LA Angels plunder Mets again by stealing best bullpen option

Evan Desai

Aug 26, 2021; New York City, New York, USA; New York Mets relief pitcher Aaron Loup (32) delivers / Vincent Carchietta-USA TODAY Sports

The LA Angels already swiped Noah Syndergaard from the New York Mets, and they had no intentions of stopping.

They've officially signed Aaron Loup away from the Mets, on a two-year contract. This is huge, as there weren't many relief pitchers better than Loup last season.

Loup was 6-0 last year and posted an 0.95 ERA on the season. His ERA+ literally almost broke the scale at 422. Recording an 0.935 WHIP, there was nothing to not love about Loup's season last year.

Aaron Loup is a major addition at a position of need for the LA Angels.

Aaron Loup comes to an LA Angels bullpen that struggled last year. They posted the seventh-worst bullpen ERA in baseball (4.59), and were top 10 in most walks per nine innings (4.04).

Loup is a guy who's not going to walk a lot of guys, and has walked just 2.2 per nine over the course of his last two seasons. He's been dominant in these last two years, allowing just a .194 batting average. The Angels' bullpen could use that, as they allowed the seventh-highest batting average in the game this past season at .245.

They had a 1.40 WHIP, which was sixth-worst in MLB. Loup was an awesome candidate to try to fix this pen. He's had several good years in this league, and almost all of them were in the American League.

Now, he'll get the chance to return to the AL after he just built a lot of confidence through having the best year of his career. He knows what it's like to pitch in a big market, and he's ready for our team.

Evan Desai

Evan Desai has covered MLB with FanSided for 3 years, first as a contributor for FanSided's New York sports publication--Empire Writes Back--and now as the expert at Halo Hangout, the Angels publication for the network. He also runs Reign Of Troy, the USC FanSided publication, and has covered college sports since 2019--most notably USC and UCLA for the Pac-12 Network, University of Arizona and Grand Canyon University for Arizona PBS, and Arizona State University for Sports Illustrated's ASU publication. He has also run the Clippers FanSided publication in the past, Clipperholics, and has made two stops at NBC Sports.