Which Angels are doomed to not return in 2021?

Angels that won’t return in 2021: Jacob Barnes, RP

While Jacob Barnes is one of seven relievers for the Angels to put up a positive fWAR mark in 2020 (0.2), a lot of that is propped up by the fact that he’s averaged better than a strikeout per inning (10.80 K/9). However, what he hasn’t done is keep runs off the board.

Like Milner, the Angels signed Barnes to a minor league deal, hoping that he could be a buy-low, journeyman reliever for the team. Unfortunately, you sometimes get what you pay for, as was the case with Barnes.

Over 16 appearances (15 innings), Barnes was somewhat of a mixed bag. While his ERA is astronomical at 6.60, his FIP of 2.85 would indicate that he was mostly a victim of bad luck. That could be validated hit huge BABIP of .381. However, his hard-hit rate of 46.5% and his exit velocity against of 90.4 MPH would indicate that he was also hit hard.

At the end of the day, a reliever’s job is to get outs and get the team out of jams. Barnes didn’t do much of either and put up a strand-rate of just 46.3%, down nearly 20% from his career marks.

With Barnes set to hit his second arbitration year, the Angels are likely best served to non-tender the right-hander and look for other options in free agency. Buy-low candidates are a dime a dozen each winter, and if they don’t stand out as a rebound, then they often find themselves back on the market the next season. That’s right where you’ll find Barnes this winter.

Needless to say, the Angels will be spending a lot of time rebuilding their bullpen again after the 2020 season.