Angels send down Josh Lowe, place Yoán Moncada on IL
ANAHEIM - The Angels finally reached a breaking point with Josh Lowe.
The struggling outfielder was optioned to Triple-A on Friday, an acknowledgement by the team that something needed to happen to shake him out of his season-long slump.
The Angels also placed slumping third baseman Yoán Moncada on the injured list with right knee inflammation.
They called up outfielder Wade Meckler and infielder Donovan Walton, a pair of moves they hope will shake up their languishing offense.
Lowe was hitting .184 with a .546 OPS. He had struck out in 29% of his plate appearances, well above the major league average of 22%.
"It's definitely been a grind," Angels manager Kurt Suzuki said. "Kind of take a step back and maybe take some pressure off of him. Go down there where there's not as much pressure. Focus on success. Just go out there and work on what he needs to work on. And we expect him to be back soon."
The Angels acquired Lowe last winter as part of a three-way trade with the Cincinnati Reds and Tampa Bay Rays. They dealt away left-hander Brock Burke and a minor leaguer.
Lowe, 28, was one of the game's more promising young players a few years ago. In 2023, he hit 20 home runs and stole 32 bases, with an .835 OPS. Since then, though, he's gotten worse each year. Oblique injuries slowed him in 2024 and 2025. He had a minor oblique issue during spring training, but he said a couple of weeks ago that there was nothing physically preventing him from performing.
Suzuki said there wasn't one thing he could point to that explained his poor start.
"This game kind of grinds on you," Suzuki said. "It's a little bit of everything. I don't want to pinpoint one thing. I think it's more of a reset for him to go down, take some pressure off him, and get back to being the player we know he can be."
Moncada, 30, was hitting .189 with a .605 OPS. He was particularly ineffective from the right side, which he attributed in an interview on Thursday to continued trouble with the right knee he hurt last year.
On Friday, Moncada said he went for an MRI. He doesn't have the results yet, but he acknowledged that he's concerned.
"I'd rather be playing," he said through an interpreter. "I don't want to be out. I don't want to have surgery, doing rehab, all that. I don't want to do that. But at the same time, I want to know what I have."
The two new players are both left-handed hitters and both put the ball in play, which is something the Angels badly need. The team leads the majors with a 26% strikeout rate.
Meckler, a 26-year-old product of Esperanza High in Anaheim, had briefly appeared in the majors with the San Francisco Giants in 2023. This season he was hitting .343 with a .974 OPS at Double-A, with a 16% strikeout rate.
Walton, 31, has played parts of six years in the majors with the Seattle Mariners, Giants and Philadelphia Phillies. His most major-league action was 78 plate appearances in 2022. Walton can play second base, third base and the outfield.
He was hitting .282 with a .910 OPS at Triple-A. He struck out in just 13% of his plate appearances.
The Angels also could have called up either Denzer Guzman or Christian Moore. Both are hitting well at Triple-A, however, neither is an outfielder. Both hit right-handed, and both have higher strikeout rates than Meckler and Walton.
NOTES
The Angels moved left-hander Yusei Kikuchi to the 60-day injured list to clear one spot on the 40-man roster for the two moves. They had another spot already open from outrighting Alek Manoah. …
Left-hander Drew Pomeranz said his two bullpen sessions have gone well. He's expecting to face hitters soon. Pomeranz is eligible to come off the injured list on Thursday.
UP NEXT
Rangers (RHP Nathan Eovaldi, 5-4, 3.62 ERA) at Angels (RHP Walbert Ureña, 1-4, 2.70 ERA), Saturday, 7:05 p.m., ABTV, 830 AM
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This story was originally published May 22, 2026 at 5:07 PM.