The Angels continue to strengthen the relief squad, agreeing to terms with Ryan Tepera in a two-year, $14 million deal. This is the second notable free agent pick of the day for Halos, who agreed to terms with Archie Bradley this morning. Tepera is a client of All Bases Covered Sports Management.
Tepera was one of the best pitchers left on the market. During several seasons in Toronto, he was a capable but mostly nondescript mid-innings player, but the right-hander has taken his game to new heights since signing with the Cubs ahead of the 2020 season. Tepera played 20 2/3 innings in 21 games during the shortened campaign, earning a 3.92 ERA. This run avoidance was mostly in line with his track record, but he noticed a significant resurgence of sweeping punches and punches.
The Sam Houston State product has eliminated 34.8% of batters faced in 2020, nearly ten points higher than his previous career best. Among 141 pitchers with 20+ frames that season, Tepera ranked 15th in strikeout percentage, but he was even more effective on every pitch. It produced a whiff of an incredible 19.5% of its offerings, a rate second only to those that Devin Williams, Tanner Rainey as well as Edwin Diaz among the same group. Teper’s results were a bit overshadowed random MVP voting he got at the end of the year, but he legitimately put in a great showing for Chicago.
However, this improvement came in a small sample and it seemed like teams across the league were not completely buying into his new uniform. Teper’s fastball speed still remained in the familiar 93 mph range, and although he relied more freely on his superior slider cutter, the market did not reflect that he had made significant progress. In February, Tepera re-signed an $800,000 one-year guarantee with the Cubs.
Last year, he basically doubled down on his new uniform compared to the high volume of work. Tepera appeared in 43 games and completed 43 1/3 innings of a 2.91 ERA with the Cubs, eliminating 30.3% of opponents and reducing his walking speed from 13.5% to 7.3%. As part of the disruption of the terms of trade, the northerners handed it over to their rivals from another city for the future. Bailey Horn, and Tepera continued to improve. He posted a 2.50 ERA in 18 innings with the White Sox, outpacing 32% of batters facing a 9.3% walk rate. His 16.3% hitting percentage was once again among the best in the league, ranking ninth out of 138 50+ pitchers.
At 34, Teper has always had little chance of closing a deal that exceeded two years. However, his consecutive seasons of high performance earned him a multi-year contract with an annual rate of $7 million. Spread evenly over two seasons, Jason Martinez of Roster Resource estimated that the Angels’ projected payroll would be approximately $186 million. That beats last year’s record opening day spending of $181 million for the franchise. Their wealth tax ledger will jump to around $202 million, still well below the $230 million base threshold this year.
This winter, Los Angeles invested heavily in the bullpen. They re-signed closer Raizel Iglesias to a four-year contract and added Bradley, Teper and a southpaw Aaron Lu through free agency. They will join internal options such as Mike Myers as well as Austin Warren as late game opportunities for manager Joe Maddon.
Ken Rosenthal of Athletic was the first to report that the Angels and Tepera were working on a deal. John Heyman of the MLB Network reported that an agreement had been reached. Steve Adams of MLBTR was the first to report that it was a two-year, $14 million deal.
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