'Best day of my life': Angels top prospect Moore makes his MLB debut

BALTIMORE -- An 0-for-3 night with a strikeout. Some solid plays in the field. Two rain delays totaling more than two hours. And a post-game fireworks show with family who made the trip to be there.

“That was on the real,” Angels top prospect Christian Moore said of it all. “Best day of my life.”

That was all included in Moore’s MLB debut on Friday, a 2-0 series-opening loss in Baltimore that halted a modest three-game winning streak.

Ranked as baseball's No. 56 overall prospect by MLB Pipeline, the second baseman started and batted ninth in the opener.

He struck out in his first at-bat against Charlie Morton -- the O’s starter who is 19 years his senior -- then grounded out and lined out to short. While Morton has mostly struggled with Baltimore, on Friday he carried a vintage curveball and punched out 10 batters, including eight of the first nine he retired.

“It was all right,” Moore said of the pitch. “I won’t say I haven’t seen it before, but it was really good, and especially how he used it and how he tunneled it.”

On defense, Moore got to make two routine first-inning plays on grounders, then started a nicely turned 4-6-3 double play in the fourth.

“There’s more than one side of the baseball, and he made the plays that were supposed to be made,” Angels manager Ron Washington said. “He had some chances [at the plate]. Was hoping ‘OK, get your first one and drive in some runs.’ But it just didn’t happen.”

Moore was selected eighth overall in the 2024 Draft out of Tennessee by the Angels. After posting a .984 OPS across two levels in 25 games last season, Moore began his season with Double-A Rocket City, where he had a .665 OPS in 34 games. On May 20, the Angels promoted Moore to Triple-A Salt Lake, where he posted a .999 OPS and hit four home runs in 20 games.

“It seems like the industry seems to think [this kid] is ready, so I got to think he’s ready, too,” Washington said pregame. “Sometimes, you’ve got to will these guys to do what they have to do. We’ll find out tonight, we’ll find out tomorrow, we’ll find out the next day. So we’ve just got to let it play out. I’m happy for him. He was struggling in Double-A, they sent him to Triple-A, he took off. Maybe he got his swagger back. So, we’re going to find out.”

Moore also played in a preseason exhibition against the Dodgers in Southern California before the 2025 season started.

“That definitely helped me a lot and helped me slow things down out there,” Moore said then. “At the end of the day, it’s still baseball. The guy still has to throw over the plate. You’ve still got to catch it. You’ve still got to throw it. You’ve still got to run. So it was fun, and it was one of the best nights of my life. But now, I’m looking forward to actually starting the season off tomorrow.”

Moore’s promotion follows a similar pattern of the Angels aggressively promoting their top Draft picks and prospects. Angels shortstop Zach Neto, who was selected 13th overall out of Campbell in the 2022 Draft, became the first player from his Draft class to reach the Majors when he debuted in April 2023. In the 2023 Draft, Nolan Schanuel was selected 11th overall out of Florida Atlantic and debuted in the Majors less than six weeks after being drafted.

Moore participated in several MLB Develops events as a youth, including the Dream Series (2018-20), Breakthrough Series (2018-19) and Hank Aaron Invitational (2019).

Washington previously worked with the youngster as part of the MLB Develops program when Moore was a teenager.

He said he expects to use Moore regularly over a six-game road trip in Baltimore and New York. While a dozen or so friends and family were expected for his debut in Baltimore, the latter series in The Bronx could bring out a much larger herd.

“If I go to New York, that will be insane, I'm sure,” the Brooklyn-born Moore said pregame. “I don’t know how many people, in the 50s or 60s, maybe more.”