Mike Mayers

Relievers can pop up out of nowhere, and that's seemingly what Mayers did in the short 2020 campaign. After posting a 7.03 ERA in 80.2 career innings prior to last season, he broke out as a 28-year-old to toss 30.0 innings with a 2.10 ERA and 0.90 WHIP. While a .242 BABIP certainly didn't hurt, he deserves the majority of the credit for his excellent numbers. He posted a poor 18.7 K% through 2019 but saw that number spike to 35.5% last season, a number he paired with a 7.4 BB%. That's a dramatic shift, but he added an entirely new pitch to his arsenal, throwing his new cutter nearly a quarter of the time, so there's a good chance the improvements stick. A low 32.8% groundball rate hints at potential homer problems in the future, but overall he looks legitimately like a high-leverage arm. The Angels' acquisition of Raisel Iglesias means he won't pick up saves to start the year, but he should be next in line.

Mayers put together a modest 3.73 ERA and 1.32 WHP over 16 starts at Triple-A Memphis in 2016, but there is little reason to think he'll be used as a starter in the big leagues. He stumbled in his brief taste with St. Louis, allowing a whopping 16 runs over 5.1 innings spread across four treacherous outings, three of which came in September after rosters expanded. Coming off that brutal display, the odds are stacked against Mayers starting the season in the majors, let alone making his way up before the All-Star break. While in the minors, Mayers will look to improve his control, which has hindered his performance at every level. Between Double-A Springfield and Triple-A Memphis in 2016, Mayers logged a 3.0 BB/9.