After a 100-loss season, the Los Angeles Angels don’t have the luxury of treating the bullpen as a side project. It has to be one of the first things fixed this winter if the club wants any real shot at moving forward in 2027.
The numbers tell the story plainly. Anaheim’s bullpen posted a 4.47 ERA this season, putting it among the worst groups in baseball. The late-inning mess got even uglier when the save chances came into focus.
The Angels finished the year with just 25 saves, the fewest in 2026 and the third-lowest total since the shortened 2020 season. That alone is rough. The bigger issue is what happened in the games that were there to be closed out.
They had 55 save opportunities and converted only 25 of them, which left them with a 45.5% save rate. That was the worst mark in baseball, and no team blew more saves than the Angels did while trying to finish games.
This wasn’t a one-year blip, either. It came right after the Angels led baseball in blown saves in 2025. At this point, the pattern in Anaheim is hard to ignore.
The club does have some usable pieces in the bullpen, but that isn’t enough. If the Angels want to become a real threat in the late innings, they need proven arms added to the mix, and a new owner could make that more realistic this winter.
There are high-end relievers out there, including Adrian Morejon, David Bednar, and Taylor Clarke. Any one of them would be a major boost, though names like those are likely to land with teams that already have postseason ambitions.
Even if that tier is out of reach, there are still options. Andrew Kittredge, Gregory Soto, and Jason Adam are among the next level of bullpen targets who could be drawn in by a strong offer from a desperate Angels team.
The point is simple: help is available. The Angels just have to go get it. If they don’t, another season near the bottom of the standings and the stat sheet could be waiting.
In my opinion, that era of Angels baseball has closed. It’s time to start the next chapter under new owner Stan Kroenke and become a serious baseball club again. Building a serviceable bullpen and being able to close out games is a critical component of that.
In Other News...
Angels Fans Just Got A Fascinating Prospect To Watch In Arizona
A 6-foot-11 arm is hard to miss, and Peyton Olejnik has now put himself on the radar for Angels fans heading into the Arizona Fall League. MLB.com listed the right-hander as a sleeper to watch, a nod to a pitcher who has already shown intriguing upside while working through the kind of control issues that often come with a younger power arm.
Olejnik spent the 2026 season with High-A Tri-City and is slated to join the Mesa Solar Sox in Arizona, where evaluators will get another look at his development against stronger competition. The Angels already have one encouraging marker from his summer, too: he was named the Northwest Leagues Pitcher of the Month in June, a sign that the raw tools are starting to translate even as the next step remains to be seen. [Read more 🡒]
Angels Ownership Twist Could Keep John Mozeliak In Charge
John Mozeliak is still running baseball operations for the Angels, but the job picture for next season is far from settled. The pending sale to Kroenke Sports Entertainment has created a strange holding pattern for the front office, with the ownership transfer not expected to be finalized until early 2027.
For now, Arte Moreno remains the official decision-maker through the offseason, even as KSE starts to shape the clubs direction behind the scenes. Mozeliak has been through ownership transitions before during his time with the Cardinals, and that kind of experience could matter as the Angels navigate an unusually messy stretch of overlap. [Read more 🡒]
Angels Found A Few Real Reasons For Hope In This Collapse
A 100-loss season usually leaves little room for optimism, but the Angels did manage to uncover a few pieces worth carrying into the winter. Walbert Urena emerged as a promising young pitcher with enough upside to at least enter the Rookie of the Year conversation, while Reid Detmers gave the rotation something it could trust on a regular basis. Even in a year that went sideways fast, those two offered signs that the organization may have found more than just short-term answers.
There was also some real value in the everyday lineup. Mike Trout flashed strong early-season production before the usual questions around availability took over, Zach Neto contributed offensively even if his defense was uneven, and Matt McLain outperformed expectations after arriving on a minor league deal. For a club trying to dig out of a massive hole, those are the kinds of individual wins that matter, even if the overall record never gave them much to celebrate. [Read more 🡒]