2 Angels prospects who will make the Opening Day roster and 1 who won't

The Angels have a plethora of young players fighting it out for spots on the opening-day roster.

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Reid Detmers won't make the cut for opening day

Despite many believing Detmers will be the fifth starter to begin the year he'll really need to show out to make the team out of spring training.

The issue for Detmers is how last year played out. In March and April, he posted a 3.12 ERA over 34.2 innings, creating a buzz that he had arrived as a top-of-the-rotation starter. Then May happened and the wheels fell off as he posted a 9.49 ERA that month. In June he recorded an even worse 12.27 ERA over just 3.2 innings earning a demotion to AAA.

When he resurfaced in September the results weren't much better as he logged 24.1 innings and pitched to the tune of an 8.14 ERA. Between big league stints, he also struggled mightily in AAA.

Most concerning is that Detmers himself didn't seem to have any answers regarding what went wrong. He was reportedly surprised by his demotion and could offer up nothing more than disappointment in the decision. The most concerning part is that he didn't seem to come up with any answers while toiling in AAA, and while there were a couple of flashes of potential upon his return the results were largely ugly.

Detmers will have an uphill battle in spring training. While one can hope he's been able to take stock in the offseason to identify exactly what went wrong and has been working to rectify it, he's going to have to prove it once the season's warm-up period begins.

He'll be on a short leash and if he struggles at all, especially given the fierce competition he'll face for a role, he likely won't get the benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately for Detmers, Caden Dana likely locking down the fifth-starter role to open the season could mean another minor-league stint.

The book isn't closed on the talented lefty, and even if he begins the season in the minors, he certainly could eventually usurp one of the rotation's greybeards like Tyler Anderson or Kyle Hendricks, but he'll have to prove he's reliable first.

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