The Angels are signing right-hander Junior Guerra to a minor league contract, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. Presumably, the deal will include an invitation to MLB spring training.
After four seasons as a highly utilized swingman in Milwaukee, Guerra signed with the Diamondbacks before the 2020 season. He pitched 23.2 innings of 3.04 ERA ball with Arizona, but his underlying numbers suggest he was rather fortunate to manage that level of run prevention. Guerra struck out just 20.4 percent of opposing hitters, significantly below the league average mark (24.1 percent) for relievers. He also walked a career-high 14.6 percent of batters faced, the 13th-highest rate among the 323 pitchers with at least 20 innings pitched last year. Wary of those mediocre peripherals, Arizona released Guerra rather than pay him an arbitration salary projected in the $2.8M range.
There’s no harm for the Angels in bringing Guerra in on a non-roster deal to bolster the pitching depth. To his credit, the 36-year-old did induce plenty of ground balls last season. He also has ample experience working multiple innings out of the pen (and starting, but he’s exclusively been a reliever the past two seasons). Over his big league career, Guerra owns a 3.77 ERA/4.55 SIERA.
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