LA Angels: The case for bringing back Mike Mayers and Steve Cishek

Ask any LA Angels fan what they thought of the bullpen in 2021 and they’ll probably tell you that outside of Raisel Iglesias and some of the rookies, it was generally atrocious.

While that sentiment mostly rings true, it doesn’t tell the whole story.

In this case, it leaves out the fact that the Halos actually had two more reliable relievers who the team would be foolish not to bring back: Mike Mayers and Steve Cishek.

While not perfect, Mike Mayers and Steve Cishek proved that they deserve to be a part of the LA Angels in 2022.

Now don’t get me wrong, by no means am I saying either Mike Mayers or Steve Cishek are elite, high leverage guys who the LA Angels should trust in the eighth inning for example. Nor am I saying that this means the Angels don’t need to sign a couple of top-level relievers to further bolster the bullpen (they absolutely should).

What I am saying is that both Mayers and Cishek were quietly above average last year despite being drastically overused and placed into high-leverage situations they had no right being in.

If brought back and used properly with reduced workloads, both of them can undoubtedly be a major help to this team.

The case for the LA Angels bringing back Steve Cishek

Moving onto Steve Cishek, things are pretty similar to Mayers, albeit with a few extra caveats on both sides of the argument.

First off, despite being 35 years old, Cishek actually managed to remain healthy all season long and made the fifth most appearances of any reliever in baseball with 74.

In those games, Cishek produced a surprisingly good 3.42 ERA and 3.74 FIP, along with a terrific .668 OPS from opposing batters. Unlike Mayers, however, there was a fair bit of luck in play for Cishek here.

On top of a 4.21 RA9, his xFIP balloons to 5.04 and his SIERA rises to 4.79. These numbers shouldn’t be too unexpected since Cishek is mostly a groundball pitcher with awful strikeout (8.4 K/9) and walk (5.4 BB/9) rates.

His 3.57 xERA gives some hope since it better reflects his abilities as someone who generates a lot of weak contact (32.0% Hard Hit rate, .308 xSLG), but this stat isn’t quite as good as the others at predicting future performance. Plus, there’s no telling if he’ll continue to limit hard contact as well next year as he did this year.

Then there’s Cishek’s inherited runner stats.

Though he did a decent job stranding runners (72.2% LOB%), he allowed 26/61 inherited runners to score. Again, however, like Mayers, this number is heavily inflated by the shear volume of appearances Cishek had to make, hence inheriting a total of 61 runners in 2021.

It’s also important to note that these rough outings tended to come in bunches, with 16 out of those 26 inherited runners coming in the months of April and June. In fact, between May, July, August, and September, Cishek made 51 appearances, but only allowed an inherited runner to cross home plate in seven of them.

All of this is to say, if Joe Maddon uses his head and gives Cishek a heavily reduced workload in 2022, the results should be superlative.

Having only made $1 million this year (and assuming his agent isn’t insane), Cishek can easily be signed for another cheap one-year deal, and he’d be wise to accept it.

Bottom line, the Angels have enough holes to fill in the bullpen already, so why unnecessarily add two more. Mayers and Cishek may not be household names, but they’re both capable of making a meaningful contribution to this team in a crucial upcoming season.