Angels report cards: Grading Jimmy Herget's underwhelming 2023 season

While the Los Angeles Angels had all sorts of trouble building a competent bullpen in 2022, Jimmy Herget was one reliever the team could seemingly rely on to get key outs. He went from a guy the team used in low-leverage spots all the way up to the eventual closer for the last month of the season.

Thanks to his breakout in 2022, Herget was expected to be a key piece in an improved Angels bullpen. He wasn't going to be asked to close or even be the primary set-up man with Carlos Estevez and Matt Moore in town, but Herget was expected to be a reliable arm for Phil Nevin to turn to. Turns out, he wasn't able to repeat his great year.

Herget struggled from the onset this past season and was up and down between the majors and minors all year. He had some stretches where he was effective, but there was more bad than good.

Jimmy Herget deserves a C- grade for his 2023 season

In 29 appearances and 29 innings of work, Herget had a 4.66 ERA for the Angels this season. As usual, he did a nice job limiting walks and even struck out a decent amount of hitters, but the most glaring issue for the funky right-hander was the home run ball. He allowed seven longballs this season which were three more than he gave up all of last season in 40 fewer innings of work.

in addition to his glaring home run problem, Herget had trouble stranding runners he inherited. He did well in those spots last season by allowing 35% of runners to score, but this season that number shot up to 65%. Phil Nevin for whatever reason continued to trust him in spots when there were runners on base, and more often than not it blew up in his face.

It wasn't all disastrous for Herget who had a streak of 10 straight scoreless outings to begin September, but he ended his season on a bad note by allowing four runs in his final two decisions.

With the Angels having so many bullpen spots to fill, Herget will presumably be up a decent amount in 2024. He has another option meaning the Angels can do what they did this past season, keep shuttling him between AAA and the majors. Hopefully he can pitch more like his 2022 version than what we saw this past season.