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Los Angeles Angels: Let's Look at Closing Options
The Los Angeles Angels have two options that could legitimately close out games for them in 2017–three if you want to include Andrew Bailey. But which one of these options will be handling the ninth inning on opening day?
Obviously Huston Street has the most experience closing out wins, not only for the Los Angeles Angels, but for the Rockies and A's as well. It's what he's been doing since making his big league debut and winning the Rookie of the Year award with Oakland in 2005. But after missing large chunks of time last season due to injury, is he the right guy to rely on moving forward?
Andrew Bailey has a long injury history of his own, which is the main reason why he hasn't quite lived up to the expectations heaped upon him following his own Rookie of the Year campaign in 2009–again with Oakland.
The third option wasn't drafted by Oakland, didn't receive ROY honors and is arguably the best option for the Angels in the ninth if they hope to sniff the playoffs in 2017.
More from Call to the Pen
Being selected in the 2010 Draft comes with some expectations, as those players are in the same class as Bryce Harper (#1), Manny Machado (#3), Matt Harvey (#7), Chris Sale (#13) and Christian Yelich (#23). Bedrosian was taken with the first of back-to-back Angels picks at number 29 overall. After 12 innings in Rookie Ball that season, Bedrosian lost the next year of development to Tommy John surgery, putting him a little behind some of those other superstars.
Since 2014 Bedrosian has been in the bullpen and racked up some impressive strikeout numbers in the minor leagues. Those didn't exactly translate in his first two stints with the Angels, as he was K'ing about one per inning but held ERAs of 6.52 and 5.40, though his FIP remained in the lower half of the fours.
Last season the 25-year-old righty focused his approach on his 95 mile per hour heater and an 83 mph slider, nixing the changeup that he had been sparingly working with. The result was a K/9 of 11.38, a 1.12 ERA and the belief by many that he will be the one closing out games at The Big A this season.
Both Bailey and Street can still contribute plenty to the team, but their injury histories have to be a little bit worrisome, which should lead to slightly lighter workloads this year. The idea would be that Bedrosian would be taking over this role in the future anyway, so why not have him closing out games now when he has two guys in the 'pen with him that have proven they could do the job in the past and can give him some advice? The Angels' closer of the future should also be their closer of the present.
