Los Angeles Angels midseason awards: Most disappointing hitter

The Los Angeles Angels have an offense that can stand toe-to-toe with anyone when healthy but is not immune to some disappointment.

The Los Angeles Angels boast an offense that can produce runs and keep up with every offense in the MLB — when healthy. And unfortunately for the Los Angeles Angels, the team has not been the healthiest thus far this year.

Justin Upton missed months with turf toe and has only played 14 games this season. Shohei Ohtani missed time due to his Tommy John Surgery, albeit he has been electric since returning from the Injured List.

Mike Trout missed a very brief period of time, first-half standout Tommy La Stella is currently out 8-10 weeks and Jonathan Lucroy will now miss time with a fractured nose and concussion after a home plate collision with Jake Marisnick.

Every MLB team has to deal with injuries and the Los Angeles Angels are not the only team that has suffered a lot of injuries this year (see: the New York Yankees). However, it definitely can be a tad frustrating knowing that they have not been at full strength at all really this year.

Disappointments do lie outside of the team’s bad injury luck as there have been some disappointing offensive performances in the first half.

As part of our Los Angeles Angels midseason awards, here is the team’s most disappointing hitter of the first half.

Los Angeles Angels most disappointing hitter: Zack Cozart

It is probably safe to say that Zack Cozart‘s contract is a complete bust at this point even though he has another season and a half to turn it around and perform how the team expected him to perform.

The Angels signed Cozart to a three-year deal prior to the 2018 season after Cozart had a breakout all-star year the season prior. He just appeared to be entering his prime and on a three-year deal, Cozart seemed like an absolute steal.

Now, he looks like a terrible signing even though the Angels did not commit a lot of money to him.

Not only has the infielder battled his health while being an Angel but he has been pretty poor while he has been healthy. In 38 games in the first half, Cozart hit a lowly .124 with an exceptionally low .322 OPS. No other player with at least 100 plate appearances has lower than a .400 OPS.

You could say that this is not even a disappointment as Cozart was also bad a year ago. However, there was still the optimism that he could at least be a league-average infielder when fully healthy.

The Los Angeles Angels will have paid Zack Cozart $25.33 million altogether after this year. With only 61 hits as an Angel across a season and a half, Cozart is making about $415,000 for every hit as an Angel; that is $150,000 less than Vladimir Guerrero is making all season.