José Álvarez had to battle to solidify his place in the Angels’ relief corps in 2015, but gets to coast into the bullpen this year. This is partly due to the fact that he’s the only real experienced lefty reliever remaining in the organization, but mostly the result of a strong effort in his first season as a full-time reliever.
Álvarez turned in more multi-inning appearances (19) last season than any Halos reliever over the last five years, offering at least the hope that Mike Scioscia might return to his days of letting a bullpen arm stay in the game for as long as he’s effective—think Scot Shields or Shigetoshi Hasegawa.