The Angels’ bullpen was a problem all season, and the numbers make that impossible to ignore. Ben Joyce led the club in saves with five, and he didn’t take over the team lead until mid-September. That says plenty about how rough the relief corps was, and it’s why Perry Minasian’s bullpen work has to be viewed as his weakest area this year.
With Joyce spending more time on the injured list than on the active roster, the Angels can’t afford to treat him like a sure thing at the back end. They need help, and not just one arm. The bullpen needs both impact talent and plain old depth.
A strong relief group usually has one pitcher who can settle everything down in the ninth inning and let everyone else slide into cleaner matchups. The Angels lost that when Kenley Jansen left for Detroit, and the absence showed all year. If they’re going to lean on a young bullpen, adding a proven closer could help in the standings and in development.
One name at the top of that list is Devin Bednar. Getting him away from the Yankees, where he’s currently closing playoff games, would not be simple.
But if Kroenke wants to spend money, he has plenty of it. Since mid-May, Bednar has been dominant, and the right-hander has finished 56 games for the pinstripes.
The stuff is real. Bednar owns one of the best whiff rates in baseball at 38.4%, and when hitters do make contact, he’s in the 89% percentile in ground ball rate.
The result is usually harmless: a catch in the infield or a pitch that never gets airborne in the first place. At 31, he still looks like someone who can anchor a bullpen for several more seasons.
Another possibility is a familiar face. Raisel Iglesias, now 37, is still getting the job done for the Braves.
The former - and potentially future - Angels closer posted an even better whiff rate than Bednar at 39%. He stayed durable, too, finishing 59 games, saving 34, and striking out 64 batters in 60 innings.
Iglesias would likely cost less than Bednar because of age alone, and that matters. If the Angels want to be better in 2027, one of the smartest ways to support a young rotation that surged late is by locking down quality starts with a reliable finisher. Even with his age creeping toward 40, Iglesias can still handle that role.
Then there’s Adrian Morejón, the most intriguing option of the bunch. If established closers bring certainty, Morejón brings upside and flexibility.
The 27-year-old left-hander has a 99+ mph fastball, a 38.4% whiff rate, and struck out 107 batters in 86 innings this season. He was also in the top 2% in the league in ground ball rate.
Morejón’s age and underlying numbers make him look like he’s right on the edge of becoming one of the game’s top relievers. The Cuban native fits the Angels’ rebuild timeline, and he could give them a multi-inning left-handed weapon with the kind of fire-stopping ability they have not had since Scot Shields. For a club trying to build something lasting, that’s the sort of bet that could pay off big.
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Angels Fans Will Want To Revisit This Ohtani Story
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For Angels fans, the timing makes it especially worth revisiting. The documentary looks back on the major beats of Ohtanis career, including his signing with Los Angeles, the injuries that interrupted parts of his stay, and his 2021 MVP season, a reminder of how much of his legacy was built in Anaheim before he moved on. [Read more 🡒]