The Los Angeles Angels seem to have a strategy when it comes to fixing their pitching staff, but it’s not exactly clear or coherent. Basically, if you have a history of success and your career has gone off the rails due to injuries, you’re an Angels target.
This makes some sense with the starting rotation. Newly acquired pitcher Grayson Rodriguez is a potential ace if the Angels can keep him healthy, and adding him to a rotation that currently consists of starters Yusei Kikuchi, Jose Soriano and converted reliever Reid Detmers feels like a solid start to a rebound year.
The bullpen is another matter entirely, however. The Angels punted on resigning closer Kenley Jansen, who was able to stay healthy, which seemed reasonable give that Jansen is 38.
Now, though, the Angels have added another 38-year old closing candidate, reliever Kirby Yates, who’s coming off an injury-riddled season with the Los Angeles Dodgers. In theory, Yates will compete for the closer spot with another relatively new signee, Jordan Romano, who’s also struggled with injuries recently.
Both closers have been All-Stars in recent years. Romano posted 36-save seasons in 2023 and 2024 for the Toronto Blue Jays, while Yates had 33 saves in 2024 for the Texas Rangers. Their struggles since those landmark seasons have made them bargain basement acquisitions for the Angels, but no one really knows if either pitcher can close out games at this point.
The general approach here seems to be “let Mike fix it.” Mike, of course, is new pitching coach Mike Maddux, who left the Texas Rangers to sign with the Angels when manager Bruce Bochy "parted ways" with the Rangers.
The idea of having Maddux fix one or two pitchers is perfectly reasonable. He worked directly with Yates in 2024 in Texas, so there’s a history there. Maddux is known for coming up with a pitching schedule for hurlers with an injury history, and he also has a reputation for simplifying pitch selection with pitchers whose careers go south when they switch strategies and get poor results.
But what the Angels are doing now is the opposite of that to at least some extent. They’re basically trading for or signing a bunch of pitching lottery and scratch tickets and hoping Maddux can work his magic on most or all of them.
Maddux isn’t a doctor, though, and some of these acquisitions aren’t young. Expect the Angels medical staff to be busy this year, and it’s also reasonable to anticipate the kind of pitching chaos that helped torpedo the Halos season down the stretch last year.