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Angels GM Perry Minasian encouraged by ‘what we could be’

May 3, 2026

ANAHEIM — To no one’s surprise, Perry Minasian is not panicked over the way the Angels have played lately.

Minasian, who spoke to the media on Sunday for the first time in weeks, took a measured stance when asked to evaluate what he’s seen lately.

The Angels, who most projected to finish in last place, just snapped their seven-game losing streak on Saturday night. After losing 11 of their previous 13 games, the Angels were 13-21 coming into Sunday’s game. They ranked 11th in runs per game, ninth in rotation ERA and 29th in bullpen ERA.

Minasian, who is in the final year of his contract, assessed all of that in exactly the way you might expect.

“It’s been a tough stretch,” Minasian said. “We’ve lost a lot of tough games, especially late. One out away multiple times. Anybody that was on that trip, it was a tough trip, one of the toughest I’ve been on. With that being said, we’ve been in every game. When you look at good teams, offensively we’re in a decent spot. We’ve done some really good things. Starting pitcher wise, we’ve been pretty productive. So those are two good indicators of what we could be.

“Now, we’ve got to fine-tune the rest of it and obviously the bullpen has been up and down. We’ve got some younger guys pitching in roles they haven’t pitched in. We had some older guys that didn’t necessarily perform great so far. That’ll work itself out. You know, we’ve got good arms, we’ve got good people. We’ll be fine.”

Minasian said the return of injured pitchers Ben Joyce and Kirby Yates should help the bullpen. Joyce and Yates each pitched scoreless innings on Saturday at Class-A Rancho Cucamonga.

“We’ve got guys coming back from injury, obviously, so that should help,” Minasian said. “Hopefully they’re back sooner than later. That should help with the pecking order of the bullpen.”

Minasian also said he’s happy with the job that first-year manager Kurt Suzuki has done.

“I think he’s been great,” Minasian said. “When you go through tough stretches, it’s tough. Nobody wants to see it. It’s really tough. You’re living it, you’re there, it’s emotional. But you find out a lot about people in those types of situations. And being, you know, on the road trip and in that room, and even in New York, we had a tough couple losses, you see the quality of people we have. Whether it’s the manager, whether it’s the coaching staff, whether it’s the locker room. So as much as you don’t want to go through struggles like that, you’re going to over the course of a season. I learned a lot about our group and our room, and I love it more than I did before, before the stretch we had.

“Kurt, it’s his first time doing it, he’s learning on the job too. But I love where he’s at. Coaching staff, I believe is one of the best in baseball and that’s why we have these guys. The experience level, we’ve got a lot of younger players that we’re trying to establish in certain roles and having some of the experience we have in the coaching staff with the manager, I believe will really help them long-term.”

KIKUCHI TO IL

The Angels officially have another hole in the rotation, although they still don’t know for how long.

Left-hander Yusei Kikuchi was placed on the injured list on Sunday with shoulder inflammation. Kikuchi underwent an MRI after coming out of Wednesday’s game with the problem.

“We’re just waiting to see how it progresses,” Minasian said. “He’s getting looked at again and we’ll go from there.”

In the meantime, the Angels have to find a starter for Tuesday. They could simply go with left-hander Mitch Farris if he’s not needed in relief before then.

One possibility would be right-hander Caden Dana, who last pitched on Thursday at Triple-A.

Dana, 22, missed most of spring training recovering from mono, so he didn’t start pitching in Triple-A until April 18. He’s made three starts, but one of them was ended after one inning because he was feeling sick. In the other two, he’s allowed three runs in 11 innings, with 12 strikeouts and one walk.

It will not be right-handers Grayson Rodriguez, Ryan Johnson or Alek Manoah, who are not far along enough in their rehab from various issues.

For now, Minasian was noncommittal about who will go into the rotation with José Soriano, Jack Kochanowicz, Reid Detmers and Walbert Ureña.

“We’ve got guys we really like,” Minasian said. “We’ve got some young arms. We’ll just go from there and guys will get opportunity. We currently have four homegrown starters. So we’ll add another one and see what happens.”

GETTING A SHOT

Oswald Peraza and Vaughn Grissom were in the lineup — over Yoán Moncada and Adam Frazier — for the second straight game when the Angels were facing a right-hander. Previously, they were starting mostly against lefties.

While manager Kurt Suzuki would not commit to them being his new “primary” starters at their positions, he acknowledged that they’ve earned more playing time.

“Playing the matchups, playing the hot hand, kind of goes into decisions like this,” Suzuki said. “That being said, they’re all going to play. Fair question. We’ll see we’ll see how it plays out.”

Peraza had the game-winning hit on Saturday, lifting his OPS to .849. Grissom has an .862 OPS.

NOTES

The Angels called up left-hander Taylor Saucedo to take Kikuchi’s spot on the roster. …

Christian Moore, one of the Angels top young players, has been out with “a leg issue” that “should be short-term time frame,” Minasian said. …

Yates was “a lot better,” in his Saturday scoreless inning for Rancho Cucamonga, Minasian said. Yates had been scheduled to pitch on Thursday, but there was a mixup with the lineup card and one of the umpires wouldn’t let him pitch in the game. Instead, he had a bullpen session with major league bullpen coach Dom Chiti, who went to Rancho Cucamonga. “They worked on his delivery, worked on his split, and it translated yesterday,” Minasian said.

UP NEXT

White Sox (RHP Davis Martin, 4-1, 1.95) at Angels (RHP José Soriano, 5-1, 0.84), Monday, 6:38 p.m., ABTV, 830 AM

Orange County Register

News Details

Angels GM Perry Minasian encouraged by ‘what we could be’

KIKUCHI TO IL

GETTING A SHOT

NOTES

UP NEXT

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