The Los Angeles Angels made a few moves in their bullpen prior to their Opening Series finale against the Houston Astros by selecting the contract of Brian Moran after José Quijada suffered an injury this past week. They also quickly said hello and goodbye to Kyle Tyler after designating him for assignment to clear a 40-man spot for Moran.
Quijada is dealing with a right oblique strain and the Angels have placed him on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to April 8. So it seems Angels manager Joe Maddon doesn’t figure to be without his second southpaw bullpen option to miss too much time.
Quijada has spent three seasons with the Angels, posting a 4.85 ERA over 29.2 IP with the club. His ability to miss bats is what makes him a viable bullpen option, but he has struggled with walks, which is represented by his 15.6% walk rate.
He was warming up Tuesday night in the eighth inning and Maddon opted to leave Ryan Tepera in instead of going to Quijada, according to Jeff Fletcher of The O.C. Register:
Re: José Quijada.
Last night he was warming up before Astros LHB Michael Brantley came to the plate in the 8th. Maddon left Tepera (RHP) in and he retired Brantley.
That begged the question of why Quijada was warming up if he wasn’t coming in.
Guess we know now.
— Jeff Fletcher (@JeffFletcherOCR) April 10, 2022
The 33-year old Moran will step into his role in the interim. This will be his second time with the Angels after they selected him in the Rule-5 Draft in 2013 and ended up leaving L.A. without throwing a pitch.
Moran has not appeared in MLB since 2020 and holds an ERA of 6.55 in a small sample size of 11 innings. He has enjoyed relatively positive success in his minor league time, amassing a 3.04 ERA and a 1.17 WHIP in 518 career innings between various levels.
The Angels had to DFA Tyler to clear a spot on the team’s 40-man roster. Unfortunately for Tyler, this is his fourth time being DFA’d in under a month’s time and his second time by the Angels. The righty only has 12.1 Major League innings under his belt with a 2.92 ERA.
Examining Angels bullpen
The Angels have kept themselves busy in the days leading up to Spring Training. General manager Perry Minasian hinted that the team was not done making moves, and he responded to that by adding veteran relievers Archie Bradley and Ryan Tepera.
Bradley and Tepera were two of the best relievers on the free-agent market before the Angels scooped them up. They signed Bradley to a one-year, $3.25 million deal and Tepera to a two-year, $14 million deal.
With those additions, the Angels have gone from a team that had a serious bullpen problem in 2021 to perhaps having one of the strongest relief crews in the Major Leagues. Behind closer Raisel Iglesias, the Angels had very little support. Now, they have plenty.