The LA Angels finally have an elite bullpen

Starting with the big ones, bringing in Tepera and Bradley is a huge move for the LA Angels.

All four of the new LA Angels pitchers come with incredible upside.

Tepera has been one of the best relievers in baseball since his debut in 2015, and now the LA Angels have him for the next two years. Sporting a career 3.48 ERA, 3.66 SIERA, 3.99 FIP and 1.117 WHIP in just under 300 innings pitched, he's as elite a setup man as they come.

2021 was his best season yet, featuring a 2.79 ERA, 0.6 HR/9, 2.8 BB/9, 10.9 K/9, and 1.6 fWAR in 61.1 innings. Excluding closers, that fWAR mark was the fifth best in all of baseball among relievers, making him the ideal setup man for Iglesias.  

Meanwhile, Bradley, a seven-year veteran, brings a career 2.98 ERA, 3.39 FIP and 1.22 WHIP as a reliever in 273 career outings.

2021 was his “worst” season as a reliever and he still put up a 3.71 ERA, 4.35 FIP and 1.43 WHIP. He did, however, see his strikeout rate drop to its lowest mark (7.1 K/9) since 2015. Overall, his 2021 wasn't great, but it was definitely still good and far better than almost everyone in LA’s 2021 bullpen. Basically, think of Bradley as a younger, better version of Cishek.

As for Ramos, the former All-Star may have lost a step in recent years but still brings tons of talent. With a career 3.04 ERA, 3.70 SIERA, 3.46 FIP, and 1.27 WHIP, Ramos was lights out for the Marlins from 2012-2017.

After underperforming with the Mets, he’s combined for just seven appearances and 7.1 innings over the last two years. Still, he didn’t give up a run with the Angels last year and that was apparently enough for the front office to bring him back and invite him to major league camp.

Last but not least, there’s the recently un-retired Buttrey. In case you forgot, he was one of the Halos’ best relievers in 2018 (3.31 ERA, 1.63 FIP), was decent in 2019 (3.98 ERA, 3.49 FIP) and was awful in 2020 (5.81 ERA, 4.94 FIP), culminating in his early retirement ahead of opening day 2021.

Now that he’s apparently rediscovered his love for baseball, expect Buttrey to show up big time in spring training as he hopes to claw his way back to the majors.

Assuming all four of these relievers make the opening day roster for the LA Angels, that elite group would look something like this: Iglesias, Loup, Tepera, Bradley, Warren, Mayers, Ramos, Buttrey.

Ramos and Buttrey are probably the only ones without guaranteed spots as they will compete these next few weeks with Andrew Wantz, Jose Quijada, Janson Junk, Packy Naughton, Elvis Peguero, and either Reid Detmers or Jaime Barria (depending on who loses the rotation battle), all of whom are young and full of potential.

Talk about a good problem to have. After all, when was the last time the LA Angels had more than a dozen viable major league arms all vying for spots in the bullpen?

Armed with an elite bullpen, the LA Angels are finally looking like real playoff contenders.

If these eight do end up on the opening day roster, that would give the LA Angels arguably the best bullpen in baseball. Just look at their past ERAs and 2022 projections and you'll see this isn't just hyperbole.

• Iglesias: 3.06 (Career), 2.57 (2021), 2.80 (2022 ZiPS), 3.30 (2022 Steamer)

• Loup: 3.05 (Career), 0.95 (2021), 3.50 (2022 ZiPS), 3.81 (2022 Steamer)

• Tepera: 3.48 (Career), 2.79 (2021), 4.35 (2022 ZiPS), 4.12 (2022 Steamer)

• Bradley: 2.98 (Career*), 3.71 (2021), 4.19 (2022 ZiPS), 4.69 (2022 Steamer)

• Warren: 1.77 (Career), 1.77 (2021), 4.55 (2022 ZiPS), 4.31 (2022 Steamer)

• Mayers: 4.43 (Career*), 3.53 (2021*), 3.82 (2022 ZiPS), 4.10 (2022 Steamer)

• Ramos: 3.04 (Career), 0.00 (2021), 5.36 (2022 ZiPS), 5.03 (2022 Steamer)

• Buttrey: 4.30 (Career), n/a (2021), 3.76 (2022 ZiPS), 4.09 (2022 Steamer)

*Only including relief appearances

That’s six guys with career ERAs below 3.50 and seven guys with ERAs below 4.00 in 2021. Obviously, relievers tend to be very volatile year to year, making the projections a bit finicky, but for conservative estimates these are still pretty good.

With such an elite and deep bullpen, combined with one of baseball’s best offenses, the Angels are legitimate postseason threats right now. Even with a thin and injury-prone starting rotation, this bullpen should be more than capable of picking up the slack.

It may have been a long wait, but for once Angels fans can actually rejoice in seeing their front office actually invest in serious relief pitching talent. Now if we could just sign another quality starter.