The Angels announced that they’ve signed left-hander Ian Krol to a minor league contract and invited him to Major League Spring Training. Krol, 27 in May, is a client of ISE Baseball.
The 2017 season proved to be a rough followup to a strong 2016 campaign for Krol, as he saw his ERA soar from 3.18 to 5.53. Krol’s K/9 rate fell from 9.9 in ’16 to 8.1 in ’17, while his BB/9 rate ballooned from 2.3 to 3.9. He also allowed eight homers in 49 innings after surrendering just four long balls in 51 frames a year prior.
Though he throws from the left side, Krol has actually struggled more against lefties than righties in each of the past three seasons. In that time, he’s allowed a .253/.336/.420 slash to righties and struggled to a more concerning .292/.369/.426 slash against same-handed opponents.
That said, Krol averages better than 93 mph on his fastball and more than eight strikeouts per nine innings, and he has also shown the ability to generate grounders at a roughly league-average clip over the course of 188 MLB innings thus far in his career. The resulting 4.55 ERA isn’t overly appealing, but a 4.05 xFIP and 3.77 SIERA forecast a somewhat rosier picture.
With the Halos, he’ll compete for a spot in manager Mike Scioscia’s bullpen, where Jose Alvarez currently projects as the only lefty. In fact, the only other southpaws on the Angels’ 40-man roster at all are starters Tyler Skaggs and Andrew Heaney, meaning Krol landed in a spot that should afford him a decent opportunity to crack the big league roster in Spring Training.
Nice pickup. Good depth signing, maybe even win the job over Alvarez
Agreed. Nice low risk signing for the much needed lefty reliever vacancies.
He can be good and even reliable for stretches, but he is not your prototypical lefty reliever. He has always done better vs righties.
Keep signing lefties. He’s probably not the answer.
Last year whenever Snitker put in Kroll I would say to myself oh crap. It was somewhat expected in my viewpoint that when Kroll releases the ball there’s a high probability of a line drive towards someones upper extremities. Wish him luck though….
Angels make a Realmuto pursuit?
They got a gold glover and were reluctant to part with good prospects for Cesar Hernandez. Dont think theyd make that effort
Thinking a package of Thaiss, Ward, and a lower level pitching prospect will get the job done
They have Maldonado who just won the gold glove.
they need pitching way more than position players right now
I was thinking this and that Maldonado would be part of the package. Marlins would get back a gold glover and Angels would have another great defender at catcher but with a bat this time.
Angels picking up all the former Braves – from lost ML from the punishments levied, trades, and FA signings.
True.
Upton
Simba
Maitan
Soto
Johnson
Krol
I hope miaitan is a bust…………..from a angry braves fan
Have a downvote from an Angels fan
Yeah, because it’s his fault the Braves cheated…
If you ain’t cheating you ain’t trying
World Series here we come.
Somehow I knew this day would come and people would start asking me if we’re related, which they have. Truth is, I don’t know. Lol