Angels’ Dane De La Rosa is finally rewarded for his perseverance

If you just got married and bought a house, this would be a good year to land a job in an industry with a minimum annual salary of $490,000.

The Angels are happy for Dane De La Rosa, and happy to have him too. After a decade chasing his dream through 10 minor leagues across nine states and Canada, De La Rosa has earned his first extended stay in the major leagues and emerged as one of the Angels’ few reliable relief pitchers.

On the day the Angels broke camp in Arizona, they acquired three relievers. Mark Lowe has a 10.13 earned-run average for the Angels. Elvin Ramirez has a 12.19 ERA at triple-A Salt Lake. But De La Rosa has made 21 appearances for the Angels, one shy of the league lead, with a 4.91 ERA.

For De La Rosa, it’s a homecoming 10 years in the making.

“It’s cool to be here,” he said. “It’s cool to play affiliated baseball on the West Coast.”

De La Rosa, 30, grew up in the South Bay. His grandparents raised him to be a fan of the Dodgers. He decided instead to be a fan of Trevor Hoffman, the San Diego Padres closer with the killer changeup and the killer entrance — “Hell’s Bells,” and the show that accompanied it.

He moved to the Inland Empire, attending Wildomar High and Riverside Community College. The New York Yankees selected him in the 24th round of the 2002 draft and signed him the next year. The Yankees cut him in 2004, after 20 professional appearances and a 2.80 ERA.

De La Rosa figured he would sign with another team.

“I couldn’t get a job anywhere,” he said.

He found one in Yuma, Ariz., in the independent Golden League. That did not go well, and in 2006 De La Rosa thought about retirement.

He was 23. He sat out the season, worked in real estate and decided he would rather try baseball again.

“It was just based on knowing my ability and telling myself, with the right people guiding me, I could potentially be in the big leagues,” De La Rosa said, “and really not wanting to do anything else.”

He tried the Golden League again, this time in Long Beach. That got him a contract from the Milwaukee Brewers, who gave him two innings in rookie ball and cut him the next spring.

For the third time, he signed with the Golden League, and the Orange County team managed by Hall of Fame member Gary Carter. In 2009, he tried another independent team, this one in El Paso. After 15 games there, with an 8.07 ERA, his career appeared over.

De La Rosa said he never had received the intensive coaching that he believed a high draft pick — one in which a team had invested a six- or seven-figure bonus — might have gotten.

He visited Dom Johnson, a private pitching coach in San Diego County and the son of former Angels hitting coach Deron Johnson. In four days, De La Rosa said, Johnson had corrected the mechanical flaws that had led to — and followed — bouts of arm trouble.

“It pretty much changed my career,” De La Rosa said.

In July 2009, De La Rosa joined his fourth Golden League team, this one in Victoria, Canada, playing in front of crowds he half-jokingly estimated at “zero.”

Within two weeks, Manager Darrell Evans told De La Rosa he needed greater exposure and helped him get to another independent team, the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs of the Atlantic League.

The Tampa Bay Rays signed him in November 2009, and he climbed through their minor league system in 20 months. On July 20, 2011 — eight years after he originally signed with the Yankees — he made his major league debut against them and struck out the first batter he faced, Mark Teixeira.

In four stints over two years with the major league club, De La Rosa got 12 innings and had a 10.95 ERA. The Rays removed him from the major league roster in February and swapped him to the Angels in March, for another minor league reliever.

The Angels summoned him to the majors in the first week of the season, in time to stand on the third base line for the home opener and hear his name introduced with the likes of Albert Pujols, Josh Hamilton and Mike Trout, with his family there to watch him play pro baseball in Southern California in the American League rather than the Golden League.

“I never would have thought I’d actually be here for opening day,” De La Rosa said. “It was always exciting being that close to home. This is a whole ‘nother level.”

bill.shaikin@latimes.com

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