A large swatch of players from the 2024 Los Angeles Angels are scattered all over the globe. After the franchise's nadir a couple seasons ago, Perry Minasian got rid of virtually every player and Arte Moreno and he just oversaw the removal of the coaching staff. There were 10 pitchers on that team to total 50 or more innings pitched in 2024, and only three are currently on the Angels' 40-man roster (José Soriano, Reid Detmers and Jack Kochanowicz). The others? Tyler Anderson, Carson Fulmer, Hunter Strickland are now free agents, and the other four are Griffin Canning, Patrick Sandoval, José Suarez and Roansy Contreras.
Contreras is now heading overseas after a tumultuous year and finding some success that season. He just signed with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.
Standout 2024 Angels reliever reportedly leaves MLB for overseas job
According to my sources, Dominican right-handed pitcher Roansy Contreras signed a contract with the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in Japan. #Japan pic.twitter.com/hgLA14wX3C
— Mike Rodriguez (@mikedeportes) November 14, 2025
In 2024, Contreras held hitters to a .227/.317/.407/.724 slashline, which were all above average marks for the pitching staff that season. Overall, Contreras had a 4.33 ERA, 5.19 FIP, 5.01 xFIP and 1.29 WHIP in 37 games. On the whole, he had a largely unimpressive season but he held his own while on a poor pitching team.
Many attention was paid to Kyle Tyler, an Angels pitcher who hopped on a non-stop DFA carousel a short time ago. Contreras was subjected to the same semi-cruelty that occurs in professional sports. The Angels claimed Contreras off waivers from the Pirates during the 2024 season, and after the season ended he was outrighted off the roster. Contreras was claimed and subsequently designated for assignment by the Cincinnati Reds, Baltimore Orioles, New York Yankees, Texas Rangers, and Colorado Rockies in the past calendar year. He appeared for both the Orioles and Rockies this past year.
Contreras posted an average fastball of 95.2 MPH this past season, and adds in a slider, curveball and changeup. He is still just 26-years-old and has a solid pedigree in his early days as a prospect, so perhaps he could go to the Golden Eagles and reclaim some of his past glory. He would not be the first pitcher to head overseas, tweak his arsenal and/or mechanics and come back to MLB and find some success with what he learned in a different league.
