Angels News: High-priced reliever off the IL again, Kenley Jansen's injury revealed

The Los Angeles Angels have spiraled in August after acquiring assets at the trade deadline, but their bullpen has bounced back after a suboptimal July. This month, Angels relievers are holding opposing hitters to a .215/.306/.359/.664 slash line. That BAA (batting average against) is 9th best amongst MLB bullpens, and the OBP, SLG and OPS are all above average marks as well.

Luckily, the Angels have a major reinforcement on the way to help shore up the unit even more. Unfortunately, the teams' closer is dealing with an injury. It's always one step forward, two steps back with this franchise!

Angels News: High-priced reliever off the IL again

In terms of emotionality, Robert Stephenson injuring the bicep on his throwing arm two games after making his Angels debut might have been the lowlight of the season. Stephenson struck out back-to-back hitters, induced a pop out, touched 98.5 MPH on his heater and generated whiffs on half his pitches in his debut against the New York Yankees on May 28th. Then, Stephenson suffered that bicep injury his next outing.

Well, he is back almost three months later. The Angels are pretty much eliminated from the playoffs, but hopefully the reliever can get some positive momentum going the next month.

Stephenson makes $11 million a year, good for the fourth highest AAV on the active roster --behind Mike Trout, Yusei Kikuchi and Tyler Anderson. He's thrown 15 total pitches for the Angels since signing a three-year, $33 million deal before the 2024 season, so his return will be much-welcomed by the Halo Faithful.

Angels News: Kenley Jansen's injury revealed

The Angels' 37-year-old closer was less than stellar in his last two outings, which was shocking for fans given how good he's been in his first year with LAA. Against the Athletics, Kenley Jansen went single-walk-strikeout-strikeout-walk-pop out. He did not allow a run, but he was clearly laboring. In his last appearance against the Reds, he went strikeout-single-hit by pitch-walk-sac fly-double. A runner was thrown out at home to end the inning. The induced vertical break on his cutter was down in both outings.

Jansen won American League Reliever of the Month for July, so natural regression was expected. However, it appears that he is worsening some due to injury. Jansen previously said he was dealing with something, but not what it was. Now fans know exactly what it is he's working through.

Per Jeff Fletcher of The OC Register, Jansen sustained an injury to his ribs while in the team weight room. The soon-to-be 38-year-old is going to gut through the discomfort, and hopefully the Angels do not continue to run him out there more often than they already are.

It seems like a given that the Angels will attempt to bring Jansen back this offseason. He is a consummate professional, is vocal about wanting to end the playoff drought, has been fantastic this season and is pitching through discomfort despite the team falling out of contention. Jansen's giving the team all he has as he makes his case for the Hall of Fame one day, and Arte Moreno needs to reward him for it this offseason.

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