4 Angels who are playing their way out of the team's 2024 plans

2) Jaime Barria is playing his way out of the LA Angels 2024 plans

Jaime Barria is an interesting case. He's shown value as a long reliever, but struggled in his stint as a starter and ever since reverting back to the bullpen, he's had a really rough go of it.

Barria is a pitcher who has only really worked in one role, a low-leverage long relief role. When he starts he's not nearly as good, and when he pitches in high-leverage he doesn't pitch well at all. We saw this in the game he blew against the Astros. Barria gave up four runs in the ninth inning of one of the most crushing losses of the season right after the all-star break.

Since the all-star break, Barria has really struggled working exclusively out of the bullpen. He's allowed 14 runs (13 earned) across 14.1 innings pitched and 10 appearances. His ERA has ballooned from 3.31 to 4.33.

Going along with Barria's suddenly-high ERA is poor peripherals. He has a 4.56 xERA, a 4.94 FIP, and a 4.96 xFIP. He's a pitcher who has consistently outperformed the advanced metrics, especially last season when he had a sparkling ERA, and we're now seeing him regress.

Barria figured to be part of the Angels 2024 plans in a long relief role, but if he doesn't turn his season around it's hard to envision that happening.