One of LA Angels' best relievers of recent years takes ultimate nosedive in 2022

Mike Mayers was designated for assignment by the LA Angels last week. It was something unexpected coming into the year, as Mayers was coming off of an impressive start to his Halo career. In two years with the team prior to this season, he recorded a 3.34 ERA to go along with a 134 ERA+ and 1.181 WHIP.

Mayers looked completely different this year, however. Mayers threw in 15 appearances this season and posted a 5.40 ERA and 5.84 FIP. It got to the point where the team decided to do this after just those 15 appearances.

While it can absolutely be argued that 15 appearances is too quick to give up on a pitcher, the only opinion that matters is the team's, as they obviously are the ones who pull the trigger in these decisions. And in fairness, those 15 appearances were truly awful. Mayers allowed 2.2 homers per nine frames in 2022.

Mike Mayers also surrendered far too many base hits for the LA Angels this year.

Mike Mayers gave up 9.7 hits per nine innings this year, his third season with the LA Angels. His 9.7 hits per nine innings rate was too much for the Halos to continue counting on, and they demoted him.

Mayers had been attempting to come back from a disastrous two-game start to the year where he allowed five earned runs in 0.2 IP. He was successful in coming back from that for the longest time--giving up just one earned run in his next 10 appearances (11 innings).

If he slipped up, though, he was not going to be given the benefit of the doubt. Sure enough, after those 10 appearances, he had three straight where he allowed at least one earned run in no more than two innings in each appearance. The Halos lost faith in Mayers, and now it will be up to him to grow from this, either with the Angels or somebody else.