Exploring the Angels' Bullpen
December 14, 2024 - Written by Noah Pohle
Photo Credit : @MLB - X
New Faces Almost Everywhere
The Angels have been the most aggressive team in baseball this offseason. Getting some shopping done early, General Manager Perry Minasian addressed his bench with a minor trade for Scott Kingery and agreements with free agents Kevin Newman and Travis d’Arnaud. Most recently, the Angels reeled in a bigger fish, one named Yusei Kikuchi, to join Kyle Hendricks as newcomers to the starting staff. These moves will not be the only ones to get across the finish line, and the front office has already acted aggressively to add to Ron Washington’s roster. The focus so far has been on improving the depth and installing veteran presences around the horn, and yet, they have added depth options to a bullpen that was nowhere near a top unit last year. A strong bullpen can provide stability for a younger or middling starting staff, but a weakness in this area could truly bring an entire pitching staff, and team, down. The Angels were in the bottom third of all teams last year in most statistical categories, leaving them with some work yet to be done.
Why Should We Look Bigger?
The Angels are sure to augment what they have in the bullpen, but this crew just walked the second-most batters while their strikeouts ranked 24th league-wide. A strong 100 leads held in 120 chances is inspiring, but this was not a very impressive staff in 2024. It was pitching coach Barry Enright’s first season in that role, though, and the Angels mostly gave him time to work with their young pitchers and establish his gameplan. Although there has been plenty of pitcher turnover in recent years, the pitchers that have remained on our roster each offer some glimmer of hope. The extent to which this complicates any potential additions depends on how highly the Angels are internally on some borderline guys who will be unable to be optioned next year. While market factors are surely playing into how the Angels have gone about their business, this uncertainty has not yet led the Angels to bring in any additions at all. Barry Enright was in his first season as the sole pitching coach of a big league club, and he led a staff that worked to much improved results. Of the pitchers that remain, plenty of them have intrigue.
Our Buckets of Options
The Fireman
The Angels seem to have developed an anchor out of the bullpen last year in Ben Joyce. The reliever began the year in the minor leagues, but a week after his season debut, the owner of MLB’s highest average fastball speed threw a new offspeed pitch against the Giants; somewhere between a changeup, splitter and sinker, the pitch sits at 92.5 MPH on average and, wielding this new pitch in his profile, Joyce allowed just three runs from the pitch’s debut on June 16 through the end of the season, accruing higher and higher leverage work along the way. He was closing games by the end of the season, and any bullpen would like Joyce in the fold after the season he just had.
Leverage Lefties
The bridge to him looks arduous currently, though, with lefties Brock Burke and Jose Quijada the only returning Angels with higher than league average Leverage Indexes last year. Each is a former waiver claim and neither was able to pitch much for the Angels last year; Quijada came back from Tommy John surgery late in July and had a respectable showing, even if the command looked rusty. It is fair to hope for his control and command to improve with more time and a normal offseason since his surgery, but where the ceiling lies can be debated. He strikes hitters out and isn’t an easy home run, but a limited pitch mix and non-elite velocity means opposing hitters can sit on the fastball and put it in play more often than a good team’s top lefty. Burke is another option for that role, and he looked the part of one in 2022. His first year fully in relief, the hard-throwing lefty put up a 1.97 ERA in 82.1 innings for the Rangers after scrapping his curveball and gaining 3 MPH on each of his pitches. He has fallen far enough since then that he was DFA’d in August and claimed by the Angels. While his pitch mix remained nearly exactly the same, each of his four pitches jumped in run value, and he even found more than a mile of juice on his already-hard fastball, averaging 96.3 MPH in his 20.1 Angels innings, while working to a 3.54 ERA in that time.
2024’s Depth Pieces
Minor league signee Hans Crouse was a developmental success for the Angels last season, as a former top prospect who ran out of time in other cities. Crouse moved to relief full-time in 2023 and began the year in AAA, but as he pitched to a low-2 ERA and struck out nearly 17 batters over a 9-inning pace, he was called up and used as an optionable reliever for the rest of the year. Even moving between the top minor league team and the major team, he continued his success, pitching to a 2.84 ERA in 25.1 innings, his first thrown in the Majors since 2021. Jose Suarez and Davis Daniel are out of options, and thus must begin the year on the active roster or be offered to the rest of the league. Suarez has been outrighted off the roster before, but made a few encouraging appearances at the end of the year. Meanwhile, Daniel pitched well enough to earn his roster spot in 2022, but has all of 42.2 innings at the Major League level, during which he has posted 5.06 ERA. In AAA last year, he recorded a 5.42 ERA, and thus could exist on the fringes of the 40-man roster.
Two Wildcards
Robert Stephenson, as well, should be back at some point after undergoing major arm surgery early in 2024. He was awarded a 3-year, $33 million dollar contract after finding four months of sustained success out of the Rays’ bullpen. He has yet to throw a pitch as an Angel, but was one of the top strikeout artists in the league in his stint in Tampa. One more recent addition to the roster, Rule 5 draft pick Garrett McDaniels, is a complete wild-card as well, but in a much different way. Players drafted in the Rule 5 Draft have been in the Minor Leagues for at least 6 (7 if you were 19 or older when drafted) seasons, and are not currently on a 40-man roster. McDaniels, as with many Rule 5 draft picks, has never been on a 40-man roster and thus never seen the Major Leagues. Even still, the restrictions that Rule 5 draft picks face (players of this ilk are required to stay on the 26-man roster or injured list until the completion of the season, or be offered back to the original team) mean that McDaniels should get some leash, especially if he impresses in spring. He has both started and relieved to successful results in the minor leagues, although with just 92.1 professional innings he certainly could prove too raw for the Majors, and not long for the roster. At his best, he seems to have an eye for a strikeout and a knack for not allowing the hardest of contact, perhaps due to an exaggerated overhead arm action. With mid-90s velocity, he could serve as a useful multi-inning lefty or be hidden on the roster by someone like Suarez, another multi-inning lefty.
The Rest of the 40-Man
Outside of these eight relievers, the Angels have pitchers Ryan Zeferjahn, Kelvin Caceres, Sam Bachman, Victor Mederos, and Jack Dashwood ticketed for depth roles, who all have combined for 46.2 Major League innings, and multiple starters such as Jack Kochanowicz, Chase Silseth, Sam Aldegheri and Caden Dana who may be options to pitch out of the bullpen.
Photo Credit : @Angels - X
How do we improve?
Improvement can come from anywhere in this relatively inexperienced bullpen, however, notably, four non-Joyce relievers projected to be in the bullpen are out of options. With this limited flexibility, any additions they make will hopefully be on the more notable side, with little room for more marginal upgrades. The Angels are projected to be rostering four lefties in Burke, Quijada, and Suarez, and McDaniels (notably, none of which can be sent down to the minors), with Dashwood serving as minor league depth. Burke and McDaniels throw from similar arm slots, and Quijada and Suarez, as well, offer relatively similar vantage points. None of these four necessarily preclude a more notable addition, but I expect more focus to be on guys who throw from the other side of the mound. Joyce, Crouse and Caceres each throw from a significantly different slot than the other righty relievers, clocking in between 26-28 degrees whereas most pitchers are around 38-40 degrees. Our velocity scale is similarly quite polarized, with Joyce, Zeferjahn, Burke and Caceres having quality-to-elite velocity, and starters Jose Soriano, Kochanowicz and Kikuchi maintaining high velocity over multiple innings. On the other side of the spectrum, Tyler Anderson, as well as Hendricks, Daniel, Suarez, and Crouse throw their fastballs slower than two-thirds of the Major Leagues and thrive by inhibiting weak contact. Where exactly we play in the relief market remains to be seen, but bringing in someone who looks like they can handle setup work would be ideal, especially with the bullpen’s current lack of flexibility. Such an addition, along with some positive internal developments, could take the Angels’ bullpen from definitely underwhelming to a league-wide 16-to-12 range, which alone would take a lot of pressure off of a starting staff that is currently expecting a lot of innings from some suspect options.
Photo Credit : @TheInclinePod - X
Angels’ bucket of realistic targets
With a full 40-man roster, 5 relievers on the 40-man who cannot be sent down, with Robert Stephenson and Ben Joyce excluded from that group, it is ultimately possible that the Angels do not sign any Major League free agents and roll with what they have. However, veteran leadership is something the Angels have seemed to value this offseason, and a mentor in the bullpen, where the pitchers are isolated from the rest of the group for the duration of the game, could prove quite important. A list of pitchers that might meaningfully improve our bullpen next year could include lefties Tanner Scott, AJ Minter, or righties Kenley Jansen, David Robertson, Kirby Yates, Jose Leclerc, Tommy Kahnle, and Andrew Kittredge.
Scott is the best reliever on the market and may prove to be too expensive for the Angels’ current situation, but any of the other pitchers would provide an upgrade of substance to the bullpen, at least on paper, and also offer varying amounts of playoff experience and veteran leadership that the Angels seem to be valuing currently. One interesting possibility could be a reunion with Carlos Estevez, who played for the Angels in both 2023 and the first half of 2024, before being traded to the Phillies before the deadline. He seemed to provide the right kind of veteran presence in his time here, and his results picked up with Barry Enright taking over in 2024 before tailing off post-trade. Perhaps a reunion could prove beneficial for both sides.
This kind of experienced bullpen depth can also be found through any number of non-roster signings, the kind that every team makes every offseason to fill out their minor league rosters. What the bullpen looks like on Opening Day remains to be seen, but as the least touched position group of the Angels so far, and with plenty of time to work something out, I believe Perry Minasian and his group have some calls to make.
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