2 Angels pitchers who will surpass their projections, 1 who will not

The Angels' pitching staff is very much a work in progress, both in terms of team-building and what we can reasonably expect from the various players that currently make up the rotation and bullpen. A lot of questions need to be answered, and some will pleasantly surprise while others will sorely disappoint.

Right now, the best baseline we have for what to expect are the projections, and the Steamer Projections have some interesting ideas of what will happen with the Halos' hurlers in 2025. Projections, however, have their limitations and use what already happened to try to predict what will happen going forward. With that said, there are two arms that could delight and one that could be a letdown.

Reid Detmers will delight the Angels' fans

2025 Steamer Projection: 39 games, 18 starts 118.0 innings pitched, 3.85 ERA, 3.91 FIP, 1.7 fWAR

To say that 2024 was a rough year for Detmers would be putting it mildly. The 25-year-old southpaw entered the season looking to establish himself as a front-line starter, after two solid campaigns in 2022 and 2023.

By June, 2024 he was demoted back to the minors. Yet when he resurfaced during the season's conclusion, he showed some reasons for optimism by putting together a few solid starts...before imploding again to close out the season.

He finished 2024 with a 6.70 ERA in just 87.1 innings pitched. Some thought his time with the Halos had come to an end, however, here we are in January and he's a presumptive starter.

The good news is, Detmers can, and likely will fix his issues. His biggest bugaboo was the long ball, which bit him to the tune of 1.85 HR/9...worlds away from his 0.91 mark in 2022. If he can get that back on track closer to league average, his numbers start to look a lot better. Second, despite his issues, Detmers still missed bats at a near-elite level. His 11.23 K/9 was stellar, and his strikeout rate and whiff rate were in the 83rd and 77th percentiles, respectively. All told, Detmers' xERA for 2024 was a much more manageable 4.14.

His velocity never wavered last season and his ability to miss bats is still there. If he can limit his mistakes within the strike zone which got crushed last year he can get back on track and be well on his way to beating his projections.