Los Angeles Angels Joe Smith fills multiple roles.

Los Angeles Angels reliever Joe Smith has filled many roles in his time in Anaheim. This year Smith started out as a set-up man for closer Huston Street. However, when Street was injured Smith was pressed into the closer’s role.

Los Angeles Angels reliever Joe Smith, in addition to having the plainest name possible in the English language, has been a model of consistency throughout his 10-year big league career. The Mets, Indians, and now the Halos have known they had a reliable guy in the back end of the bullpen. He’s filled in at closer on multiple occasions, including this season with Huston Street on the disabled list.

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This season, Smith has struggled a little. He’s blown 2 saves in 8 chances, and his ERA is over 4.00 for the first time in his career, at 4.07. There are actually two statistics that suggest his overall numbers should be worse than they are:

His FIP has skyrocketed to 5.00, and the difference between his ERA and FIP suggests that he’s gotten lucky quite a few times.
His absurdly low BABIP allowed: .239, well below his career BABIP allowed of .272. That’s due for a regression.

What’s behind his struggles this season? There are two main red flags to look at:

Red flag #1: Home runs

Smith has allowed three home runs already this season, after allowing four in each of the previous two seasons. His home runs allowed per nine innings rate is 1.1, tied for a career high. He’s never allowed more than five home runs in a season, but if we assume he’s going to pitch somewhere around his average of 60 innings per season, he’s on pace to allow seven. That may not seem like a lot, but with how few innings he pitches, the effect is magnified.