Angels are staring down a terrifying void entering spring training

Legendary NFL coach and broadcaster John Madden once said, "If you've got two quarterbacks, you've got none." Apply that logic to the Los Angeles Angels closer situation, and you take that aphorism and supercharge it to the moon.

The Angels aren't short on options to close out games. However, the validity, and perhaps more importantly, the sustainability of the plethora of arms with the credentials to handle the job is questionable at best.

There are at least five top contenders: Robert Stephenson, Ben Joyce, Jordan Romano, Kirby Yates, and Drew Pomeranz. In each case, there is a shared question mark in addition to some other, more individualized concerns. The main issue at play is health, and with that in mind, the guy who wins the job in spring training may very well not be the guy who is holding down the ninth by season's end.

Health concerns threaten to leave a gaping hole in the back of the Angels' bullpen in 2026

The probable front-runner for the job is 2024's big-ticket free-agent signing, Robert Stephenson; however, he might prove to be the riskiest bet of the bunch. Stephenson made his long-awaited debut in 2025, but didn't last long, throwing just 10 innings after missing the entire 2024 campaign with a UCL injury. The Angels knew the risk his elbow posed when they signed him, baking in a cheap club option for 2027 should he miss significant time due to elbow troubles, and now may end up paying the price yet again for that gamble.

The most exciting option is Ben Joyce, who regularly tops 105 on the gun, but whose arm has buckled under the weight of that superhuman velocity. To date, the 25-year-old flamethrower has logged a total of just 49 major league innings over three years, with injuries being the major factor that's kept him off the mound. The start of his season will be delayed, and it's questionable how long he'll be able to stay on the mound once he returns.

The Angels will hope that their new coaching staff can get Kirby Yates back on track, but the veteran reliever presents injury risks of his own. Yates wound up on the IL three separate times last season, and he'll be 39 before opening day. He hasn't been quite as brittle as some of the others, but the risk is great.

Jordan Romano was once a rising star in relief with the Toronto Blue Jays. His rise reached its peak with back-to-back All-Star selections in 2022 and 2023. However, a litany of injuries has impacted him over the past two seasons, and his lowest ERA in that span was 6.59 coming in 2024.

Of all the closer candidates, Drew Pomeranz is the least experienced in the role and the most impacted by injuries. The lefty fought his way back onto the field in 2024, following a three-year absence due to injury. He looked really good last year, but that history and his age have to scare you.

All of this begs the question, why didn't Los Angeles look for a more secure option to lock down the end of games? While they were never going to spend the money required to land a top-end option like Edwin Diaz, they had a quality veteran in Kenley Jansen, who they let walk out the door. Other cost-effective, yet productive and experienced alternatives existed, like Emilio Pagan or Kyle Finnegan, but the Halos never made a play.

Now the club is in the position where not only the ninth inning could be in jeopardy, but the entire back-end apparatus as nearly every single high-leverage option comes with a severe injury risk. Relievers are volatile in nature, but this level of risk is simply unacceptable, and there's a high probability that a lack of health or injury-related decline will cost the club multiple wins this season.