The Angels have clearly set a blueprint that they hope will lead them back to contention.
Build a dominant bullpen.
On the day when the Angels finalized their three-year, $33 million deal with right-hander Robert Stephenson they also reportedly agreed to terms with left-hander Matt Moore on a one-year, $9 million deal.
The Angels did not confirm the deal with Moore, who pitched most of last season in Anaheim.
So far this winter the Angels have barely touched most of the roster, but they’ve added Stephenson, Moore, Luis Garcia, Adam Cimber and Adam Kolarek to the bullpen. They join a group that already included closer Carlos Estévez and hard-throwing José Soriano and Ben Joyce, who were both rookies last season.
The Angels’ bullpen needed plenty of help after finishing 25th in the majors with a 4.88 ERA last year. Estévez was solid in the ninth inning for about two-thirds of the season, but the Angels had issues all season setting him up.
The Angels had a 5.28 ERA in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings last season. They were outscored by 113 runs in those innings.
“For us to win more games and especially compete, we have to be better in the middle innings,” General Manager Perry Minasian said on a Zoom call earlier in the day to announce the Stephenson deal.
At the time, Minasian said the Angels were “definitely not done” making improvements, and hours later the news broke of the deal with Moore.
Moore, 34, is a veteran of 12 major league seasons. He signed with the Angels just at the beginning of spring training last year, and he produced a 2.66 ERA in 41 games. The Angels let him go via waivers at the end of August in a cost-cutting move. He was claimed by the Cleveland Guardians, then waived again and claimed by the Miami Marlins.
Although Moore was actually better against righties than lefties last year, he nonetheless gives the Angels a different look for a group that was heavily right-handed. Estévez, Stephenson, Garcia, Cimber, Soriano and Joyce are all righties, as are Andrew Wantz and Jimmy Herget.
Stephenson joins the group after a breakthrough second half with the Tampa Bay Rays.
Stephenson, 30, had a 5.14 ERA in two months with the Pittsburgh Pirates and a 4.90 ERA in parts of seven previous big league seasons, before the Rays suggested the change to his slider.
After that, Stephenson had a 2.35 ERA with 60 strikeouts in 38⅓ innings.
“He had a new toy, with the change of speed on his slider, and he was one of the best, if not the best, relievers in baseball over the last 40 innings,” Minasian said.
Although the pitch has been described as a cutter, Stephenson said he still considers it his slider.
“It’s the exact same grip I use with my slider before. I just released a little bit different now so might move a little differently, but it’s still the same grip,” Stephenson said.
Whatever you call the tweak the Tampa Bay Rays made with Stephenson after they acquired him last June, it seems to be largely responsible for the three-year deal that became official on Tuesday.
That’s why the Angels were willing to make a relatively large investment for a setup man. The Angels also hedged their bet by including in the contract a $2.5 million club option that can be exercised if Stephenson spends 130 consecutive days on the injured list with an elbow issue. It is essentially insurance that allows the Angels to get back any season that Stephenson might miss because of Tommy John surgery. There is no buyout.
“I expect myself to be healthy every year,” Stephenson said, “but if something happens to my elbow where I end up getting hurt and missing time for it, it feels fair that on the backside I’d get a little bit more time with the Angels than originally planned.”
Stephenson also expressed confidence that his performance in his breakout season is sustainable. He said, besides the new way he started throwing his slider, he also had a new approach with the Rays.
“Just being more aggressive and trying to put guys in a hole quicker,” Stephenson said.
NOTE
The Angels reportedly agreed to a minor league deal with infielder Miguel Sanó. Sanó, 30, has a career .808 OPS in parts of eight big league seasons with the Minnesota Twins, but he did not play in 2023.
