Angels could justify passing on a Reid Detmers trade with one bold move

It sounds as if the Los Angeles Angels have no intention of trading Reid Detmers before the August 3 deadline. A number of MLB insiders, including Robert Murray of FanSided and Bob Nightengale of USA Today seem to think that Detmers is staying in Anaheim until at least the end of the 2026 season.

Now that's not terrible news, per se. While Detmers could certainly fetch a haul at the deadline, the former first-round pick is finally living up to the hype. The Angels drafted the left-hander back in 2020, and after returning to the rotation this season, he's proven that he has what it takes to be a capable frontline starter in the big leagues. That's not necessarily the type of player you just want to trade away, is it?

It does, however, raise questions about the Angels' future plans for players like Detmers, Jose Soriano, and Oswald Peraza. All three are likely to be linked in trade rumors over the next month, but it sounds like the Halos would prefer to move players who are on expiring deals instead. Look for Los Angeles to shop the likes of Brent Suter and perhaps even Jorge Soler at the deadline.

But if the Angels forgo the opportunity to jumpstart their rebuild by parting ways with Detmers, then they need to actually show a commitment to winning. Strange as that may sound to Angels fans, the goal of every baseball team should be to win as many games as possible. Detmers can certainly help in that regard, and it's why the Halos should consider signing him to a contract extension.

If the Angels aren't trading Reid Detmers, they must have plans to extend him

The idea of extending young players certainly hasn't been a prevalent one in Anaheim of late. The last player the Angels extended was Mike Trout, and that was all the way back in 2019. That's not to say the Arte Moreno hasn't spent money since that time; he has. But the investments have been, for the most part, ill-advised.

There's the obvious mistake of a contract the Angels handed over to Anthony Rendon in 2019, and even more recently LA has been tied to bad deals for Yusei Kikuchi (three-year, $63 million) and Robert Stephenson (three-year, $33 million).

But Detmers is a homegrown player who's still arbitration eligible. Typically, those deals don't crater an entire franchise if they go bad, and given Detmers' questionable track record, he's not going to receive ace-caliber money anyway.

A few recent examples of the type of contract Detmers could be looking to sign would the five-year, $68 million deal Shane Baz signed with the Baltimore Orioles earlier this year, or the five-year, $48 million pact Tanner Bibee inked with the Cleveland Guardians in 2025.

There's obviously no rush to sign such a deal, and with the unknown of the upcoming collective bargaining negotiations, few teams are likely to extend some of their best players before that deal is settled.

But once the new CBA is in place, whoever is running the Angels has a question to answer: what do you do with Detmers? If you're not going to cash in on his talents at this year's deadline (or next offseason), it's time to offer him a long-term deal.

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