ANAHEIM, Calif. -- The morning of the Angels final exhibition game before flying to Chicago for their opening series, select individual players were called into the office of Ron Washington.
For some, life-altering positive news. For others, less than positive news.
Maintaining an aggressive approach to roster construction from internal candidates, Perry Minasian announced that the Angels opening day bullpen would include 2024 Rule-5 draft selection Garrett McDaniels and 2024 second-round pick Ryan Johnson, who has yet to pitch in professional baseball outside of Cactus League play.
"It's crazy," McDaniels said. "Surreal. What I've been dreaming of since I was a little kid."
McDaniels, who was acquired when taken third overall in the 2024 Rule-5 Draft from the Los Angeles Dodgers, said he called his mother, Nickie, who began crying upon hearing the news. Nickie quickly began arranging flights to Chicago for Garrett's father, Kevin; girlfriend, Lindsay; and grandparents, Pat and Ronnie.
"I was pretty surprised by it, but it's cool," said Johnson who had been sending and receiving texts non-stop since the morning meeting with Washington.
"Not even now do I think it's possible (I made the team)," Johnson said. "There wasn't really a point where it felt like, 'I'm close.' It never even crossed my mind."
Pending the day of Johnson's big league debut, he would be one year removed from a Thursday night, March 28 start against New Mexico State, where he threw seven scoreless innings with three hits and three walks allowed, with nine strikeouts.
Johnson was signed for $1.75 million as the final pick of the second round in the most recent draft, as part of compensation for the Angels not signing Shohei Ohtani the previous winter.
Johnson struck out Ohtani looking on Monday night, with awareness of his connection but little personal fanfare.
"I'm aware but don't care," Johnson laughed. "Any strikeout is going to be fun to have."
Johnson did not pitch following the draft as part of workload management after throwing 106 innings with Dallas Baptist during the 2024 spring.
"We believe he is going to be a starter eventually," Minasian said. "He's pitched very well and handled himself like a pro. Work ethic is exactly what we expected out of the draft. We feel like he has weapons for both sides and he's someone that can help us win baseball games."
His first professional outing will come as a Major League pitcher, making him the 24th player in the draft era to go directly from the draft to the Majors without playing in the minors. He will be the first since Garrett Crochet with the White Sox in 2020, and second Angels player to match the feat; Jim Abbott, 1989 (source: Angels PR).
Pending if Johnson makes his MLB debut on Opening Day -- and the playing status of Cam Smith with the Houston Astros on the same day -- the Angels could have the first player from the draft to the majors for the fourth consecutive year/draft.
For the Angels position player group, Minasian confirmed that those who made the Opening Day roster included Tim Anderson, Kyren Paris, and Nicky Lopez who signed for a one-year, league-minimum contract on Monday night.
Paris was the offensive leader of the Angels Cactus League play, batting .400 with a 1.116 OPS in 49 plate appearances.
"You can sit here and say he's a young player that needs to play every day and I understand that," Minasian said of Paris. "But from a messaging standpoint when you ask somebody to do something and they follow through, even enhance what you ask them to do and they come in and have arguably the best camp in that room -- looking at the underlying things he accomplished, we felt he should be on this team."
Paris will serve as the Angels back-up center fielder according to Ron Washington, while Lopez will play all four infield positions and the occasional outfield.
Anderson will have a larger role as the anticipated starting shortstop while Zach Neto continues recovering from shoulder surgery. Anderson -- a nine-year veteran -- is coming off his two worst statistical seasons where he held a 51 OPS+ while being worth -3.3 bWAR.
"Even when he was in down time I believed in Tim," Washington said. "He was trying to find himself and we gave him an opportunity to do that and he took advantage of it. Nothing Tim does on that field will surprise me. He's done it before."
To make room for Johnson, Anderson and Lopez on the 40-man roster, the Angels released Mickey Moniak and designated Jose Quijada and Angel Perdomo (acquired on March 17) for assignment.
"As we improve as an organization -- which is the goal -- these decisions become tougher," Minasian said. "We made some tough decisions on some guys that have been here and have been good for us. Those aren't easy.
"We tell each player that you have an opportunity here whether you have 10 years in the big leagues, 15 years in the big leagues, or zero days in professional baseball. If you're one of the better guys for us we'll bring you."
The final roster spot for the Angels Opening Day roster came down a health decision on Yoan Moncada following Tuesday's 4-1 exhibition loss to the Dodgers, when Washington confirmed that Moncada had passed all health markers and would be on the Opening Day roster.
PROJECTED LOS ANGELES ANGELS 2025 OPENING DAY ROSTER:
Rotation: Tyler Anderson, Kyle Hendricks, Yusei Kikuchi, Jack Kochanowicz, Jose Soriano
Bullpen: Ian Anderson, Brock Burke, Reid Detmers, Kenley Jansen, Ryan Johnson, Ben Joyce, Garrett McDaniels, Ryan Zeferjahn
Catchers: Travis d'Arnaud, Logan O'Hoppe
Infielders: Tim Anderson, Nicky Lopez, Yoan Moncada, Kevin Newman, Kyren Paris, Luis Rengifo, Nolan Schanuel
Outfielders: Jo Adell, Jorge Soler, Mike Trout, Taylor Ward