Angels Fans Should Blame Perry Minasian not Jordan Romano for Losses vs. Yankees

Jordan Romano has not been a quality Major League reliever for several years and it was foolish to think he could be a quality closer this season. He is doing the best he can and simply should not be in position to blow two games in three days for the Angels. The fact he is even on the mound in save situations is an indictment of Angels general manager Perry Minasian.

Romano is actually pitching a little better right now than he did the past two seasons.

That is not an apology for Romano just an acknowledgement of how bad he was in 2024 and 2025. Last year he posted an ERA of 8.23 in 42.2 innings for Philadelphia. Batters hit the ball hard off him 39.2% of the time and he gave up 2.1 home runs per 9 innings.

In the last two years the average exit velocities against Jordan Romano have been 91.6 and 88.9. The fact it is down to 85 this season is movement in the right direction. Unfortunately, Romano's already high walk rate has ballooned to 18.2% in 2026.

Yes, Romano was a quality MLB closer in Toronto in 2023 and Perry clearly prioritized closing experience while building the 2026 bullpen. Hoping Romano could recover his velocity, movement, and abilities from years ago made a little sense if he was going to be a middle reliever. Hoping for all that to work out as a closer is foolish at best.

Perry Minasian has completely failed at drafting arms.

In 2021 Minasian selected 20 pitchers and signed 19 of them. So far 2 are in the Angels bullpen and neither are high leverage arms. Sam Bachman has struggled with injuries and Chase Silseth with consistency. Those are the 2 biggest wins of Perry's 5 drafts by far.

In each draft since then he has selected more arms than bats. Many of them were either college closers or two pitch starters who projected to move to the bullpen.

The fact Minasian has drafted over 60 pitchers, many relievers, and has only found 2 bullpen arms is an alarmingly high failure rate. Yes, Ryan Johnson has upside and was on the roster before an illness and injury so perhaps Perry can get credit for drafting 3 pitchers at the MLB level, none of whom are highly rated.

Ben Joyce should be the crown jewel of Perry's draft picks, at least in reference to the bullpen, but he was an injury risk when drafted and has fulfilled many scouts predictions of being injured. Romano is closing because Perry's personal pick for closer is injured again.

The Robert Stephenson signing made Perry go cheap on bullpen arms.

Lacking TV money and facing a huge lawsuit, the Angels trimmed actual cash payroll by nearly $80 million this off season. That is on Arte Moreno 100%. Whether they admit it or not, the team is going through a rebuild.

Even a rebuild requires some investment in the team, though. Particuarly when no draft picks are ready to the big stage. Perry Minasian is responsilbe for handing Robert Stephenson $33 million over 3 seasons. That contract was risky enough considering Stephenson was coming off the only dominant stretch of his career. It immediately tanked when Stephenson was injured and missed the entire first season.

Predictably, Stephenson is injured again. That created a hole at the back of the bullpen that was completely foreseeable. However, the $11 million owed to Stephenson is still on the payroll.

Last year's solid closer Kenley Jansen is currently being his solid self for Detroit. 5 appearances, a 2.45 ERA, and 3 saves to go along with veteran leadership is Jansen's line so far. He's making $9 million this year with a $12 million option for 2027.

In short, the Angels could not pay Jansen to actually pitch because they are again paying Stephenson to not pitch. At the same average annual value, just to make it sting more.

Angels fans can not expect bad pitchers to be closers. Neither should Perry.

The angst of seeing Romano trot to the mound in the Bronx fully knowing he was going to blow yet another game was tough last night. And with him being the player on the TV his was the obvious face to look and assign blame.

But the fact of the matter is Romano would only be the closer for the Angels and perhaps a few cellar dwellars. Considering the ample draft capital Minasian has spent on pitchers and the payroll allocated to a perpetually injured Stephenson, the correct place to assign blame for the last two losses is the general manager.

Perry continually hopes injured player stay healthy and guys rebound to former greatness. Hope, however, is not a plan. But it seems to be the only plan Perry has year after year.

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