Aaron Loup is an American professional baseball pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels of Major League Baseball (MLB). He previously played in MLB for the Toronto Blue Jays, Philadelphia Phillies, San Diego Padres, Tampa Bay Rays, and New York Mets.
Loup was born in Raceland, Louisiana, and went on to play baseball at both Hahnville High School and Tulane University. While there, he led his teams to multiple appearances in the state playoffs and had a five-hit shutout. Loup is now a professional baseball player.
In the 2009 Major League Baseball Draft, the Blue Jays selected him in the ninth round after he had played for Tulane University.
After playing for the Toronto Blue Jays minor league affiliates for three years and being selected for the Eastern League All-Star Game in 2012, Loup was called up to the Blue Jays as a replacement for Luis Pérez and retired all six batters he faced in his debut. Loup’s promotion came after he had already been selected for the 2012 Eastern League All-Star Game.
Later on, the Toronto members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America decided that he should be awarded the Rookie of the Year trophy for the 2012 Toronto Blue Jays season (BBWAA).
In 2013, Loup threw one and a third innings on Opening Day, and then went on to win his first game in the major leagues on April 10 against the Detroit Tigers.
On April 12 and June 2, he collected his first two saves in the major leagues, and on June 8, after a pair of groundouts, he pitched the Blue Jays to victory in an 18-inning game to give them their first win of the season.
How Good Is Aaron Loup?
Aaron Loup is a tremendous pitcher that provides a great balance to our bullpen. He is always ready to go, and he always wants the ball. Aaron Loup is a bullpen arm that we cannot live without.
Since the All-Star break, Loup has been virtually unhittable, posting a 0.53 earned run average while allowing just one run on nine hits in 17 innings pitched. This performance was alluded to by Rojas.
Before Major League Baseball established the three-batter minimum rule, Loup was likely deployed in the majority of lefty-on-lefty situations as a specialist. This was the case before the rule.
However, because of this new regulation, the use of southpaw relievers, which had been rather frequent in the past, has very much been eliminated.