Where Does the Angels Bullpen Go From Here? Angels Relievers Struggling Mightily
May 23, 2026 - Written by Zac Holladay
Kirby Yates blown save pic.twitter.com/zOBYesh6Vo
— SleeperAngels (@SleeperAngels) May 21, 2026
After a pretty promising and entertaining first month of the season, the Angels have played possibly the worst baseball the team has seen since the 14-game losing streak in 2022. As of May 5th, the Halos have won 6 out of their last 28 games and own the worst record in the MLB. The offense hasn’t looked like the offense that we saw in the first 2 weeks of the year, but when they do score runs, the bullpen hasn’t picked them up. The starting pitching has been pretty solid, with guys like Jack Kochanowicz and Walbert Ureña taking a big step forward in the rotation to back up José Soriano and Reid Detmers. But the Angels bullpen has been the worst bullpen in baseball with a whopping 5.74 ERA. There are many stats that can support the failure of the Angels bullpen pieces, so lets just save the time.
The Halos have used 17 pitchers in relief this season (excluding Adam Frazier pitching in a blowout game), and have only 3 pitchers with an ERA under 3.50. Going through a lot of failure so far this season, those 3 relievers have been the only relatively reliable pieces that the Angels have. Chase Silseth, Sam Bachman and Mitch Farris have shown that they will easily maintain their spots with the team. Mitch Farris has been entered in spots where the goal is to eat innings to save the rest of the bullpen, which is basically a backup for the starter when they fail to pitch a reasonable amount of innings. Silseth and Bachman are available for late inning work, but can also enter in the middle of an inning to put out the fire. All have done their job this season and could factor into bigger roles if the team turns around their offensive production soon.
One of the biggest roles on any major league team is a role that is still looking for applicants on this Angels team. The closer role was first taken by right-hander Jordan Romano until he was released after blowing up a pair of very winnable save opportunities against the Yankees and beyond. When righty Kirby Yates made his debut with the team after beginning the year on the injured list, he was projected to be the closer. With yet another injury from Yates, the Angels have a wide open job with no one in sight to take the position for the foreseeable future. Multiple men have gotten the chance to close out games, but it is hard to find a closer when the team fails to take a lead into the 9th inning, as the Angels have had only 4 save opportunities in the last 26 games. But another discouragement for the bullpen is that very few pieces have stayed healthy so far.
So, with that in mind, what does the bullpen look like now? As there is no set closer as of now, it will be a mix of Sam Bachman, Ryan Zeferjahn, and Kirby Yates in late inning, high pressure situations. Chase Silseth will continue to enter in the middle of innings to get out of jams. Mitch Farris will stay up with the big league club as long as he can serve as an effective “plan-B” starter to eat innings. And guys like Brent Suter, José Fermin and Tayler Saucedo will be thrown around in whatever situation is needed. This group of guys has the potential to maintain the bullpen work for the time being for the Angels. With all the options that have been tested so far this season, there isn’t anyone that the Angels would be so eager to bring back (except for Ben Joyce when he returns from the Injured List).
There aren't any big expectations for this bullpen, but an obvious goal would be for them to give the team more chances to come back and win games. There have been too many games to count in which the bullpen comes into a close or comfortable game and blows it within minutes. Yes, the offense has been no better over the last month, but the least they can do is put up some zeros on the board. A decent bullpen can help this team win more ballgames and avoid a 100-loss season.
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