OC Register: Angels GM Perry Minasian looks to upgrade bullpen again

[AngelsWin.com]

LAS VEGAS — Last year the Angels invested more than $92 million in deals for four relievers: Raisel Iglesias, Ryan Tepera, Aaron Loup and Archie Bradley.

And they ended up with a bullpen that finished 18th in the majors in ERA.

Now what?

General Manager Perry Minasian conceded on Tuesday at the GM Meetings that the Angels still need to upgrade their bullpen, but he did not commit to any particular avenue.

Do they need to acquire an established closer?

“You’d love to have a closer that’s really productive and can lock down the ninth inning,” Minasian said. “But that being said, I really like how Phil (Nevin) managed the bullpen. I thought it was really creative. I do feel like we have talent to where we can mix and match to a certain extent and maybe somebody steps up and becomes that closer.”

Do they need more pitchers who get strikeouts?

“Everybody would love to have more swing and miss,” Minasian said. “That’s obviously something that’s very desirable. But we’ve all seen power sinker ball guys that are tough to lift and keep the ball on the ground. We’ve seen relievers that have been really effective, creating soft contact, you know, so there’s different ways to do it.”

After the Angels traded Iglesias to the Atlanta Braves at the deadline, Nevin used right-handers Jimmy Herget and Tepera and lefty José Quijada to close at various times.

They each had strong stretches, as did Andrew Wantz. Loup struggled for most of the season, but he’s signed for next year at $7 million, so he’s likely to be back.

Jaime Barria also figures to be back in a long relief role because he was successful this year.

Those six all figure to have roles in next season’s bullpen, but there is obviously room for improvement and additions.

The New York Mets re-signed closer Edwin Diaz before he could officially even reach free agency, taking the biggest relief name off the board. Left-hander Aroldis Chapman and right-handers Kenley Jansen and Craig Kimbrel are all free agent closers, but each has had issues in recent years, either with injury or ineffectiveness.

There are dozens of other relievers on the free agent market who could be productive, but just about all of them represent gambles because of the nature of relief pitchers.

Minasian said one key for upgrading the bullpen will be if the Angels can develop some relievers on their own.

“We have to do a better job as an organization of developing relievers,” Minasian said. “That’s something you see other teams doing a really good job of and we have to do that.”

One intriguing name is Ben Joyce, the Angels’ third-round pick in last year’s draft. Joyce consistently hits triple-digits with his fastball. He posted a 2.08 ERA in his first 13 professional games last season, all at Double-A.

Minasian said he “would never rule anything out,” with regard to Joyce contributing next season.

FROM THE OHTANI CAMP

Shohei Ohtani’s agent told reporters on Tuesday that he was glad to see Minasian publicly douse any rumors of Ohtani being traded.

“I thought it was really good that he addressed all of you to let you all know that he and the ownership’s desire is not to move Shohei and to keep him around for the 2023 season,” Nez Balelo said. “So I’m glad he addressed it and we’re moving on.”

Balelo would not say whether any negotiations have taken place for a long-term deal. He simply said that they were happy to have the $30 million, one-year deal and they would see what happens if and when the Angels are sold.

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“It’s been very quiet,” Balelo said. “So we don’t know what’s going on. But it’s not our business. It’s Arte (Moreno) and his wife and the rest of the organization’s business, not ours. So I guess we would just have to wait to see who the group was that came in and if they had an appetite to move forward and see what they wanted to do with Shohei.”

The question looming over the Ohtani negotiations is whether the Angels can prove to Ohtani that they can build a winning team around him.

Balelo said there’s hope.

“I think that the Angels are positioned in a great spot,” Balelo said. “I think that they may be a couple additions away from competing. I think health has always been an issue and if they could get over that hurdle, I think that there’s a lot of promise with the organization.”

NOTES

The Angels have decided not to bring back Triple-A manager Lou Marson for 2023. Marson had managed at Salt Lake since 2019, and previously he managed one season at Double-A. “We’ll go through that process over the next couple weeks and try to find the right fit,” Minasian said. …

Although teams are not yet allowed to negotiate with free agents from other teams, Minasian said the GM Meetings have been productive because of the ability to talk to other teams about trades. “I think dialogue with clubs, understanding needs and seeing if you match up in different scenarios is important, just understanding the landscape,” Minasian said. “Anytime you can have a chance to talk face-to-face to a majority of team representatives, decision-makers, I think it’s a good thing.”

View the full article

[BTH]

My takeaways from this are that: they're comfortable entering the season without a defined closer, and they're open to any reliever profile, but they are gonna rely on internal improvements.

I don't hate any of those approaches in a vacuum, but the Angels bullpen wasn't good at getting strikeouts OR getting soft contact and the internal development of relievers has been suspect at best so far.

Did Minasian bring up the need to development relievers internallly unprompted? If so, that'd be a clear sign of the path they're heading down.

[Swordsman78]

“You’d love to have a closer that’s really productive and can lock down the ninth inning,” Minasian said. “But that being said, I really like how Phil (Nevin) managed the bullpen. I thought it was really creative. I do feel like we have talent to where we can mix and match to a certain extent and maybe somebody steps up and becomes that closer.”
 

-Just putting this out there for the board consumption.  

[Angelsjunky]

Quijada is not the answer, at least if you want a light's out closer. But he's decent, and Herget was sneakily solid. Hopefully Loup and Tepera can bounce back, and Wantz and Barria were decent enough. But the bullpen is a little...soft.

That said, I hate the idea of spending big (again). And if you wanted to spend on a top flight closer, why trade Raisel? It isn't like they got anything worthwhile in return.

I think the best-case scenario is that they don't spend more than, say, $10M AAV on bolstering the bullpen, and come up with a nice clean peanut or two.

There's also a real possibility of good, cheap help from the minors: Not just Joyce, but Torres and Murphy, and one or two of the starters - like Bachman, maybe C-Rod if they want to bring him back slowly but want him in the majors.

 

[T.G.]

7 hours ago, Swordsman78 said:

“You’d love to have a closer that’s really productive and can lock down the ninth inning,” Minasian said. “But that being said, I really like how Phil (Nevin) managed the bullpen. I thought it was really creative. I do feel like we have talent to where we can mix and match to a certain extent and maybe somebody steps up and becomes that closer.”
 

-Just putting this out there for the board consumption.  

You have to be Phil's favorite nephew.

[Jay]

7 hours ago, Swordsman78 said:

Just putting this out there for the board consumption.  

[Swordsman78]

13 minutes ago, T.G. said:

You have to be Phil's favorite nephew.

Lol.  I like his pedigree  being an Augie guy and hyper competitive. 
 

IMO as a former player, he relates well with the players and apparently does a good job balancing people skills, saber metrics (analytics) and "feel for the game", which is a plus.

 

 

[T.G.]

5 minutes ago, Swordsman78 said:

Lol.  I like his pedigree  being an Augie guy and hyper competitive. 
 

IMO as a former player, he relates well with the players and apparently does a good job balancing people skills, saber metrics (analytics) and "feel for the game", which is a plus.

And he's your uncle.

[Swordsman78]

1 minute ago, T.G. said:

And he's your uncle.

.....once removed.

[AngelStew43]

I don't understand why we would waste money on a closer and not the offense.  We have:

Canning

Chris Rodriguez

Jose Soriano 

Ben Joyce

The rest of the pitchers in the Trash Pandas bullpen.  

Two of those on the list can close.  

We need to bring in a SS and a LF, unless Adell learns how to close that hole in his swing.  

[Angel Oracle]

3 hours ago, Angelsjunky said:

Quijada is not the answer, at least if you want a light's out closer. But he's decent, and Herget was sneakily solid. Hopefully Loup and Tepera can bounce back, and Wantz and Barria were decent enough. But the bullpen is a little...soft.

That said, I hate the idea of spending big (again). And if you wanted to spend on a top flight closer, why trade Raisel? It isn't like they got anything worthwhile in return.

I think the best-case scenario is that they don't spend more than, say, $10M AAV on bolstering the bullpen, and come up with a nice clean peanut or two.

There's also a real possibility of good, cheap help from the minors: Not just Joyce, but Torres and Murphy, and one or two of the starters - like Bachman, maybe C-Rod if they want to bring him back slowly but want him in the majors.

 

Montero and Givens?

Montero still throws hard and generates GBs, and Givens also generates a lot of GBs.

Maybe cost combined $14-16 million AAV for 2 years?

Then hopefully by 2025, no big need for going outside to find relievers! 

[Vlad27Trout27]

I say get Jansen on a 1 or 2 year deal. than sign another armor like montero. Than switch to offense upgrades 

[ten ocho recon scout]

5 hours ago, T.G. said:

You have to be Phil's favorite nephew.

 

4 hours ago, T.G. said:

And he's your uncle.

@WicketMaiden, we need a ruling here on if this can be the AW version of Bob's yer uncle

[WicketMaiden]

1 hour ago, ten ocho recon scout said:

 

@WicketMaiden, we need a ruling here on if this can be the AW version of Bob's yer uncle

Well, I'm fairly sure the original Bob was Lord Salisbury, a former Prime Minister who put his nephew into various high level posts before finally making him also the Prime Minster further down the line. So unless Nevin has offered Swordsman a bat-boy detail or some other easy freebie, I'm failing to see the nepotism Bob was so famous for, (it's interesting that as nepotism is from the same Greek root word as nephew, the practice likely far pre-dates Lord Robert Salisbury). So, for an accurate ruling I'd need to know, is Nevin giving Swordsman anything?

[T.G.]

9 minutes ago, WicketMaiden said:

So, for an accurate ruling I'd need to know, is Nevin giving Swordsman anything?

Wrong forum.

[Inside Pitch]

20 hours ago, Trendon said:

I don't hate any of those approaches in a vacuum, but the Angels bullpen wasn't good at getting strikeouts OR getting soft contact and the internal development of relievers has been suspect at best so far.

Wal-Mart Tepera (Wantz), actually held his own/did ok in both Whiff rate and hard contact -- but man can that guy give up a HR.   Dude can spin a FB but he doesn't always put a lot on it.

[Jason]

They try this every year. Maybe next year will be a success