The Angels signed infielder Donovan Walton to a minor league contract last month, according to Walton’s MLB.com profile page. Walton has been outrighted off 40-man rosters multiple times in his career, so he was eligible to elect minor league free agency and depart the Phillies organization once the season was over.
Walton has appeared in six of the last seven MLB seasons, though 49 of his 72 games in the Show came in 2021-22 with the Mariners and Giants. After signing a minors deal with the Mets last offseason, Walton was traded to the Phillies in July, and continued to toil away on the farm until his contact was selected to Philadelphia’s active roster in September. Walton made a pair of starts at second base while the Phils were dealing with a spate of infield injuries, but those two outings represented the entirety of Walton’s 2025 playing time in the majors.
The 31-year-old has hit just .172/.223/.298 over 214 career plate appearances in the bigs, but Walton’s ability to play both middle infield positions and also chip in at third base and in left field has helped him earn some looks at a bench player. He has hit pretty well in Triple-A ball (.281/.365/.435 over 1479 PA), but expecting those numbers to translate into MLB success this late into Walton’s career might be a tall order.
Having a veteran utility player as a depth option on either the 26-man roster or at Triple-A makes sense for an Angels team that is thin in the infield. While Vaughn Grissom was acquired in a trade from the Red Sox, the second and third base positions are still question marks in Los Angeles. The Angels figure to bring in at least one player as an everyday option at either the keystone or the hot corner, leaving Walton and company to battle it out for part-time duty or a bench role.