3 relievers the Angels desperately need to step up in 2023

The Los Angeles Angels have a bullpen issue. They traded Raisel Iglesias away at the deadline right after signing him to a lucrative four-year contract last offseason. Outside of two veterans, they have a very young and inexperienced bullpen.

The 'pen ranked 18th in ERA which isn't horrible, but they were 25th in K/9 and 28th in HR/9. The Angels need to upgrade their bullpen, but also have to rely on some key pieces to step up this season.

The Angels need Aaron Loup to step up in 2023

2022 was not a good introduction made by Aaron Loup to Angels fans. He came to Anaheim after a career year with the Mets. He wasn't horrible but wasn't anything near what fans had hoped.

Loup had a 3.84 ERA in 65 appearances. He allowed too many hits (8.3 H/9) and too many walks (3.4 BB/9). He allowed more earned runs in the month of May (nine) than he allowed in the entire 2021 season (six).

It's unreasonable to expect Loup to pitch to a 0.95 ERA again, but it's reasonable to hope for better. He in all likelihood will be the primary lefty in this bullpen. He's going to be the guy the Angels go to when they need to get big left handed hitters like Yordan Alvarez, Kyle Tucker, and Corey Seager out.

Loup primarily has to do better with his most-used pitch, his sinker. Opponents hit .279 against that pitch this past season with a 9.5% whiff rate. They hit .188 against that pitch in 2021 with a 20.3% whiff rate. He uses it around 50% of the time, so it's crucial for that pitch to be much improved. He lost 1.2 mph on that pitch, hopefully that loss doesn't ruin the pitch completely.

The Angels need Loup to be a reliable option late in games as a primary lefty if they want to get back to the postseason.

The Angels need Jimmy Herget to prove 2022 wasn't a fluke

Jimmy Herget came out of nowhere and was the best and most consistent reliever the Angels had all season.

HIs career high in appearances came in 2020 with 20 back when he was with the Rangers. He appeared in just 14 games for the Angels in 2021.

Herget allowed four runs while recording just one out in the Angels' second game of the season. He allowed just 15 earned runs the rest of the season. If you exclude that outing and a different outing where he allowed three runs while recording one out against the Mets, he will have allowed just seven runs in 68.1 innings pitched. He'd have a sub-1.00 ERA.

Unfortunately, bad outings cannot be erased, but it really shows how consistently dominant he was outside of those two blips. He ended the season as the Angels closer and recorded nine saves in 12 opportunities overall. As of now, he'd begin next season in that same role.

Something special about Herget was his ability to record more than three outs in an outing. He did this 22 times in his 49 appearances, and he even recorded as many as 11 outs in an outing while allowing just one hit in Seattle.

The Angels need Herget to prove 2022 wasn't a fluke. He had never really found a permanent spot in a bullpen before this season. He will be in some sort of high leverage role. Whether that's serving as the closer or not remains to be seen, but Herget has to have another really good season for the Angels.