The Angels continue adding to their bullpen: The team announced Monday that it has agreed to deals with right-hander Steve Cishek and left-hander Tony Watson. Both Cishek and Watson will get one-year, $1MM contracts, Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times reports. The Halos placed injured RHP Luke Bard on the 60-day IL to help make room for these pickups.
Cishek and Watson are among four notable bullpen additions since Sunday for the Angels. They previously brought back old friend Noe Ramirez and then acquired James Hoyt in trade with the Marlins. It’s clearly a late-spring attempt by first-year general manager Perry Minasian to add as much depth as possible to a bullpen which has other newcomers in Raisel Iglesias, Alex Claudio, Junior Guerra and Aaron Slegers.
Cishek and Watson certainly boast the best track records of the quartet of relievers the Angels have brought in over the past couple days. The 34-year-old Cishek had a rough go with the White Sox in 2020, and he didn’t make the Astros’ roster this spring, but he proved himself as a durable option who could keep runs off the board before then. Since his career began in 2010, the former closer has logged a 2.78 ERA, registered an above-average strikeout rate of 25.2 percent and recorded a 48.9 percent groundball rate in 576 innings.
Watson, 35, failed to crack the Phillies’ roster in spring training, but he has also established himself as an effective big league reliever. He owns a 2.80 ERA with a decent strikeout-walk percentage (15.4) across 591 frames. Watson spent last year as a member of the Giants and continued to hold hitters at bay (2.50 ERA), all while limiting hard contact (84.8 mph exit velocity against) and walks (4.1 percent), and inducing grounders at a 50 percent clip in 18 frames.
Perry making moves
I’m not an Angels fan, but great job by them by signing Watson. He won’t disappoint. Bad move by DD for letting him walk away.
I’m shocked that Watson could have been signed so cheaply. Either the Phillies truly have rebuilt their pen or he showed zilch this spring. I’m never concerned about stats in March and this is no exception. I just can’t believe he couldn’t make their staff this year.
what about their greatest need:
STARTING PITCHING??? they need more of that than ever.
i hear felix hernandez is available
I hear Nolan Ryan is available
Bauer wasn’t realistic. I really wanted one of Gray, Tanaka, Carrasco or Odorizzi. Just wanting them to be Angels got two of them injured.
Last year was a much better year to snag starters. We got Rendon. Great player, wrong side of the ball.
Actually, coming off of last season all they needed was league average behind Dylan Bundy, Andrew Heaney, Griffin Canning, and Jaime Barria’s small sample size. We’re talking a 10.05 ERA from Julio Teheran and a 37.80 ERA in 11 starts between the two of them, which is one full time starter, plus one start in a 60 game season. A lot of fans would be immensely surprised at how drastically the Angels’ rotation, bullpen, and team ERA improves when subtracting those two. Not to mention erasing Hansel Robles’ 10.26 ERA and Jose Suarez’s 38.57 ERA. Just league average in all 4 of those spots would skyrocket the Angels’ ranking in ERA. That’s how close their pitching really is. Completely destroyed by just a few bad, very rotten and decaying apples in 2020. Get league average from Jose Quintana and Alex Cobb, and the Halos are in business. Not elite, but enough for their offense to take the reigns and win games.
This guy reads. Keep it up.
Nah don’t blame yourself
Being a Mets pitcher got Carrasco injured
Gonna sign Shane Greene next?
That would be a hell of a bullpen makeover at the last minute possible. Similar to what Braves did at trade deadline a couple years ago. Maybe That’s Perry’s MO. Realizing you can get bullpen guys whenever wherever?
I still can’t believe that Greene is still an FA. I get he has meh ERA estimators, but nobody would give him like 1 year/$3-5 million? I guess he got really burried by the deep RP free agent market.
He’s gotta be demanding 6-10 still, right? I agree. I can’t see no one willing to give him 3M
Off topic, but… mlb1225, I was just curious if you’ve heard anything from Pirates’ personnel about their affinities in this year’s draft. I saw that BA had them taking Lawlar with the 1.1 in this year’s draft, and I was wondering if you could add on to that.
Asking for a friend.
I personally don’t have any contact or anything that could tell me direct information about who they were thinking about taking. Even if I did, I doubt they would tell me. But I doubt they take Lawlar 1/1. Ben Cherington loves pitching. Between the three big trades he made this off season (Bell/Musgrove/Taillon), 7 of the 11 prospects he got back were pitchers. In last year’s draft, his only position player selection was Nick Gonzales (first round pick). Last off season, he got Brennan Malone in the Staring Marte trade. Based on his tenure so far, I think we take Leiter (my personal favorite) or Rocker.
Thanks man. I personally love Leiter, and he is far and away my favorite of the three. I’m hoping Pitt takes Rocker or Lawlar, but right now I doubt that happens. There’s just so much more I like about Leiter than any of the other two, but the best slot in the draft is reserved for the best pick… sigh…
I like Leiter the most as well. Four pitch mix with all four having the potential to be plus pitches. His fastball is now sitting in the upper-90’s range and he has control over it as well.
Have you seen his pitching ninja interview on YouTube? Anyways, it’s a really good interview, and they take a deep dive on his mental state in it. He’s so mature and advanced for his age, and he’s just doing stuff that people his age shouldn’t be able to do. I have a love affair with him right now, and he’s honestly who I want to be as a pitcher in a few years. Man I hope we draft him…
Overall, I’d say their pitching staff is the closest thing you can get to average. Griffin Canning, Dylan Bundy, Jose Quintana, Shohei Ohtani, Andrew Heaney and Alex Cobb isn’t an awful 6 man rotation, but nothing stands out, maybe except for Ohtani. Hopefully he can get in somewhere between 100-150 innings. Rasiel Iglesias is a really underrated closer imo. Has an ERA below 4 in 5 of his last seasons. Mayers and now Tony Watson, James Hoyt and Steve Cishek are more than usable pitchers, but aren’t a Andrew Miller/Dellin Betances/Aroldis Chapman trio the Yankees had a few years ago.
There’s still plenty of chances for them to add to the pen. The Pirates will be looking to deal Richard Rodriguez and Chris Stratton. Always seems to be about a dozen relievers avaiable at the deadline.
I’d peg Ohtani for 80ish innings. Figure 15 starts at 5 innings per is 75. Maybe he goes a little deeper later in the year or the six man rotation keeps him fresh enough to make 20 starts. That’s maybe 100
ex-angel Chris Stratton
@cjb Cishek and Watson are meant to be together
Wow! Perry is getting active finally
That can’t be. Halo11 tells us that they signed their last bullpen guy in December with Claudio. His signing prevented all future additions. 3 new solid relievers? Nah not possible.
This isn’t real apparently.
Cjb1125. He SHOULD have been the last guy out of the pen. A guy whose lifetime line against RH hitters 305/356/441 should be your LAST bullpen guy.
How is it possible you still don’t get it?
I’ll try to make it more clear even though I know there is not a chance in hell you’ll understand.
I wrote this in December…
” In order for Claudio to be a good move, the Angels have to add a 7th and 8th inning BP guy. I don’t think the Angels are going to do that now.”
So you think this moves addresses my point last December. Man… Are you people purposely trying to distort my opinion or are you purposely being obtuse?
Your point being the Angels need to sign more relievers for the 7th and 8th innings, and here we are on a post about them signing 2 guys for exactly that role. These moves address your point to the T. I’ve never seen someone do obsessed over a reliever as I’ve seen with you and Claudio. Did he kill your dog or something?
My point was the Angels should have signed good relievers. Not other team’s rejects.
I’m so obsessed yet you people have no clue what I’ve been writting about? What’s amazing is you still don’t.
No extortion on your opinions at all. Your flat out wrong. By signing Claudio, that meant nothing in future adds to the back end.
For the record Halo11. Just because you don’t sign a guy that makes 5m+ to to a solid BP guy, doesn’t mean there not good, or have been good. Hey, accept it. I’ve been wrong many of times. It’s time to eat crow. 😉
Worst. You want me to say something nice Chris Rodriguez has a real chance of saving this pen.
Came to this thread specifically to catch your take, @Halo11.
I think – in Watson’s case at least – that “rejects” is a bit uncharitable. Phils didn’t want to pay him out of CBT taxphobia. In Chisek’s case he was redundant in Houston, as they already have a RH side armer (Joe Smith).
From here, I like the work they’ve done.
That all being acknowledged, yeah…kind of a mystery why they signed Claudio.
Bucky. I don’t mind these moves. I actually like them., Back to your boat analogy, The Angels will throw away a half dozen wins finding out which one of these boats are sea worthy. Which has always been my point.
They were bright enough to figure out that Buttrey was not the guy. I hope they are bright enough to figure out Mayer’s is not the guy. Rodriguez might be the guy. A few years ago I wanted to bring in Cischek and Watson. But this is a desperation move that people should have seen coming. This should have been addressed months ago.
They should have added a good bet RP before taking all these long shots.
To be fair, that’s going to happen to a lot of teams. For example, the Yanks’ll blow some games cycling through their lesser relievers, too.
I’m not insensitive to your frustrations as pitching has been such a problem for the Angels.
I can also see the argument that this is savvy GMing as opposed to desperation. They got both of these guys (who have pretty good backs of their baseball cards) for less than the Yanks paid for O’day, for example.
As to your last point: maybe!
Toss a guy like May into the mix & they’d have the makings of a ferocious bullpen.
I would have loved O’Day.
For the Angels, It will happen to a lot of times. But for the last decade the Angels setup men have been a joke. They always fail.
They Angels philosophy is hoping they can piece-meal the 6th through 8th innings by finding the right combination and they are lucky to be 500 by May 15. Even the year they led baseball in wins, they were 19-18 on May 12.
They always get off to a slow start and their bullpen has been the major cause of that. And yet they never do anything about it.
Halo unless these nuts disagreeing with your take had some crystal ball saying the Angels will improve their bullpen on the basis of other teams cutting players they they’d have a valid point.
They don’t. Angels are fortunate to be in a position to grab these arms yet they put themselves in this position by not addressing it in the offseason. Few teams are quickly scooping up arms the way the Angels are.
Halo11 – I have to agree with them. You have said over and over again after they signed Claudio that he was the last BP signing they can make and they’re doomed because there was no room for any other BP additions and Claudio was signed too early in the off season, yada yada yada. Then when anyone questioned why, you called them ignorant or something. I never understood your constant Claudio rants about him being signed too early, and now I know why…you were wrong. I understand his issues getting righties out but that’s a quality issue. Our BP just got better in the last 72 hours.
Time to move on. My biggest concerns now are Heaney and Canning.
Pena got hurt. They sent down Buttrey. They cut Rivera. That’s three.
Did you think they were going to send down Buttrey. I was hoping they wouldn’t cut Rivera. It’s too bad Pena got hurt.
He was signed too early. You sign you 8th inning guy and then you sign this easily obtainable disposable fodder.
Whose is the 7th and 8th inning guy? You don’t know. Neither does anyone else.
Prov. I wrote this four months ago after the Claudio signing. Which part of this take is not the least bit accurate? Argue against this point.
“This doesn’t fill me with confidence.
The Angels need at least one more bullpen arm which they can depend on. The team can’t spend two months figuring out who is reliable and who is not. They try that EVERY year and they throw away multiple games until they can figure it out.
This is a team that can’t throw away any games let alone multiple games. This team has to hit the floor running and knowing the dependable bullpen arms is huge part of that.
Came here just for the hot halo11fan take, as a matter of fact. Still not pleased I see. Ah well.
Why would you come here for my take. After you dismiss it, distort it and pretend it’s something else, what’s the point?
I said what was going to happen after the Claudio signing. It happened, and people still dismiss my point.
Largely we come to check out your take for comical reasons. You are an emotionally unstable fan, and it’s unhealthy. It seems as if you write your post with one large breath and end it with a childish, “So there.”
I’m not picking on you, being obtuse or stupid. I am simply providing a common observance experienced by most other posters here. By all means, rock on, but please do it without sounding like your life depends on it.
Comical Reason.
Unstable. You’re a psychiatrist now? Thanks for the diagnoses.
To be clear @Halo11, that is not even close to the reason I was interested in your take.
We had an interesting exchange in re the Angels bullpen months ago. So I was circling back to that (ya know, the thread I was wrong & you were not).
You never troll. You’ve seen a lot of baseball, in particular Angels baseball. Screw that guy. I will continue to read your posts.
Anyone who makes such a comment on a message board has issues.
Who thinks someone can make a mental diagnoses on a message board and actually think most posters agree? The Angels bullpen frustrates me…. as it should. It should frustrate every Angel fan.
I haven’t gone off on any other part of the team. People have gone off on Adell and Ohtani and their pitching. The only thing I’ve bothered not to support are their bullpen moves.
And it’s a message board. How can I “sound” like anything?
I’ll leave it at that.
Just how things are these days.
Unfounded accusations abound.
Stay up, Halo11.
Low risk high reward. Two potentially solid signings.
As an Angels fan, I’d call it “low risk low reward,” same old nonsense…….it’s like a guy overpaying for windows for his home, then can’t afford to fix the leaking roof ruining the insides
Combined two mil? Bargains
At least they are adding arms. One of the three should pan out right? I hope so.
They may find someone who pans out, but they’ll lose a half dozen games figuring which two relief pitchers they can depend on.
@halo11fan
AKA 2019 braves reliever syndrome. Hey at least you don’t have Luke Jackson coming in to blow games, that’s something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. I don’t get why so many people are mad about your Claudio take, it was just an opinion.
Mrt. It turned out to be accurate.
Since the Angels singed Claudio so early, I was not filled with confidence they would address their bullpen issues. Unless they had no plans of addressing the 7th and 8th inning problems, the timing of the Claudio signing made no sense,
I don’t believe they are not upset with my take, which I think to a man they now see as accurate, they are upset with my tenacity and their misconstrued belief that I’m arrogant. People love bringing down the arrogant.
I’m not arrogant, I am tenacious, but I’m also frustrated. The combination comes off as arrogant.
With the death of the LOOGY what was the point of giving Claudio guaranteed money?
I didn’t mind Claudio as long as you solved the late inning, non-closer innings. The number of situation you can use him in is very limited.
Claudio against RH batters : 305/356/442
Wally Joyner as an Angel: 286/350/450
I think most Angel fans were thrilled when Joyner came up in the late innings in a crucial situation.
Now, Angel fans have that every time Claudio faces a RH hitter. I’m shocked many Angel fans don’t see that. He literally should be the last guy on a pitching staff.
Awesome moves for the Angels. At least one of those two will probably have a great year. Getting Hoyt too is some solid depth.
Hoyt is a good grab this late. I like the depth. I still think Halos can grab another solid arm but this works for now
A good grab this late? Waiting until the last minute to find a date to the prom is pretty darn stupid. The chance of you ending up with a good looking date is close to zero. This is something that should have been addressed months ago, not two days before opening day.
Lmao there is no pleasing you. Talking for months about needing bullpen help and Perry signs 3 major league relievers in 1 day and you’re still crying.
There is no pleasing me? Yes, waiting four months trying to address an issue they should have addressed months ago does not please me.
Now they are desperate. This was an unforced error. Now they are hoping they can find a solution. No Angel fan should be happy.
There is no excuse for having to act this desperately. This mess was foreseeable. As a matter of fact, it was damn hard to miss.
Tony Watson is still a serviceable late inning arm and Steve Cishek wasn’t good for the White Sox, but it was also a 20 inning sample. He (Cishek) was actually decent in his last 11.2 innings before being let go with a 3.09 ERA and 14 strikeouts. James Hoyt has also been pretty solid when he’s been given the chance and they even got Noe Ramirez back. Sure, they’re not Liam Hendriks or Brad Hand, but they’re solid relievers and help sure up the back end.
I’m pretty happy with Perry. I’m an adult who knows that it can pay to be patient. There is no pleasing you. The Angels could acquire Hader and Chapman tonight and you’d talk about how they should have done it in December. You might benefit from taking a break for a few days and wait until opening day ehen the roster is all done so you don’t have to deal with the stress of late offseason acquisitions.
So depending on pitchers cut by Houston and Philadelphia is a good strategy? You don’t sound like an adult.
Being reactive and hoping someone takes care of you is a child’s philosophy. Adults see a problem and solves the issue. The Angels have not addressed this issue. Praying and hoping is no way adults address issues.
As far as Hader and Chapman, you’re being absurd. Of course you have to distort what I’ve been writing because I’ve been spot on four the last four months and people like you have been dead wrong.
I think Halo11Fan has a good point. I thought he overreacted to the Claudio signing and said so at the time, but that was because I thought the Angels were going to get another solid major league bullpen piece, and they didn’t. They came into spring training with three bullpen spots up for grabs, and that’s too many. The situation they found themselves in when Pena went down and Buttrey didn’t make the team was very foreseeable. So the Angels find themselves scrambling to sign guys who couldn’t make other teams this spring. Maybe Cishek and Watson are still good, maybe they’re not; time will tell on that. As an Angels fan, I hope they are. I think Perry’s first winter as a GM is a mixed bag, but he did make some good moves and will hopefully grow into the job as he continues to gain experience.
SoCal. I think they’ll find some pieces, but they will throw a half dozen games away figuring out who can do the job and who can’t.
I said that four months ago and it should be obvious that’s exactly what is going to happen.
Did you ever consider this was Perry’s plan all along? There is nothing more volatile than a slightly above average relief pitcher. Perry got his closer early on in the season and rather than pay $4M-$5M for a Shane Greene or another ‘proven’ RP, he was going to wait until release dates and sign the best relievers available at a much cheaper cost. This isn’t the NFL where a player needs to learn the playbook to be successful. They have tape on both these guys from this spring and they like what they saw. They are both “plug & play”. Chances are at least one of these guys becomes a valuable piece of their bullpen for $1M/yr. They still have plenty of money left to make deal(s) at the deadline too to improve the pen or rotation now. I think Perry showed great restraint and foresight by going this route vs. overpaying for a RP who may or may not be good during free agency. Job well done!
This was his plan. Other teams rejects. This has been the Angel plan for the last decade… it hasn’t worked.
How many times does something have to blow up before you realize it’s not working. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me, fool someone ten times, ask them how the Angels are doing because they have to be Angel fans.
Eeeeh! Wrong! I waited pretty late to ask my prom date to with me. She was gorgeous. Turns out, no one had asked her yet because she was a rather quiet one. I got all kinds of props for a long time, and a few years later one of my friends even asked me if he could ask her out. I said, “Sure! I don’t own her.” Guy code. But yeah, sometimes swooping in at the last minute can actually get you what you’ve been looking for. Because sometimes people just overlook certain things. It happens.
You need a lesson in market economics. Perry waited till 3 days before the season to trim all his favorites from teams looking to get their rosters right. Let it play out, it’s certainly a play.
Halo11 – ” This is something that should have been addressed months ago, not two days before opening day.
They signed Claudio months ago and you’ve done nothing but complain about how early he was signed. These guys weren’t available months ago. They became available in the last two days and we snatched them up. That’s called taking advantage of an opportunity.
Out of all of the Watson, Cashel, and Holt moves, one of them is going to be good this season. I loved when the Rangers stockpiled pen arms, and I would like to see the Angels do the same.
Still gonna need some SP. but props to the angels for being active now rather than just hoping for the best
The Angels are hoping and praying they can find out’s in the 6th, 7th and 8th innings and people think this is a sound strategy…. oh brother.
playin the long game. it may work out.
Joe will pitch Cishek until his arm falls off. It’s happened before.
So three bullpen arms in one day. Do they move the needle?
I think this gives the Angels options and depth. Sandoval can go to AAA and work as a starter. If Watson or Claudio get hurt/suck he’s there.
Claudio can really be limited to lefty situations a lot more. Even with the stupid three batter thing.
Cishek is usually a ground ball pitcher, hopefully he can that again. If he’s not, Slegers and Faria are waiting.
This isn’t the Nasty Boys, but it’s a nice way to ensure decent arms throughout the year.
No extortion on your opinions at all. Your flat out wrong. By signing Claudio, that meant nothing in future adds to the back end.
For the record Halo11. Just because you don’t sign a guy that makes 5m+ to to a solid BP guy, doesn’t mean there not good, or have been good. Hey, accept it. I’ve been wrong many of times. It’s time to eat crow. 😉
It meant nothing? I told you what it meant. I was proven right, and you still say I was wrong. You people kill me.
How much is Pettite making? As far as five million, they didn’t have to spend that, but having a 20o million dollar payroll and not spending five million to help solidify a position that you are in desperate need is pretty darn stupid.
You crack me up dude.
No Halo11, you were wrong. You have said over and over again that they signed Claudio too early and we couldn’t add anyone else to the BP because of it. No big deal, but you are making it one by back pedaling on what you have said throughout the winter.
Yeah it’s beyond comical prov356. Halo11 is more stubborn than an old hurt dog, he can’t, and won’t, admit or budge an inch when he’s wrong. Anyway, I’m done beating that dead horse, because the Angels season is about to start. Hell yeah!
They are talking about Claudio and are talking about soft contact, which is not the point. Against LH batters he’s great, against RH batters, he’s fodder. So where can you use him?
Scrapping the bottom of the barrel isn’t going to help this team our pitching is lost at sea awful
Same Angels. Yucko.
Thank you Angels. I also called this on the Noe signing comments section. Needed to happen. Let Rodriguez get stretched back out in the minors and not sure if Slegers still has options otherwise it might be Sandoval who gets sent down to do the same.
Putting together an average pen and then scoring on veteran’s relievers who get released at the end of spring training (despite good numbers) was probably not the plan. Unlike years before though, they are actually bringing in some proven names and not just a lucky win on a waiver claim. Goo Angels!
Slegers does indeed have one more option year. For future reference, you can look up a player’s name on fangraphs and it’ll tell you the option years remaining towards the top of the page.
I like it. With all the quantity they should have 4 dependable guys emerge. Hang around. Reevaluate at the deadline.
Your dream GM. They will find some dependable guys, after they throw away a half dozen wins. They do this every year. It’s a bad strategy.
Hey negative Nancy, the pen looks great. Enough said!
Prudent
After watching the Dodgers crush Ohtani last night they need every warm body they can get.
Ohtani will be fine, health permitting. His control and location will only improve after each and every start. It doesn’t matter if it’s the Dodgers or a minor league start, you can’t walk half the guys and expect success. He’ll improve on this, if not, he’ll still be a huge bat in the lineup.
@bluemarlin528 haha! Pretty dumb take, just shows how clueless you are if you did indeed watch him pitch. He was pitching with a blister and it was pretty evident by his 5 walks and the hits he gave up. One of the homeruns was on a backdoor slider to Chris Taylor and a hung curve ball to Will Smith, he also gave up a run on a wild pitch. Even the homerun to Seager was telling of his blister issue because he was 3-0 so he threw a get me over fastball that was crushed by the reigning world series mvp. He even gave an interview where he clearly mentions through his interpreter that he was having issues with his curve ball and slider because of his blister & that he was pulling the ball to compensate. Even the Angel broadcast mentioned the possibility during the game.
Wow!! I didn’t know I stumbled into Mental Health Rumors. I double checked and by golly it is MLB Rumors
Mental Health Rumors? I don’t recall seeing any medical studies in this thread. Maybe you’re due for a checkup yourself, bud.
Aggressive Personalities abound, name calling!! It was a joke, Mental Health Rumors, Suicide_squeeze
I mean, basically what you’re describing is any comments section on the internet haha. I’d just recommend researching the definition of mental health before throwing it around like that. A relevant example is Mike Trout losing his brother-in-law to mental health problems. When it affects you personally like that, it’s nothing to joke about. Pretty serious stuff actually.
I like it! Chris Rodriguez makes the team. The Pen looks solid. Let’s get this season rolling, and light it up.
I could see how a team would cut Cishek, seeing that his last 2 small sample sizes in 2020 and spring weren’t good, but Watson was a surprise cut to me. He’s been solid, and one rough spring and you cut him. It’s not like the Phillies were loaded in the pen. We’ll take it.