Zach Neto injury: Angels shortstop could miss start of 2025 following shoulder surgery

The Los Angeles Angels may be without their starting shortstop to begin the 2025 season. Zach Neto had surgery to repair his right shoulder this past Wednesday, the team announced Friday. GM Perry Minasian did not reveal the exact nature of the injury or what was repaired, though he did confirm Neto’s recovery could extend into the 2025 regular season.

“He had a surgery a couple days ago and I’m not one for time frames, but he could miss the start of the season,” Minasian said (via MLB.com). “We’ll see where that goes. But he did have the surgery on the shoulder. I can’t get into details. But he will miss some time. And how much time, we’ll see.”

Neto suffered the injury sliding into second base on a stolen base attempt on Sept. 26, in the team’s 159th game of the season. He was hopeful he could rehab the injury and avoid surgery, but when his shoulder didn’t respond well enough to treatment, Neto went ahead and had the procedure. Here’s the injury:

“You discuss it with the player and the rehab route was the route that was chosen,” Minasian said (via MLB.com). “That’s something that we talked about. As that process went along, he still felt it. It was something we felt like, let’s jump ahead of it and let’s make sure. He’s obviously very important to us. So he’ll have the surgery and we’ll see when he comes back.”

Neto, 24 in January, was one of the bright spots on an otherwise wretched Angels team in 2024. He slashed .249/.318/.443 with 23 home runs and 30 stolen bases and led the team with 5.1 WAR. The Angels selected Neto as the No. 13 pick in the 2022 draft, and he reached the big leagues in April 2023. He’s been a mainstay since.

Should Neto miss time next year, the Angels could plug super utility man Luis Rengifo in at short, or Scott Kingery. The Angels picked up Kingery in a minor trade with the Philadelphia Phillies earlier this month. The former top prospect hit 25 home runs in Triple-A this past season and was added to the 40-man roster earlier this week.

The Angels went 63-99 in 2024, their first year post-Shohei Ohtani. That is the most losses and worst winning percentage (.389) in franchise history. Despite that, Minasian was given a contract extension in August.