The Angels are giving Nicolò Pinazzi a roster spot after a breakout year that made it hard to ignore him.
The club announced that it selected the contract of the left-hander, while also saying it declined a club option on right-hander Robert Stephenson, a move that had already been reported earlier in the day.
Pinazzi’s route to this point has been anything but standard. Born in Italy, he signed with the Reds in 2020 and stayed in that organization through 2023 before being released ahead of the 2024 season. After a couple of years in indy ball, he joined the Angels for the 2026 campaign.
Once in the system, he simply got better and better. Pitching across four levels, the 27-year-old logged 64 innings in 48 appearances and posted a 0.84 ERA. The walk rate, at 12.5%, is the one blemish, but the rest of the line is eye-catching: he struck out 38.9% of the batters he faced and got grounders on 60.8% of balls in play, both excellent marks.
Brendan Gawlowski of FanGraphs profiled Pinazzi in August, noting that the lefty works with a mid-90s fastball but leans heavily on his breaking ball. Pinazzi calls it a cutter, even if he knows that’s not really the right label.
“I say cutter, but it’s definitely a slider,” he said. “I say cutter to delude myself, I throw more strikes that way.”
Gawlowski wrote that Pinazzi also mixes in a curveball, but that cutter/slider is the pitch that drives everything.
With those numbers, the Angels opted to keep him from reaching free agency. The fit also makes sense on a roster that doesn’t have many established relievers and could be in rebuilding mode next year, creating real openings for pitchers like Pinazzi to force their way into the picture. He still has a full set of options, so the club can move him between the majors and minors as needed.
And while his path is unusual, he won’t be the only Italian lefty in the clubhouse. Sam Aldegheri is also with the Halos.
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