Angels to promote top pitching prospect Reid Detmers

The Angels are going to promote top pitching prospect Reid Detmers to make his major league debut, according to Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. Although Bollinger originally said the debut would be Saturday, the club later announced a change of plans, with Detmers starting on Sunday. Detmers is not on the 40-man roster but a corresponding may not be necessary since the Angels subtracted from their roster with the earlier trades of Andrew Heaney and Tony Watson. Detmers, a 22-year-old lefty, is the Angels #2 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline, behind only Brandon Marsh, who was himself recently promoted.

This marks a fast jaunt through the minors for Detmers, having been drafted just over a year ago. He was the 10th overall selection in the 2020 draft and is widely-considered one of the top prospects in the game. He is currently ranked #24 at Baseball America, #57 at MLB Pipeline and #39 at FanGraphs. The Angels started Detmers in Double-A earlier this year and saw him flourish immediately. In 54 innings, he had a 3.50 ERA with an amazing strikeout rate of 43.1% and a stingy walk rate of just 3%. After being promoted to Triple-A, Detmers made one start, throwing six shutout innings with nine strikeouts and no walks. The Angels obviously felt they had seen enough to fast-track him to the majors.

Detmers will step into a six-man rotation that has struggled thus far this season. Despite some excellent contributions from Shohei Ohtani, Patrick Sandoval and Alex Cobb, the rotation ERA currently sits at 4.82 on the year, which puts them 21st in the league. That’s thanks to some woeful performances from Griffin Canning, Jose Quintana and Dylan Bundy.

Quintana and Bundy have also been making appearances out of the bullpen lately. But it’s unclear how the rotation will proceed in the short-term. Ohtani might have his start pushed back after recently getting hit on the thumb of his throwing hand by a foul ball, notes Bollinger. Additionally, Alex Cobb’s blister issue has persisted enough that he may hit the IL, according to Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times.