Joe Maddon said it usually takes “three weeks to a month” to figure out a bullpen, a process that could be even more challenging this year with an Angels relief corps that features seven new arms—including two signed three days before the start of the season—and only one holdover from 2020.
But the Angels manager is giving himself a crash course in his new closer, Raisel Iglesias, the hard-throwing right-hander acquired from the Cincinnati Reds during the offseason.
Four games into 2021, Maddon has summoned Iglesias three times, but only once in a traditional ninth-inning save situation, when Iglesias nailed down the final three outs of Thursday’s season-opening 4-3 win over the Chicago White Sox.