ANAHEIM — After one season in pro baseball, Mickey Moniak deleted Twitter. Shortly thereafter, he got rid of the Instagram app. Social media and the wretched comments on it can be the downfall of an athlete’s career, he said. And he didn’t want to let that happen.
Moniak’s star has risen with the Angels. He’s growing into a fan favorite, playing just an hour north of his hometown of Encinitas. Most importantly, the 25-year-old’s time with the Angels has been one of burgeoning success.
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But for Moniak, this isn’t the whole story of his baseball existence. Drafted No. 1 by the Phillies in 2016, the expectations placed on him never met his reality. And so, he saw those mean comments. He felt the pressure internally, and from the fans who wanted him to produce.
Moniak was called up 13 times with the Phillies. That means he was sent down just as many. He learned to grapple with not having the success everyone expected of him.
“If I’m OK with me on a daily basis,” Moniak said on Saturday, “it really doesn’t matter what other people think.”
Mickey Moniak robbed a homer.
He's played well tonight and since his call-up last week. pic.twitter.com/LA3kPvcMQJ
— Sam Blum (@SamBlum3) May 20, 2023
Moniak’s story has turned with the Angels. In eight games since getting called up, Moniak is 10-for-24 with a 1.273 OPS. He also has two stolen bases and a robbed home run defensively on Friday. He drove in the game-winning runs two days later.
This comes after a spring in which he posted a 1.185 OPS in 44 at-bats. In Triple A, his OPS was .939 in 141 plate appearances. He’s forced the Angels’ hand. They’ve found a role for him in an already crowded outfield.
The Phillies gave up on Moniak. They traded him and another prospect for Noah Syndergaard — a swap that was mostly a salary dump for the Angels. It was a flier. A hope and a prayer that a change of scenery could unleash a morsel of the potential surrounding Moniak from six years prior.
That change of scenery, along with mechanical changes, has actually started to pay off.
“You hear those (criticisms) whether you like it or not. And I think he’s been able to push those things aside,” said Angels manager Phil Nevin, who was a No. 1 pick himself, by the Astros in 1992. “He’s come home. He’s at a place where he’s comfortable, that made him feel comfortable.
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“He’s put the work in, and he’s only 25 years old. There’s a heck of a lot of guys that don’t reach their peak performance, their max potential, until they’re 30. We feel like we still have a really good young player that’s going to be impactful for us.”
Throughout the offseason, multiple times per week, Moniak worked with newly hired Angels assistant hitting coach Phil Plantier.
They made a change to open his stance. At first, Moniak said it was something he’d never done before. Then clarified to say it’s something he’s “never tried the right way.”
He believes it’s helpful because he doesn’t have mobile hips. Opening his stance allows him to sync up his swing. His swing stays more in the middle of the field, and he sees the ball better.
The scouting report on Moniak in his pro career has been an inability to hit breaking pitches. He would whiff at nearly half of those pitches. In 2021, Moniak saw 48 breaking pitches and had a whiff rate of 66.7 percent.
Strikeouts remain a part of his game — he’s K’d 10 times in 25 plate appearances since his call-up.
He said breaking pitches weren’t an issue in the earliest parts of his career. He suspects getting bigger impacted his mobility. The work he’s doing now is designed to lessen his swing-and-miss.
“It’s a simple fix for me I think,” Moniak said. “I’m staying back, my head is still. If I’m not crossing over, I think I can be a really good hitter in this league. When I’m not doing that, I think I can be a pretty bad hitter. It’s just making sure all the things are lined up.”
Moniak was disappointed when he was told in spring training that he didn’t make the roster. It was always going to be a long shot. The Angels built an outfield this offseason that wouldn’t need Moniak or Jo Adell.
And that was for a fair reason. This team needed to compete this year, and neither of them had a track record of success at the major-league level. Hunter Renfroe, on the other hand, did. Taylor Ward just put together an .833 OPS season. Mike Trout, is, well, Mike Trout.
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There wouldn’t have been at-bats for Moniak. So Brett Phillips made the roster as the backup outfielder. The established starting outfield hardly got days off over the first six weeks of the season.
Moniak was called up on May 13 to give those guys a run of some rest. There was a string of right-handed pitchers for Moniak, a lefty, to face. He hit a homer off Cal Quantrill to lead off the game and hasn’t looked back. In the process, he turned a quick major-league stint into a legitimate role.
And now, he’s getting consistent starts. He’s not an everyday player, but he has, at least temporarily, uprooted Ward from his full-time role.
“Mickey’s carried over what he was doing in Triple A,” said Angels general manager Perry Minasian. “He’s had some good at-bats for us, brought some energy. He’s somebody that we obviously feel good about, and think can play. And getting the everyday at-bats to start the season, to work on what he was working on was really important. He’s come in here and played well.”
After Moniak was traded to the Angels, he flew into San Diego. That’s where his car was, at home, and he was playing close enough to be able to pick it up and drive to the ballpark for his Angels debut.
In Philadelphia, Moniak’s name was associated with failing to be who everyone thought he should be. In Anaheim, Moniak was just another guy. There wasn’t that baggage.
On that drive, he remembered thinking of how many times he’d taken this exact route. For baseball tournaments in the area. For many reasons. He’d driven by Angel Stadium so many times. He’d looked at it, admired it, but had not been inside of it.
He still had a connection to that stadium and to this team. To this area. Even if it was completely new, it was special to him to actually work in this venue.
After getting three hits on Friday night — finishing a homer shy of the cycle, while also robbing a blast in center field — Moniak stayed on the field late.
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There were friends and family in the stands. All of them made the trip to see his first home game at Angel Stadium this year. In a way, it solidified that this is home. In the sense that he’s in Southern California, playing in front of loved ones. And in the sense that he’s with a team where he doesn’t have to be that No. 1 pick weighted by lofty expectations.
He can just be himself. Surrounded by those that know him.
“Just to be able to experience me living out my dream with them is something that I’ll never forget,” Moniak said. “Something that I’ll cherish for as long as I can. It’s very special.”
(Photo of Mickey Moniak: John Cordes / Associated Press)
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