Three relievers that can take Andrew Wantz's spot in the Angels bullpen

Remember when Andrew Wantz was the most consistent reliever in the Los Angeles Angels bullpen? He made the Opening Day roster as the final reliever out of Spring Training, and got off to a fantastic start. In his first six appearances, Wantz allowed one unearned run on three hits with one walk and ten strikeouts in ten innings of work. Through his first 10 appearances and 15.1 innings pitched Wantz had an ERA of 0.59 as he had allowed just one earned run on five hits and five walks. Really solid stuff.

Unfortunately, Wantz being the only reliever at times with options made him easy to send down, and the Angels did that. He's been up and down since a dominant month of April, and things haven't gone so swimmingly for the right-hander.

After allowing four runs in two innings last night, Wantz now has an ERA of 4.56 on the season. It's at 11.88 in his last five MLB appearances. Since he has not pitched well and threw 40 pitches yesterday it's almost certain that Wantz will be getting sent down today. Here're three options the Angels have to take his place.

1) LA Angels reliever Jimmy Herget can take Andrew Wantz's spot in the bullpen

It's boring, but Jimmy Herget is an obvious candidate to come up and replace Andrew Wantz on the roster. Herget is a guy who has been going up and down from Anaheim to Salt Lake all season, and I expect that to remain the case at least until the trade deadline, if not until his five options are up.

Herget was probably the best reliever the Angels had last season, seeing lots of success in a variety of roles, even ending the season as the Angels closer. That says a lot about how the bullpen was last season, but Herget also pitched quite well.

This season has been a completely different story as Herget struggled right out of the gate and has continued to. Herget has an ERA of 5.17 in 15 MLB appearances this season, most recently allowing three runs and taking the loss in an inning of work in Texas.

Herget has made just one appearance since being sent down and he allowed three runs while recording just one out. He's not my favorite option, but the fact that he's on the 40-man and has a ton of MLB experience makes him a very real candidate.

3) LA Angels reliever Kenyon Yovan can take Andrew Wantz's spot in the bullpen

Of course, the Angels can just surprise us all and bring someone up who is not on the 40-man roster. This would be a bit more tricky as it'd likely involve Designating a player for Assignment as there aren't any legitimate 60-day IL candidates that I know of, but it's not an impossibility.

Kenyon Yovan is a player I thought the Angels might've brought up before some of the other younger relievers like Ben Joyce, Jose Soriano, and Sam Bachman but the Angels have yet to promote this right-hander. Now could be his time.

Through his first 18 appearances, Yovan had an ERA of 0.41 as he had allowed one earned run in 22 innings pitched. That run came in his first appearance of the season. His ERA has ballooned since mainly due to an outing in which he gave up six runs without recording an out on June 7, but each of Yovan's last two appearances has been scoreless outings.

Yovan has been more effective than the young guys with the enhanced grip baseballs they're using in the Southern League, which can only inspire confidence that he'd pitch well at this level with more normal baseballs if he were to be called upon.

The Angels have consistently called upon the best players when they feel they're ready. I'm not sure why they wouldn't bring Yovan up now if that's the case. See what he's got. If he doesn't pitch well, send him back down.