The Angels' Opening Day bullpen has been finalized by manager Joe Maddon, who announced that 6-foot-10 right-hander Aaron Slegers will fill the last spot.
Slegers will join a squad that signed right-hander Steve Cishek and lefty Tony Watson on Monday.
Slegers, who has a career 4.66 ERA in his four big league seasons, battled back spasms early this spring. He returned to the mound on March 24 after not seeing game action for nearly three weeks. The Long Beach native pitched five innings in four Cactus League outings.
Slegers joins an eight-man bullpen that includes right-handers Raisel Iglesias, Mike Mayers, Junior Guerra, Chris Rodriguez and left-hander Alex Claudio. Rodriguez is the Angels' No. 4 prospect.
Mayers, who had a 2.10 ERA in 30 innings in 2020, is the only returning relief pitcher for the Angels.
Cishek, who pitched for Maddon with the Cubs in 2018-19, got his only inning for the Angels this spring during the 6-4 loss to the Dodgers on Tuesday night.
“His breaking ball was sharp. He looked crispy,” Maddon said on Cishek’s outing.
More fans allowed for Opening Day
Loosened coronavirus restrictions will allow more fans inside Angel Stadium for Thursday's Opening Day game against the Chicago White Sox.
Orange County has moved up into the orange tier, the second least restrictive tier according to California Governor Gavin Newsom’s statewide COVID-19 guidelines. This means the Angels can open up to 33 percent capacity, compared with the 20 percent capacity that was allowed in the red tier.
"This is perfect timing for us to welcome back even more of our fans to celebrate the start of our 60th anniversary season,” Angels director of communications Adam Chodzko said.
The additional tickets will be available for purchase at Angels.com on Wednesday.
Quintana roughed up in final outing
José Quintana enjoyed a solid Spring Training, but had a tough final outing against the Dodgers in Tuesday’s Freeway Series finale at Dodger Stadium.
Quintana gave up four home runs and six earned runs in five innings.
Prior to the outing against the 2020 World Series champions, Quintana gave up just one earned run in 14 innings (0.64 ERA) in five spring starts.
Quintana said his command of his fastball was an issue, but overall he feels ready for the regular season.
“I feel good,” Quintana said in Spanish. “I had a really good Spring Training. I’m ready for the competition.”
Quintana is expected to be fifth in the Angels' six-man rotation.
Ohtani’s blister not a problem
Two-way player Shohei Ohtani appears to be fine after he exited Monday’s game with a blister on his right middle finger.
He went 1-for-2 with a single against Dodgers starter Dustin May on Tuesday.
Maddon said the blister isn’t expected to be a problem for Ohtani and the decision to remove him from yesterday's game was precautionary.
“It didn't look overwhelmingly bad, compared to some of the blisters I've seen in the past,” he said. “This time of the year, going into the season, not wanting to test anything, we just got him out.”