Junior Guerra spent his seventh year in the majors with the Angels and it was his first year with the Halos. Guerra’s time with the Angels started with him being released from the Diamondbacks on November 23, 2020. He was a free agent until he was signed to a minor league deal with the Angels and was invited to spring training on February 2nd.

Guerra spent the season with the major league club but was initially assigned to the Salt Lake Bees on February 11th till his contract was selected on March 16th. He had two stints on the 10-day injured list, first with a right groin strain (May 11- May 21) and then with a left hamstring strain (Sept 17- Oct 3).

In terms of splits, Guerra was slightly better away (5.92 ERA in 38.0 IP) than at home (6.26 ERA in 27.1 IP). Guerra’s best month of work came in June where he posted a 4.15 ERA in 13.0 IP over 7 games and he was noticeably better before the All Star break (4.87 ERA in 40.2 IP) than after (8.03 ERA in 24.2 IP).

2021 Stats:

5 Wins / 2 Losses / 6.06 ERA / 41 Games / 1 Games Started / 65.1 Innings Pitched / 61 Strikeouts / 46 Walks / 1.73 WHIP / -0.3 WAR / 67 Hits Allowed / 45 Runs Allowed / 6 Home Runs Allowed

Best Performance of the Year:

Guerra had a few notable performances, like on April 10th when he went 3.1 innings in scoreless relief, but one of his best performances of the season came when he locked down a comeback win for the Halos. On April 3rd, Guerra came in with 2 outs in the 8th and then finished the 9th; going 1.1 innings, walking one, and striking out two. The Angels made a comeback in the bottom of the eighth and Guerra was able to secure the team a 5-3 win and close out the game.

Roster Status:

On November 7th, Guerra was assigned to Tiburones de La Guaira, a baseball team in the Venezualen Professional Baseball League. On November 17th, the Angels DFA’d Guerra, who was arbitration eligible, and two days later on the 19th, he was released by the team. When he was released, it cleared a spot on the 40 man roster for Noah Syndergaard. Guerra does not currently fit into the future of the club, as they have already parted ways. His 2021 season was disappointing based off of his performances in previous years, especially when coming off one of the best years of his career with Arizona in 2020, and his time with the Angels did not pan out the way it was planned too; with that, Guerra will look to find success elsewhere.

2021 Overall Grade: C-