The Los Angeles Angels added another reliever recently, and on the surface that might not sound like front-page news. The Angels have been doing just that since the end of the season, more or less, and most of them are pitchers recovering from injuries, on the downside of their careers, or both.
But Anuerys Zabala is different. He’s a former pitching prospect who was originally signed by the Seattle Mariners, then developed by the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Zabala has had a tough go so far in his big-league career. He was originally signed in 2014, but Zabala has only made two MLB appearances in his career, both with the Miami Marlins, according to Jordan Campbell of Halo Hangout.
They were succcessful, and even though they were brief, those appearances illustrate what Zabala brings to the table. He struck out two of the 11 hitters he faced, and he flashed a fastball capable of reaching triple digits.
That will keep teams interested for as long as the ability lasts, and Zabala went to Japan and reinvented himself. The 29-year old right hander was a reliever for the Nippon Ham Fighters, and in sixteen appearances in 2024 he posted a 1.20 ERA while striking out just over 24 percent of the hitters he faced.
Now Zabala has a minor league deal with the Angels that likely includes a spring training invite. He’ll get an opportunity to work with one of the best pitching coaches in the business in Mike Maddux, and if Maddux can work his magic on Zabalas, the Angels would be in business with another power arm.
It won’t be easy. The Angels have a lot of competition for their bullpen slots, although this isn’t high-level competition by any stretch of the imagination.
The list of relievers he’ll be competing against includes Kirby Yates, Jordan Romano and Drew Pomeranz, and Yates and Romano are both former all-stars, while Pomeranz has been a successful lefty specialist for his own list of teams, most recently the Chicago Cubs.
Right now the Angels don’t have a lot of proven, healthy strikeout options in their bullpen, hence the attraction. Curiosity about the unknown is also in play here, as Zabala has been out of the US for some time now so there’s not a lot of recent scouting data about him. The Angles will get to see him this spring and do their own evaluation, and if he pays off Zabala would be a major bullpen coup.