LA Angels: Grading GM Perry Minasian this offseason (Part 2)

In the most recent trade, the Angels acquired Aaron Slegers from the Tampa Bay Rays. Slegers should be a solid long-inning reliever for the bullpen the Halos needed.

In 2020, Slegers posted a 3.46 ERA in 26 innings of work and had an ERA+ of 123, which is good for any relief pitcher.

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Like the Dexter Fowler trade, the Angels traded a player to be named later, which doesn’t give us a true way to evaluate the trade, but Slegers won’t be a free agent until 2023, so he’ll be with the Angels for at least two years.

Aaron Slegers will provide some much needed middle relief help for the Angels bullpen.

This is another move to bolster up that bullpen that Minasian overhauled to essentially start from scratch with just a few relievers returning. The Rays have a known track record of developing quality pitching, so the Angels might have found a quality relief option for hopefully not too much given up in return.

If Slegers can be as effective as he was with the Rays, then the Angels found a good bullpen option that would fit nicely behind the addition of Raisel Iglesias, who should be the Angels closer at the start of the 2021 season.

There is still the possibility the Halos can add an elite-level reliever like Trevor Rosenthal to put their bullpen over the top. They do not have the strongest starting rotation on paper, but a lockdown bullpen could carry the Angels at least through the All-Star break.

By then, Minasian could acquire the true ace for his staff, which he has not gotten up to this point.