Ryan Aguilar Joins Angels For MLB Debut 

On Friday, the Los Angeles Angels announced that outfielder Ryan Aguilar, a mainstay in the 2022 Rocket City Trash Pandas lineup, has been promoted to join the Angels for his MLB debut and will start Friday night’s game, batting eighth and playing right field on the road against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Aguilar becomes the 15th former Trash Pandas player to reach Los Angeles and will be the fifth to make his Angels debut this season, following Aaron Whitefield, Chase Silseth, David MacKinnon, and Michael Stefanic.

A native of nearby Yorba Linda, California, Aguilar played in 88 games for the Trash Pandas this season, leading the team with a .280 batting average, 15 home runs, and 65 walks while adding 55 runs scored, 48 RBI, and 11 stolen bases. His .427 on-base percentage leads the Southern League and ranks sixth in all of Double-A.

Most recently, he was named Southern League Player of the Week last week after posting a .438 average (7-for-16) with two home runs, six RBI, six runs scored, six walks, a .591 on-base percentage and a .989 slugging percentage over five games against Chattanooga from August 17-21 to earn his first career MLB call up.

In the month of August, Aguilar hit .360 with three home runs, 15 RBI, and 18 walks over 16 games after hitting .344 with five home runs, 14 RBI, and 18 walks in July. That is a vast improvement from his start of the season, when he batted just .175 with no home runs and two RBI over 13 April games in his Rocket City debut. Aguilar had a game to remember on July 2, posting five walks and scoring three runs without an official at-bat in a 11-9 win at Tennessee.

After being drafted in the 31st round by Milwaukee in 2016, Aguilar spent the first six season of his professional career with the Brewers’ system before being released last August. He was signed by the Angles over the offseason and began his first season in the organization with Rocket City.