The Angels are courting danger with their lefty-heavy approach to the bullpen

The Angels are poised to go into opening day with perhaps one of the weirdest bullpen constructions of all time. After completing a trade with Perry Minasian's favorite business partner, the Atlanta Braves, to acquire lefty reliever Angel Perdomo the back-end duo of Kenley Jansen and Ben Joyce will now presumably be supported by a whopping five lefties.

Aside from Jansen and Joyce, the only other righthanded member of the Halos projected opening-day pen is Ryan Zeferjahn, a 27-year-old fireballer who made his big-league debut last season and has continued to impress so far this spring with a pristine 0.00 ERA over his 5.2 innings of work.

Whereas most teams struggle to justify a third lefty, the Angels' pen will be almost entirely southpaws. Given the majority of hitters are right-handed, that already puts them at a disadvantage. Furthermore, based on previous track records and performances this spring, it's questionable if all five members of the quintet are worthy of opening-day roster spots.

In fact, worth and what a player has earned doesn't seem to have much to do with it. Instead, like old timers at a union job, these lefties have seniority so to speak -- that is, they're all out of options while their righty counterparts still have the flexibility of being sent down.

The Angels are making the decision due to roster inflexibility over performance

Not wanting to lose any of these lefty options the Angels are staring down the barrel of having an extremely lefty-heavy pen, even if they all aren't the best options. Jose Suarez, Jose Quijada, Brock Burke, and Angel Perdomo are all out of options. Garrett McDaniels doesn't have his name etched in stone yet, but as a Rule 5 pick he essentially has to make the team as well.

Despite their veteran status, none of these lefties are sure things. Brock Burke had a tale of two seasons with a 9.22 ERA with Texas before coming to Anaheim and righting the ship with a 3.54 mark. Injuries and inconsistency plagued his career early on, but this spring he's been electric which gives hope that he can continue to be an effective piece in 2025.

Perdomo last pitched in 2023 when he got hurt and required Tommy John surgery. His 2023 ERA was an encouraging 3.72, but he's pitched just 48.2 major league innings over three seasons and turns 31 in May -- hardly a strong resume.

Jose Quijada has been on the roster bubble for some time now and the 29-year-old has yet to figure out how to be a successful big-league pitcher over a sizeable sample. More of a "thrower" than a pitcher, he utilized his fastball 94% of the time last season and has never been able to develop a reliable secondary pitch.

That one-dimensional nature has made him prone to blow-ups, as evidenced this spring. With no change in speed or plane, batters can sit dead red and either take pitches out of the zone to work walks or crush fastballs in the zone. His spring numbers are a microcosm of that, allowing 8 hits and 3 walks while posting a 17.36 ERA in 4.2 innings.

Jose Suarez's lack of options has made him a near-lock for the team despite a lengthy track record of being terrible. In 2023, he posted an 8.29 ERA, and in 2024 he "improved" upon that horrendous mark with a still-putrid 6.02 ERA. His 8.22 spring training era proves he's still the same guy, only good for taking a beating in mop-up duty.

Ironically, the southpaw with the best shot to perform at a high level is Garrett McDaniels, the least polished of the bunch. While his performance in the lower minors last year was encouraging, and his spring performance with a 1.29 ERA over seven innings is cause for optimism, he's not yet a sure thing.

The stubbornness to risk losing pitchers who are out of options has put the Angels in the position of leaving more promising right-handed options off the team in favor of a tremendously unbalanced pen without a true baseball reason for doing so.

While Brock Burke and Garrett McDaniels deserve longer looks and Angel Perdomo and his 6-foot-8 frame are intriguing, Jose Quijada and Jose Suarez have all been given more than enough opportunities to prove themselves and have come up short each time.

The likely outcome is the Halos' fear of losing one of these lefties has led them to give them all a stay of execution, but when they fail expect to see moves made as younger and more promising righty options eventually overtake them as the season drags on.

Hopefully, the Angels come to that conclusion sooner rather than later, because without a strong starting rotation this questionable, lefty-heavy, middle relief corps can cost the team many victories before the dynamic duo of Ben Joyce and Kenley Jansen ever get the opportunity to right the ship.

It's a headscratcher, for sure, and will likely be a roster construction decision that the Angels will live to regret.

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