The Angels are signing right-hander Junior Guerra to a minor-league contract, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register (Twitter link). Presumably, the deal will include an invitation to MLB spring training.
After four seasons as a highly-utilized swingman in Milwaukee, Guerra signed with the Diamondbacks before the 2020 season. He pitched 23.2 innings of 3.04 ERA ball with Arizona, but his underlying numbers suggest he was rather fortunate to manage that level of run prevention. Guerra struck out just 20.4% of opposing hitters, significantly below the league average mark (24.1%) for relievers. He also walked a career-high 14.6% of batters faced, the thirteenth-highest rate among the 323 pitchers with at least 20 innings pitched last year. Wary of those mediocre peripherals, Arizona released Guerra rather than pay him an arbitration salary projected in the $2.8MM range.
There’s no harm for the Angels in bringing Guerra in on a non-roster deal to bolster the pitching depth. To his credit, the 36-year-old did induce plenty of ground balls last season. He also has ample experience working multiple innings out of the pen (and starting, although he’s exclusively been a reliever the past two seasons). Over his big league career, Guerra owns a 3.77 ERA/4.55 SIERA.
Nice. Cam Bedrosian replacement if he’s back to normal or close to it. No downside if he’s not.
another 40 men spot filled with useless.
Minors deal. Non roster.
you are right. useless, nontheless.
HaloHeaven…. you don’t get it. But you’re not alone.
No downside? The Angels are going to once again rely on hope and prayer to solve their bullpen issue and they’ll once again hopefully figure it out in June and lose game after game because they don’t know who to turn to. That’s been their philosophy for a decade, it never works. You expect it to work this year?
Let’s say he pitches well out of spring training and makes the team, here are the RPs.
Barria (Out of Options)
Peters (Out of Options)
Buttrey (hasn’t been good since 2018)
Mayers (has one good Season, only 20 innings, Age 29, and a negative lifetime WAR)
Rivera ( Rule 5)
Claudio (RH rake him)
Iglasias (Only one bad year but it was his last full year)
Pena ( Never had an ERA below 4)
Guerra (lifetime FIP 4.52)
That’s 15 pitchers. The Angels are going to have to cut better pitchers. The Angels are going to have to cut players from their 40 man roster. And the Angels will once again trial and error the bullpen hoping to find out who can pitch and if history repeats, get off to another slow start.
Dumb.
All teams sign minor league deals and most bullpens are trial and error.
A good teams bullpen is not trial and error. Sure plan “A” doesn’t always work, but they have plan “B” and plan “C”.
What’s the Angels plan “A”.? You don’t go into a season with that kind of plan “A”.
most contenders have, at least, 3 reliable pen pitchers and the rest are trial and error. angels currently have 1 or 2.
Vizionaire, just to amplify your point.
The Angels don’t have two reliable relief pitchers. Their most reliable closer stunk his last full season in the bigs.
Starting pitches don’t average six innings anymore Who do they bring into the game in the sixth,seventh and eight? No one reliable.
And the Angels will cut pitchers who have just as much of a chance of being good as pitchers they are bringing in. These things don’t resolve themselves in spring training…. The Angels are not going to know who their best relief pitchers are in spring training, so what’s the point of bringing in these pitches?
Perry the platypus is not very impressive.
Not all good teams have good bullpens. Many teams have made it as far as the World Series its bad bullpens. Relief pitching is the most volatile aspect of the game. Having Shields and K-Rod all those years was pure luck. Few teams have ever had the luxury of a combo like that year after year in MLB history, and we’ll be lucky to ever see a combo like that year after year ever again.
When that happens it’s mainly because they’re having good years at the same time. It’s rare to have a bullpen with at least 3 reliable relievers that you know are going to be good year in and out.
perry the platypus? Moron.
@halofan Relax! half of the bullpen you mention is easily disposable. Dillon Peters is hot garbage he’s 28 and has not proven he can stick, Rivera is a rule 5 those don’t usually stick around all year, Claudio is on a 1 yr/1.1 mill deal he’s also easy to let go, and Guerra is on a minors deal which will make him expendable as well. That’s 4 bullpen spots that can be upgraded with a blink of an eye and an open checkbook if arte plays along and Perry starts making smart moves.
It wouldn’t be so bad if they hadn’t done the same thing over and over and over again.
They are all disposable. About Guerro and Claudio and Peters and Guerra… who cares? So what’s the point, especially in Claudio. Get a DEPENDABLE guy and then take your chances on the last guys in your pen…. I said that when they signed Claudio.. Why get the last guy so early? Almost everyone in this pen is a last guy in the pen.
Except for Iglasias, who has some risk, no one can be expected to do anything.
Give Peters and Rivera a chance to make the team as your last two men. Rivera and Peters have just as good of a chance as Guerra and Claudio. They are both more talented. They have very little chance now.
Barria will take up a bullpen spot. What’s the point of that?
The problem is now the Angels will lose two guys… For what? For guys that may or may not be as good?
Spring training is not going to resolve anything. The Angels will take their best guess… get it wrong… are likely cut a better player. Then try to find a 6th and 7th and 8th inning guy… and then they’ll figure it out in late May or June. That’s been the plan every year and it never works.
Who did this team cut for Kirby Yates? He was one of these last guys. Get last guys you can send to AAA. The Angels have one of those guys…. Reyes. Who even if he has great control in spring, can’t make the team.
The Angels can send down Buttrey and Pena. Get guys better than them.
It’s an imbecilic plan “A”.
Nobody gets cut over a minors league deal. The hysterics are unwarranted yet predictable.
Mayers added a cutter which was great. He’ll be a decent setup guy.
Welp, it’s not nothing.
Good little pickup for the Angels.
same angels! new gm, new year, same old arte!
Bedrosian is better than Guerra. This is a meaningless signing. I expect a few more of these in the next few weeks. I am waiting to see what Minasian can get done to bolster the the staff. The heat is on.
My thinking is that we’ll need 2-3 relievers who can go multiple inning even assuming another starter is brought in. Neither Heaney or Canning go deep consistently, Ohtani will be on strict limits if he comes back.
Barria is out of options, Pena did pretty well out of the bullpen, Sandoval is a possibility, Guerra is just depth.
HaloHeaven… Do you follow this team? Sandoval has options, he can’t make this team, and if he does, we lose a player who is better than Claudio or Guerra.
Yeah I follow the team enough to get paid to write about them for an outlet with 50,000 followers.
But keep flipping out over minor league deals somehow costing good pitchers jobs.
Aside from one breakout season, Bedrosian stinks.
3.20 ERA 2016-2020 but okay
Look at his inherited runners scored if you can find it.
You don’t like Bedrosian? Fine. He’s better than Claudio and Guerra.
he was so not clutch. bring him in with 5 runs ahead he pitches like a great closer.3 runs or less he gives up the lead.
Could be a shrewd move for the Angels.
I really thought that the Rangers would sign Guerra as the Jesse Chavez replacement, but it seems to be that one of the 1,400 MiLB pitchers we signed will take his place. Decent move LAAA
Not a bad pick up…hope more pitching is on the horizon
Nice pickup. He doesn’t always make it look pretty but Guerra usually gives you a good outing. I’m mildly surprised that he had to settle for a minor league deal though at his age and in this economy I guess I can understand it.
In before Halo11 has a meltdown that this guy sucks, and somehow weaves in how Claudio sucks.
Cook, If you don’t understand why this is a problem, you don’t know much about baseball or the Angels.
Guerra is actually a very good pitcher. He been good for the last 3 years very good and underrated signing
Once again Artie shopping at the 99 cent store for big league talent.
It’s a minors deals. No downside. It provides depth
The downside is he pitches well out of spring training, makes the team, and the Angels lose a better pitcher. The Downside is he stinks when then season rolls around and the Angels struggle to find reliable high leverage relief pitchers and get off to another slow start and don’t recover.
The down side is this is it.
Building a pen with unreliable pitches has been pattern for this team for ten years and it has burned them every year. Every year. Why people think it’s going to be different this year is beyond me.
Nice depth move with little to no impact to the bottom of their roster. Hopefully he pitches well enough to make the team and give them quality innings. These days, most teams churn the bottom 20% of their 40 man roster each year, so it’s not a big deal if Guerra makes the club and Anaheim needs to open a spot for him. They won’t be giving up on anyone of substance.
Dorothy, you don’t follow this team. It’s not a nice move. How many pitchers do you expect them to carry?
They have a rule 5 guy with better upside than Claudio and Guerra? They’ll lose him. They have a LH who has better upside than Claudio or Guerra. Do they lose him. They lose a spot to sign someone reliable.
They now have 9 RPs. The Angels can’t depend on eight of them. And they wont know who they can depend on until the season is well underway.
another long shot that wont pan out
I was spot on when the Angels added Claudio and people denied. it. People said I should be patient.
What I said then was more optimistic than what the Angels accidentally did, and those same people who said I should be patient and now justifying it.
They were wrong then and they are wrong now.
sounds like you should take the season off Halo11
Maybe you know this team. Show me?
What are they going to do with Barria? What about Peters? Sandoval? Their Rule five pick… Rivera? How many BP guys are they going to keep?
Reyes is easy, no matter how well he pitches this spring, he starts in AAA.
What are they going to do in the 6th, 7th and 8th?
I’m getting called a lot of names, but no one has addressed any of my concerns. It’s easy to call me names, it’s very difficult to actually dispute what I write. What I write is accurate.
Angels bullpen depth chart on MLB.com:
Iglesias
Buttrey
Claudio
Mayers
Pena
Sandoval
Bard
Rivera
Barria, Peters, and Suarez are left but not listed.
Guerra would easily replace Bard and would be a swing man.
But then there’s the possibility of Ohtani being healthy, and Barria would be first in line to be the sixth SP. If Ohtani struggles or gets hurt again, Barria takes his spot anyway and they go back to a 5 man rotation.
They signed one more arm to a minor league deal earlier this offseason, but I can’t remember his name.
So very little changes if Guerra makes the team. If that other arm they got makes it, or if they make another key bullpen addition, Mayers and Rivera are next on the list of expendables.
Peters is nothing but an emergency option.
In any case, key word is depth, which is always either a case of a clogged roster of good talent and performance, or stacking bodies to use when needed. Likely the latter here until the younger arms can prove themselves.
These are literally the weirdest rants going on MLBTR- This guy has been good in stretches and does everything you want (eat inns and cost beans)
Why dont you start throwing out names of who you would target instead of just bashing every move your own team makes? Whats your plan ? Engage the audience rather than just slam everything/one down …..
Whats your budget plan? Do you seek the trade market? Who are you targeting? Thats what we want to here, not some tired —– Wrong Im right Monday morning QB’n every small move they make
Halo11Fan really doesn’t follow this team. All he does is whine.
If you are happy with this bullpen, and these bullpen moves you don’t follow this team Mr. 4/4/42, 2/14/14 or 1028. And I think 165, 265.
I didn’t look up those numbers. I know them, and it’s because I do follow this team.
you and the gang told me i whine too much on now’ defunct angels message board. so, what happened to the angels during eppler’s 5 years? winning world seriese or something with a patch work pitching staff?
Wow massive signing for the Angels. Should be WS favorites. New GM same BS.
Do you need any ointment for that itch Try wiping with Charmin
I don’t believe the Angels are satisfied with their 40 man roster as currently constructed so I anticipate movement soon. Perhaps they will have a flurry of activity like the Padres, Mets, Cardinals, etc.
I will let the off season play out before condemning Artie, Perry and the gang.
Halo11 and vizionaire need to start their own angels doomsday board. They can’t go a single angels post without reiterating the same point about their bullpen concerns.
I can’t wait for the angels to make a move to upgrade the staff/pen and rub it in their faces. If the angels go into the season with this current roster, I will eat my shoe. And my shoe is very gross given what I do for a living.
The Piece!
Start printin’ those playoff tix, Arte!