The Los Angeles Angels gave Ben Joyce a chance to win the job as closer, but he couldn't get it done.
The Los Angeles Angels have spent their season looking for a closer, and no one has fared well in this endeavor. The latest candidate to suffer a tough fate is flamethrower Ben Joyce, who was shut down for the season with a shoulder impingement after being given over a month to try to nail down the job, according to Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com.
To review, Joyce underwent shoulder surgery back in May of 2025, and he was finally able to return to the bullpen in early August after spending most of the season on the IL. He still has elite velocity and often breaks 100 mph on the gun, so the Angels were careful with him by never pitching him on back-to-back days.
It didn’t work. Joyce struggled when he began throwing high-leverage innings, especially since his pitch count quickly rose in those outings. His last outing was last Saturday, and when he followed up by playing catch on Tuesday, Joyce told the team that something didn’t feel right. When he felt the same way on Wednesday, the Angels decided to shut him down as a precaution.
Joyce said it “didn’t feel like [the shoulder] “ bounced back very well” when he tried to play catch, and he described what happened as a flare-up. That meant another shut down stretch, and with the season dwindling, a complete shutdown made more sense than taking the risk that he might have success over the weekend against the Seattle Mariners.
The Angels recalled right-hander Trevor Martin from Triple-A Salt Lake as the corresponding move, and right-hander Ryan Watson is expected to serve as closer the rest of the way, per Bollinger.
The Halos have been doing different variations on plug-and-pray, with Sammy Peralta throwing three scoreless frames in relief of right-hander Grayson Rodriguez before handing it over to Watson for a scoreless ninth.
Nearly everyone in the bullpen has taken a stab at the closer role, and some of the results have been laughable. The first candidate, Jordan Romano, is now toiling for the Colorado Rockies, which tells you all you need to know. Kirby Yates was unloaded at the deadline to the Pittsburgh Pirates, and he announced his retirement this weekend.
The closest the Angels have come to finding a closer is Samy Natera Jr., who looks like he has the velocity and mettle to handle the job. But Natera has also been hurt lately, so this search will still be a major priority this offseason.
