MLB News: Angels Add Ex-Mets Reliever To Address Pitching Woes

KEY POINTS

The Angels add Aaron Loup to bolster their pitching rotation for the coming season
Loup reunites with former Mets teammate Noah Syndergaard
The Angels are also looking to re-sign Raisel Iglesias

The Los Angeles Angels have made several moves lately to address the team’s needs.

The latest is the addition of Aaron Loup to help improve the Angels pitching woes.

According to baseball Insider Ken Rosenthal, the 33-year-old pitcher agreed to a two-year deal worth $17 million with the Angels.

ESPN added that the Angels will also have a club option for 2024 at $7.5 million with a $2 million buyout.

Loup is coming off a fine season with the New York Mets, where he appeared in 65 games and threw 52 innings.

In addition, he had a career-best 0.95 earned run average while allowing 0.94 walks and hits per inning pitched last season, posting a perfect 6-0 record, NESN reported.

The southpaw pitcher was one of the sensible and most-effective relief pitchers in free agency.

Ironically, the deal would also reunite him with Noah Syndergaard, who the Angels signed to a one-year $21 million deal last week in a previous report by ESPN.

Syndergaard and Loup will join a rotation that also includes MVP awardee Shohei Ohtani, Patrick Sandoval and Jose Suarez.

With the new players in the mix, it appears the Angels are far from finished. They are reportedly also attempting to re-sign closer Raisel Iglesias.

The 31-year-old Cuban emerged as the likely top reliever in the free-agent market after an outstanding performance last MLB season with Los Angeles.

Iglesias had declined a qualifying offer tendered by the Angels earlier this month. However, the Cuban stressed that he would like to return to the Angels.

This comes not long after the Angels acquired the services of Tyler Wade from the New York Yankees, MLB.com reported.

Wade was sent by the Yankees to the Angels for either cash considerations or a player to be known later.

The transaction was made with speculation that the Yankees are trying to create roster space for potential targets.

One name that has been strongly linked to the Yankees is Matt Olson of the Oakland Athletics, but no formal negotiations have reportedly started.