Angels sign former Dodgers reliever that was traded to Yankees last offseason

If you were expecting a giant Winter Meetings splash from the Angels, you might have some sour grapes. The Angels focused on fringe-candidates to make the big league roster while in Dallas, which included signing this left-handed reliever. Víctor González is reportedly an Angels reliever now, signing to an MiLB deal with a likely invitation to Major League Spring Training.

The 29-year-old lefty was released this September after his first and only season with the Yankees. He accumulated a 1.4 bWAR over three seasons with the Dodgers from their championship season in 2020 to 2021, then again in 2023. He missed the entirety of 2022 due to an elbow injury.

González utilizes a sinker, changeup, and slider coming from his low 3/4 arm slot. His peak was in 2020, especially in the World Series against the Rays. González appeared in four World Series games, threw 3.2 innings, sported a 2.45 ERA, only allowed 2 hits and 1 run while striking out 3 batters. During the 2020 regular season, González's metrics were off-the-charts good. His Chase% was in the 98th percentile, his xERA and BB% were in the 99th percentile of pitchers, while his Barrel% and Ground Ball% were in the 100th percentile. Not bad.

The Angels could really use some help in the bullpen, and maybe González can contribute next season. It's smart to take fliers on guys like González, but it remains to be seen if the Angels will commit real money to bolstering their major league bullpen. “Could we attack the bullpen the rest of the rest of the offseason?” Minasian said the other day. “We could get multiple guys but we could wait and do what we did in 2021 when we signed Steve Cishek and Tony Watson at the end of Spring Training. So there's no playbook.” The Angels are scarred from signing big-name free agent relievers to lucrative deals. When the expensive free agent relievers hit (Raisel Iglesias), they are pretty solid. When they don't (Aaron Loup, Ryan Tepera), it's the most painful face-palm of them all. Solely signings guys like González and Dakota Hudson for the '25 bullpen thus far is an indicator that they are going the Cishek & Watson route once more. They are still licking their wounds from the Robert Stephenson signing and subsequent season-ending injury.

The Dodgers completely fleeced the Yankees when they dealt González to the Yankees a year ago. Los Angeles Dodgers traded González and 2B Jorbit Vivas to New York Yankees for Trey Sweeney. Then the Dodgers flipped Sweeney and Thayron Liranzo to Detroit for a guy named Jack Flaherty, a key contributor to their second World Series in five years. Sweeney played really well for Detroit down-the-stretch as well, helping end the Tigers' playoff drought as their every-day shortstop. González was pretty bad for the Yankees last year, he posted a negative SO:BB ratio in his 23.1 major league innings.

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