Mike Trout will see a familiar face when he resumes wearing his Los Angeles Angels uniform in the coming weeks.
The Angels signed journeyman reliever Hunter Strickland to a minor-league deal Tuesday night. Strickland, 37 in September, recorded a 3.31 ERA and 1.0 bWAR over a career-high 73.1 innings for the Angels last season.
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The Texas Rangers released Strickland from his minor-league contract earlier Tuesday. Strickland posted an 8.22 ERA and an ugly 15-9 K-BB ratio across 15.1 innings at Triple-A Round Rock.
Strickland, who also briefly pitched for the Angels in 2021, will report immediately to Triple-A Salt Lake City.
Los Angeles Angels relief pitcher Hunter StricklandJayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
Even casual baseball fans likely know Strickland, whose most memorable moment was a 2017 fight with then-Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper. The veteran pitcher owns a 25-23 record, a 3.40 ERA, and 5.8 bWAR since debuting with the San Francisco Giants in September 2014.
Strickland has posted a 2.91 ERA and 19 saves across five years with the Giants, departing for the Seattle Mariners following the 2019 campaign. He’s been a busy man since leaving the Giants, pitching for seven different clubs and even winning a ring with the Nationals in 2019.
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Thankfully for those tasked with cleaning the Nationals’ locker room, Harper had already joined the Philadelphia Phillies by then.
Strickland has pitched in as few as four games (the 2019 Mariners and the 2020 New York Mets) with some teams and as many as 66 (the 2022 Cincinnati Reds) for others over the last seven seasons.
The free-falling Angels need all the help they can get. Trout’s club currently sits at 14-20 and back in last place, though they at least notched an 8-3 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday night.
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