TEMPE, Ariz. — Hunter Strickland emerged from his brief “retirement” to put himself in a solid position to resume his big league career.
Strickland, a 35-year-old right-hander who didn’t pitch in the majors last season, has not allowed a run in 7-1/3 innings with the Angels this spring. Perhaps more significantly, he has not issued a walk, while striking out nine.
“He’s been pounding the strike zone,” manager Ron Washington said. “That’s exactly what we’ve been talking about, what we want everybody else to do.”
Strike-throwing has been such an emphasis in camp that the Angels have been posting a sheet listing the all the pitchers’ strike-throwing performance on the first pitch and on 1-and-1 counts. As of the last update, Strickland had thrown a first-pitch strike 88% of the time and he was at 100% on 1-1 pitches.
Washington stopped short of saying that the numbers gave Strickland a leg up on winning a spot in the Angels’ opening day bullpen.
“He’s been having a good spring,” Washington said. “We’ll see how it shakes out when we start to make a decision.”
The Angels appear to have six of the eight bullpen spots locked, with right-handed closer Carlos Estévez at the top. Right-handers Luis Garcia, Adam Cimber and José Cisnero, and left-handers Matt Moore and José Suarez are all safely on the roster.
Right-hander Robert Stephenson’s shoulder injury has likely opened up another spot. That could go to right-hander José Soriano, who has been working as a starter but could easily drop back to the bullpen if that’s what the Angels decide.
After that, though, Strickland is one of four candidates for the final one or two spots. He’s joined by right-handers Guillo Zuñiga and Ben Joyce and left-hander Drew Pomeranz. Strickland and Pomeranz are both in camp on minor league deals, while Zuñiga and Joyce are already on the 40-man roster.
Although there’s more to the decision than spring training numbers, statistically none of the four has performed better than Strickland.
“I feel great,” Strickland said on Sunday. I feel incredible. I think last year was a blessing, to be honest. I went home and it was a really good reset for me. I thought I was done playing. I made peace with it. But there was still a little fire burning in there. We put in the work and here we are.”
Strickland first reached the big leagues with the San Francisco Giants in 2014, pitching in October to help the Giants to a World Series title. He had a 2.91 ERA over parts of five seasons with the Giants before beginning a nomadic journey around the big leagues.
From 2019-22, Strickland pitched for seven teams in the majors, including a forgettable nine-game stint with the Angels in 2021. The Cincinnati Reds sent him to Triple-A to start the 2023 season, and he was released after 11 innings. No one else picked up Strickland, so he was at home with his family, pondering the end of his career.
After he decided he wanted to keep playing, the Angels gave him a shot.
Now, Strickland has seen enough not to count on anything regarding his position on the roster.
“I knew coming into it this was a tough bullpen to break,” he said. “There’s a lot of talent here that’s already got their foot in. I think healthy competition is a good thing. I’m just coming in here, day to day, taking it one at a time and see how it plays out.”
Stephenson said Sunday that his shoulder isn’t feeling better yet, although he remains hopeful that it’s not a major injury.
“Unfortunately it’s still more of the same,” he said. “It’s frustrating. It’s just been kind of nagging for a lot longer than anybody wanted for the majority of the spring.”
Stephenson said an MRI showed just some inflammation and an impingement.
“Nothing serious anyone was overly concerned about,” he said.
A week ago, Stephenson said he was feeling better, and he was holding out hope of being ready for Opening Day.
“It would feel good for a couple days and then I’d jump back on the mound and we’d kind of go back a little bit,” he said. “Every time I felt I was making progress, we’d go backwards a little bit.”
The Angels signed Stephenson to a three-year, $33-million contract — the largest deal they gave to anyone this winter — but he now seems certain to start the year on the injured list.
“My main focus is once I get back out there, I want to be there for the rest of the year, rather than trying to rush through something and I end up getting hurt again,” he said.
Right-hander Griffin Canning is scheduled to start on Monday and again on Saturday, which is exactly five days before the March 28 opener in Baltimore. Washington conceded that the calendar “looks like” Canning will be the Opening Day starter, but he said they still “haven’t made that decision yet.” Major League Baseball discourages teams from officially announcing their Opening Day starter before the league-wide “reveal.” …
Infielder Michael Stefanic (quad) was set to run the bases at about 85%, he said. Stefanic said he believes he can be playing in games within a week. Even though Stefanic estimated he’s gotten at least 25 at-bats worth of work in live batting practice, Washington said he doesn’t have enough time to be ready for Opening Day. …
Infielder Miguel Sanó returned to workouts on Sunday after missing a day with back stiffness.
