{"id":686900,"date":"2026-05-22T08:00:44","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T08:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/686900\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T08:00:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T08:00:44","slug":"angels-notes-closer-moncada-grissom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/686900\/","title":{"rendered":"Angels Notes: Closer, Moncada, Grissom"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Angels continue to operate without a defined closer, manager Kurt Suzuki tells Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com<\/a>. That comes after\u00a0Kirby Yates<\/a> blew a save by surrendering a ninth-inning homer to\u00a0Jeff McNeil<\/a> on Wednesday. The A\u2019s would go to win that game by plating the free runner against Chase Silseth<\/a> in the top of the 10th.<\/p>\n

Yates was going for his first save of the season. The 39-year-old missed the first six weeks to right knee inflammation. He\u2019d worked scoreless appearances in three of four outings before the ill-timed longball yesterday.<\/p>\n

The Halos have been the worst team in the league, so it\u2019s not a surprise that they have the fewest saves in MLB. That said, it\u2019s remarkable that four of their five saves all year were by the since released Jordan Romano<\/a> within the first two weeks of the season. They have one save in the last six weeks, which went to\u00a0Ryan Zeferjahn<\/a> against the White Sox on May 5.<\/p>\n

Aside from Yates, Silseth technically has their only other blown save this month. That came in the sixth inning, so it was more accurately a missed opportunity for a hold. The Halos didn\u2019t have a save opportunity tonight, but they went right back to Yates in a situation typically reserved for a team\u2019s closer \u2014 to pitch the top of the ninth in a tied game. The righty worked around a\u00a0Vaughn Grissom<\/a> error to toss a scoreless inning.<\/p>\n

Grissom got the nod at the hot corner for the third consecutive game. The last two have come against right-handed starters Aaron Civale<\/a> and\u00a0Luis Severino<\/a>. That\u2019s not a coincidence, as Suzuki confirmed to Jeff Fletcher of The Orange County Register<\/a> that they\u2019re reducing playing time for scuffling third baseman\u00a0Yo\u00e1n Moncada<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Re-signed to a $4MM deal over the offseason, Moncada has hit .189\/.308\/.297 across 130 plate appearances. Although he has avoided the injured list, the 30-year-old confirmed he\u2019s still dealing with discomfort in his right knee related to the injury that cost him five weeks last summer. The switch-hitter said the knee bothers him when he bats from the right side. The Halos have accordingly limited his exposure to left-handed pitching for a second straight year.<\/p>\n

Moncada had been productive from the left side of the dish last season, posting an .815 OPS against righties. That\u2019s down to a .225\/.330\/.360 line with 34 strikeouts in 104 plate appearances this year \u2014 more or less leading to an unofficial benching.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the route that we\u2019re going to go,\u201d Suzuki told Fletcher. \u201cI talked to him and he knows what he has to do. \u2026 Right now, this is where we\u2019re at. I\u2019m not saying it\u2019s going to be like this the rest of the year. It might change. It might not.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Angels took a flier on the right-handed hitting Grissom in an offseason deal with Boston. A minor sprain of his left wrist sidelined him for a couple weeks to begin the season. Grissom came out on fire when he was activated, hitting .342 with a homer and four doubles in 13 games through the end of April. His bat has gone ice cold since the calendar flipped, and he\u2019s now hitting .226\/.308\/.355 over 108 plate appearances. The Halos have used an Oswald Peraza<\/a>\/Adam Frazier<\/a> platoon at second base but could get Peraza more work at the hot corner if Grissom doesn\u2019t pick back up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Angels continue to operate without a defined closer, manager Kurt Suzuki tells Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. That…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,251649,54360,591,330904,85,91435,16067],"class_list":["post-686900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-chase-silseth","tag-kirby-yates","tag-mlb","tag-ryan-zeferjahn","tag-sports","tag-vaughn-grissom","tag-yoan-moncada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=686900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}