The Angels announced this afternoon that they’ve signed right-hander Jose Urena to a major league contract. He’ll take the active roster spot of left-hander Tyler Anderson, who is headed to the 15-day injured list with a left oblique strain. A timeline for Anderson’s return to action is not yet available, but Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register suggests that the injury is “likely” to end Anderson’s 2025 season.
Urena, 34 in September, has appeared in parts of 11 seasons in the majors. He began his career as a member of the Marlins and mostly pitched in a swing role to below average results, though he did manage to post a solid 3.90 ERA (100 ERA+) in 343 2/3 innings of work from 2017 to 2018. Since departing the Marlins following the shortened 2020 season, Urena has bounced around the league as a mostly below-average depth option primarily used on non-contending teams, with a 5.04 ERA (85 ERA+) and a nearly-matching 5.11 FIP across the past five seasons while suiting up for the Tigers, White Sox, Rockies, Brewers, Rangers, Mets, Blue Jays, Dodgers, and Twins.
He has looked better than that in recent years, however. Urena pitched mostly in multi-inning relief for the Rangers last year and turned in a perfectly solid 3.80 ERA despite a 4.62 FIP, with even better results when pitching out of the bullpen as opposed to starting. Urena’s work in 2025 is skewed by a single outing with the Mets where he surrendered five runs in three innings of multi-inning relief work, but his 5.00 ERA on the season drops to 4.08 when looking at his work out of the bullpen and 4.09 when looking at his work after leaving New York.
Perhaps unfortunately for Urena, it seems as though the Angels have designs on placing him in their rotation to replace Anderson. The 35-year-old lefty is a veteran of 10 MLB seasons at this point and has generally been a back-of-the-rotation arm throughout his career. He’s spent each of the past three years with the Angels, and while he pitched well enough in 2024 to be named an All-Star his 4.53 ERA and 5.02 FIP in 456 2/3 innings of work for the club have generally been lackluster. It’s been more of the same this year, with a 4.56 ERA and a 5.58 FIP in 26 starts.
Even while starting, Urena should be able to post production that rivals those mediocre numbers. Urena will be joined by Jose Soriano, Yusei Kikuchi, and Kyle Hendricks in Anaheim’s rotation, with Chase Silseth also in the mix as a long relief arm who could serve as a bulk starter in bullpen games. Outside of that group, it’s possible the Angels could look to someone like Caden Dana or Sam Bachman in the minor leagues to help fill out the rotation down the stretch, particularly if they ultimately decide to have Urena join Silseth in the bullpen.