Raisel Iglesias To Angels - Fantasy Impact

Relief pitcher Raisel Iglesias was traded to the Los Angeles Angels from the Cincinnati Reds during the offseason to be their closer. Mike Schwarzenbach breaks down the move from a fantasy baseball angle.

The 2020 Winter Meetings may be taking place virtually, but that didn't stop the Los Angeles Angels from addressing one of their biggest needs before some participants could even log on. The Angels acquired former Reds closer Raisel Iglesias who should immediately slot into the ninth-inning that has been a sore spot for the Halos for years. Relief pitcher Noe Ramirez and a player to be named later will head back to Cincinnati.

On the surface, this looks like a great deal for the Angels and fantasy managers alike. Los Angeles took advantage of the penny-pinching Reds and were able to acquire a top-flight closer for a fair price as the Reds were looking to move Iglesias' $9.1 million salary before his free-agency next offseason.

Fantasy managers should be excited about the move too as the Angels have been one of the most frustrating teams with their inability to settle on a closer. Additionally, this trade should open up the closer role in Cincinnati for a talented arm like Lucas Sims or Amir Garrett. Let's break down the fantasy implications of the first big bullpen shakeup this offseason.

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Casting For The Closer Role

It's no surprise the Angels traded for a high-end closer as that was one of the team's biggest weaknesses in 2020. Los Angeles had 14 blown saves which tied the Phillies for worst in the Majors. When they could nail down a save, it was anyone's guess who would come out of the bullpen to try and preserve the lead. The Angels used five different relievers to accumulate 12 saves with no individual reliever recording more than five saves in the abbreviated season.

The team already cut ties with Hansel Robles and Kenyan Middleton, the top two arms in their bullpen coming into 2020. Robles pitched to a 10.26 ERA in 16 2/3 innings with Middleton not fairing much better in his limited action this past season.

Enter Iglesias, who will press the emergency brake to stop the carousel of relievers who have been dubbed the Angels closer. The 30-year-old righty averaged 31 saves per season since becoming the Reds' full-time closer in 2017 and notched eight saves in 10 chances in 2020. In addition to the saves, Iglesias was useful for fantasy with a 2.74 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, and 31 strikeouts in 23 innings last season.

In the age of hard-throwing super-relievers that can be deployed in any inning, it's nice to have an old-school reliever like Iglesias we can pencil into fantasy lineups and know he will be used to get the last three outs. Since Cincinnati was looking to shed payroll, Iglesias easily could have wound up on a team with an established closer or a team that won't define bullpen roles.

That won't be the case in Los Angeles. Angels manager Joe Maddon may be an innovative baseball mind, but fantasy managers shouldn't have to worry about him deploying Iglesias as a situation-independent reliever. Iglesias was groomed as a closer, he was a closer for four years, and he will be the closer for the Angels barring injury or global pandemic.

Halo California

One look at Iglesias' Statcast page and it's easy to tell why he was sought-after by the Angels. There's more red on his page than in the Cincinnati locker room as Iglesias ranks near the top of MLB pitchers in most skill-based metrics.

Last season, Iglesias ranked in the top-10th percentile in expected wOBA, expected slugging, strikeout rate, hard-hit rate, and expected ERA. Granted, this came in just 23 innings, but such is the small-sample world we live in these days.

Looking back to Iglesias' first season as the full-time closer in 2017 and it's easy to see last season wasn't a fluke but rather a continuation of excellence.

Iglesias recorded at least 28 saves in every season from 2017-2019  and had at least 80 strikeouts in every season despite never pitching more than 72 innings in a single season.

A look under the hood backs up the Cuban's strong numbers.

He has a career-28.4 percent K-rate but has been over 30 percent in three of the last four seasons. His career-3.44 FIP is not far from his 3.15 career-ERA and his walk-rate has improved in four-straight seasons.

At 30-years-old, there's no reason to think Iglesias is slowing down. His four-seam fastball averaged 96 MPH last season - 0.6 MPH higher than in 2019 - and it's still one of the better pitches in the game with a .204 expected batting average against. He backs up the heat with a slider and a changeup that generate swings-and-misses at an alarming rate, 48.3 percent on the slider and 42 percent on the changeup.

With his arsenal, fantasy managers should expect continued production from Iglesias in Los Angeles.

You Say Goodbye, I Say Halo

When one door closes another one opens and Iglesias' departure will also vacate the closer role in Cincinnati for the first time since 2016. There's a lot of offseason to go, but based on the Reds' unwillingness to pony up $9 million for Iglesias, the odds are low they bring in a tier-one reliever to take the job.

Instead, it will likely be Garrett or Sims getting most of the Reds saves and both could have fantasy value. If Cincinnati eschews traditional bullpen roles in favor of playing matchups then the righty Sims and the lefty Garrett could both earn saves and both earn holds making each reliever more valuable in a saves-plus-holds format.

If fantasy managers had to pick one-true closer in Southwest Ohio, put my money on the 26-year-old Sims who just posted the best season of his career in 2020. Sims pitched to a 2.45 ERA with 34 strikeouts in 25 1/3 inning this past season and posted a strong 12.7 percent swinging-strike rate to back up his stellar 14.9 percent rate from 2019.

Garrett is no slouch either and could be effective in the closer's role. The big lefty's absurd 37.7 K-rate in 2020 is more impressive when you look back to 2019 and see a K-rate over 30 percent in a larger sample. Garrett has averaged over 12 K/9 in back-to-back seasons while posting an elite 18.1 percent swinging-strike rate last year.

We may not know what exactly the 2021 fantasy baseball season will look like, but betting on Iglesias to be a top-10 closer seems like one of the few things we can rely on. He has a clear path to the role, a team that will provide enough save chances, and the ability to get batters out at a high level.

He should be good for 25-30 saves while putting up useful strikeout, ERA, and WHIP numbers to help fantasy managers in multiple categories. Draft Iglesias with confidence as an RP1 for your fantasy squad.

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