MLB Rumors and News: Angels bolster bullpen, trade for Raisel Iglesias from Reds

The Cincinnati Reds were the team that no one wanted to go against in the playoffs last year. The Braves ended up drawing the upstarts from the NL Central and managed to use their own outstanding pitching to bounce Trevor Bauer and co. from the playoffs. One the keys to the Reds’ success in recent years wasn’t the rotation, but their surprisingly good bullpen led by Raisel Iglesias. Iglesias saw some of his peripherals come back to earth in recent years, but his strikeout rate of 12.13 K/9 in 2020 was the best of his career and he was on track for the best season of his career if the season had been the full 162 games.

The Reds, however, seem to be on the downswing with Joey Votto’s best years behind him and Trevor Bauer seemingly destined to sign elsewhere. If you were looking for a sign that the Reds may be looking more to the future, well today’s news may be it.

While this move doesn’t solve all of the Angels’ problem....seriously, their rotation is terrible...it does bolster their bullpen and seems to indicate that they are continuing to try and give Mike Trout and co. every chance to compete in a tough AL West. The price for Iglesias was not much, unless the PTBNL ends up being a big name, mainly because he is set to make real money at $9.125 million in 2021 which also happens to be the last year of his contract. It also makes one wonder if the Angels could make more short-term moves to try to get to the playoffs in 2021 during the rest of the offseason.