OC Register: Quirky Hansel Robles needed a change to blossom with the Angels

[AngelsWin.com]

ANAHEIM — When the Angels claimed Hansel Robles on waivers last summer, they could not have fully imagined just what they were getting.

Beyond Robles’ physical tools, which the Angels have helped mold into one of baseball’s best relievers in the second half this season, they got a player overflowing with a personality that he says had been stifled with the New York Mets.

“Here, they let me be who I am,” Robles said through an interpreter. “They embraced me. They let people be comfortable.”

A 29-year-old Dominican, Robles struts around the Angels clubhouse, playfully joking with teammates, clubhouse workers and reporters in three languages: English, Spanish and Japanese.

Lately, he’s been carrying a gold 1980s style boom box, which blasts music with a Latin flare.

And, of course, on the field he is now known for the epic entrance created by the Angel Stadium entertainment staff in April. Dramatic theme music from The Undertaker — his favorite pro wrestler — plays while he slowly jogs to the mound, as the video board shows a montage of a falling red rose petals, white horses and candles. Someone in the ballpark entertainment control room wears a white horse mask under a black hood.

Is that…

IT'S THE UNDERTAKER'S MUSIC! pic.twitter.com/TUFQZzLgGQ

— Los Angeles Angels (@Angels) April 11, 2019

Robles, who prefers the nickname Caballo Blanco because of his love for white horses, smiles broadly when describing the video.

“I like it a lot,” he said.

When the video first debuted, Manager Brad Ausmus was distracted from the field enough to take notice. He later called it “buzzworthy.”

Since then, Ausmus has become more familiar with the quirky, outsized personality that inspired that video. Robles is always in his ear, telling his manager that he can play shortstop, or at least that he should let him take batting practice.

All of it — from the video to the boom box — plays much better when accompanied by success.

Arguably the best pitching acquisition in general manager Billy Eppler’s four seasons, Robles has blossomed in a season and a half with the Angels. He became the closer in April, and has converted 22 saves this season.

“Last September he kind of opened everyone’s eyes and he’s kept it rolling right through the offseason and through the 2019 season,” Ausmus said. “He’s certainly exceeded what our expectations were going into the season.”

When the Angels claimed Robles, he’d posted a 4.07 ERA in three and a half years with the Mets, including a 5.03 mark in the first half of 2018.

But Eppler saw potential.

“He’s got big tools, and if you can kind of highlight somebody’s strengths and give them a particular approach that might allow them to enhance those tools, there’s upside in that,” Eppler said.

Robles posted a 2.97 ERA with the Angels over the rest of the 2018 season, but he didn’t truly have his breakthrough until a couple months into this season.

Robles had relied on his 97 mph fastball and a slider, only occasionally throwing his changeup. When he did, he had two changeups, one that he threw for a strike, and one that was a swing-and-miss pitch he used when he was ahead.

That pitch, one thrown with a split-finger grip, was the one that the Angels wanted to accentuate.

Robles said bullpen coach Andrew Bailey was the one who helped tweak his grip with that pitch, enough that Robles could be consistent enough with it to make it his primary off speed pitch. It replaced the slider, and the other changeup.

“I think it was just helping him realize that it was a strength of his, not really a third pitch,” Bailey said. “The movement qualities of the pitch are actually elite.”

Most changeups actually break slightly to the pitcher’s arm side, so right-handed pitchers throw fewer changeups to right-handed hitters than lefties, because the pitch breaks toward the hitter.

A splitter, however, has more of a straight down drop, which makes it effective against righties and lefties.

Robles had thrown his changeup just 5.4 percent of the time through the end of May. Since then, he’s increased the percentage each month, from 22 to 30.5 to 33.1 to 46.5 percent in September.

Not coincidentally, he’s been more successful. Robles had a 4.26 ERA at the end of May, and since June 1 he has a 1.19 ERA, with 47 strikeouts and nine walks in 45-1/3 innings.

“I think it’s a great tool for him to add to his arsenal,” catcher Kevan Smith said. “He does a great job keeping hitters off balance. If I was hitting against him, I would think he’s a fastball-slider guy, if you have a nasty changeup like that, you’ve really got to respect it.”

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Besides a plus fastball and a changeup that drops off the table, Robles occasionally tries to fool hitters with an unorthodox motion. He will essentially pump fake with his lead leg when he’s about to deliver the ball.

“I don’t know what he’s doing with that, but that’s his thing,” Smith said with a smile. “Everyone has their own quirk and something that makes them special. If it brings him confidence and a little swag out there, I’m all for it.”

Robles said the Mets wouldn’t allow him to do it. The Angels seem to have no issue with it, which is further evidence to him that he’s in the right place.

“They are more relaxed with me,” he said. “They let me be myself. They embrace who I want to be as a player on a day in and day out basis. I feel like I’m at home here.”

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Angels (LHP Dillon Peters, 3-3, 4.81) vs. A’s (RHP Homer Bailey, 13-8, 4.55), 7:07 p.m., Fox Sports West

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