is the best pitcher.

Why is Albert Pujols not in the lineup? His 222 home runs and 783 RBI with the Angels are strong totals, but they came at the end of his career. Carew's .314 average and Hall of Fame standing give him the edge at first base for this team.

Is Shohei Ohtani an Angel in the history books? Yes, for 2018 through 2023. He won Rookie of the Year in 2018 and the American League MVP award in 2021 and 2023, and he hit 171 home runs with the club. The historical record credits those seasons to the Angels only.

Which Angels are in the Hall of Fame? The historical record lists four Hall of Fame players with four or more seasons for the club: Nolan Ryan (eight), Rod Carew (seven), Vladimir Guerrero (six) and Reggie Jackson (five).

Does the team include the 2002 champions? Yes, through Troy Glaus, Garret Anderson, Tim Salmon, Darin Erstad and Troy Percival. The 2002 club went 99-63 and beat the Yankees, the Twins and the Giants.

Where to go next

Start with the Angels franchise history for the story behind these names, then read the best seasons and every October run to see how the stars lined up with the wins. For the neighbors in the American League West, compare with the Athletics and the Mariners. The Angels team page and the Angel Stadium page have the current record, schedule and park details.