Award winning month shows fans why Angels held onto high-priced reliever at deadline

July 31st was a fantastic day to be an MLB team looking to part ways with a marquee closer, as those squads received absolute hauls in return for hard-throwers who already play a position that is incredibly volatile. Whether it was the St. Louis Cardinals trading Ryan Helsley to the Mets, or the Minnesota Twins dealing Jhoan Duran to the Phillies or especially the Athletics trading Mason Miller to the Padres, the trade packages those teams brought back in exchange for relievers who did not fit their timeline to compete were enormous.

The Angels had their reasons for holding onto Kenley Jansen and his expiring contract. Namely, the team and he were doing well for themselves for the past two months. The Angels had a strong month of June and held their own in July despite a myriad of roster issues. Jansen was holding this team together in more ways than one, and the 37-year-old received national recognition for his pitching prowess last month.

Award winning month shows fans why Angels held onto high-priced reliever at deadline

Jansen was the only American League reliever with at least 11 innings pitched to post a 0.00 ERA in July, and one of only 4 in MLB. He led all relievers with a 0.87 FIP and 0.35 WHIP, posted a 13:0 K:BB, a 5:00 SV:BS last month and went 2-0. Naturally, the Angels and Jansen will regress in August. In fact Jansen already issued a free pass this month, but that was one of the greatest months an Angels reliever ever had. His AL reliever of the month award was well-earned, for sure.

The Angels would not have received a return anywhere close to what STL, MIN and ATH got, but trading Jansen certainly could have been in the ballpark of what they got when they traded Carlos Estévez to the Phillies. Jansen is not the most typical closer, he has only pitched outside the 9th inning three times this season, but he is as nasty as they come. He's also not injury prone like Félix Bautista and not as into gambling as Emmanuel Clase.

The Angels seem like they will be highly motivated to re-sign Jansen in the offseason. Unlike his tenure in Boston, Jansen wants to be in Anaheim and has stepped up as a leader of the team. He says all the right things to his teammates and the media, and has backed up his words with his on-field production. Jansen's main motivation is to stat-pad his saves total to boost his Hall of Fame chances, and the Angels should be happy to oblige given the state of their major league bullpen and suboptimal pitching development pipeline.

All fans know is that if the team is to actually make a push in the playoff race, they desperately need Jansen to keep chugging along.

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