George Klassen leaves the hospital on the same day Angels' Ben Joyce needs surgery

It's no surprise that the Angels' bullpen is the worst unit in the league based on both the stats and eye-test, and the organization desperately needs arms to be able to stabilize the unit. Kenley Jansen is the team's closer right now, under contract on a one-year, $10 million deal. However, in an ideal world, Ben Joyce would have taken the reigns from Jansen as the team's 9th inning man heading into 2026. Well, he is now out for the rest of the season and his 2026 status is even in doubt as well.

While Joyce is must-watch TV and every Angels fan is praying for a speedy recovery, he unfortunately has shown no signs that he will be able to take up the mantle as the Angels' go-to reliever long-term. He's suffered from a couple different elbow problems, and now has an extensive rehab process ahead of him after his "shoulder inflammation" devolved into a still-unknown serious injury.

On the same day Joyce received shoulder surgery, a candidate for the Angels' closer of the future exited the hospital after getting a concussion on a line drive come-backer at Double-A Rocket City. Given George Klassen's immense potential and Joyce's durability concerns moving forward, Klassen leaving a hospital on the same day Joyce needed to enter one almost feels like a symbolic passing of the torch.

In January, baseball executives around the league were polled on several questions which included which pitching prospect they think is the best future closer. It's unclear how many votes he received or if they came from people within the Angels' organization, but Klassen's name was thrown out as a prospect who could one day become the best closer in the league. He has a blistering four-seam, biting slider, massive curveball and passable changeup that would play well in a back-end bullpen role.

The 23-year-old's season began with two subpar starts: he totaled 5.1 innings, posted a 7:4 K:BB, 11 runs (6 earned) and 10 hits. From that point on, Klassen has made 5 starts, posted a 29:3 K:BB in 23.2 innings and a 1.06 WHIP before he took that line drive off his head and needed to be hospitalized. After Ron Washington's latest plea for better bullpen options, perhaps Klassen becomes a back-end bullpen option once he registers some more innings under his belt in the minors once he clears concussion protocol. If the Angels are willing to promote Ryan Johnson and Garrett McDaniels, they assuredly would consider the no. 3 prospect in their farm system. Who knows? Maybe he becomes the Angels' closer as soon as next season, and takes over that role for the foreseeable future.

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