Angels News: Interim manager weighs Detmers starting, Kikuchi's injury scare

The Los Angeles Angels finished the first half of the year 47-49 and four games out of the American League wild card race, which is an absolute win for a team that was given a 13.4% chance to make the postseason before the season started. The story of the Angels' season so far: the team hits home runs, Mike Trout's relatively healthy, Yusei Kikuchi's an All-Star and Anthony Rendon is luckily nowhere to be seen. A subplot is that the team has only used five starters all year, but they have a vacancy that needs to be filled at some point early next week.

Angels News: Interim manager discusses Reid Detmers starting

The most logical choice to replace Jack Kochanowicz in the starting rotation after his demotion is Reid Detmers. He has been one of MLB's best pitchers the past two months and was the odd man out in spring training to make the rotation.

“I would hate to say no to anything, but I don’t think that’s going to happen,” interim manager Ray Montgomery said of Detmers potentially moving back to the rotation. “Never say never.”

Montgomery is awfully coy about this subject, but behind the scenes the Angels undoubtedly have a plan for who will take Kochanowicz's spot. Carson Fulmer's name has been thrown around, and other in-house options probably include Ryan Johnson, Jake Eder, Caden Dana, Sam Aldegheri, Víctor Mederos, Chase Silseth and George Klassen.

Taking the former first round pick out of the bullpen would create a giant predicament for the team's bullpen. From May 20th on, Detmers is posting a 1.08 ERA, 2.89 FIP, a 1.08 WHIP, a 11.88 K/9 and a 3.60 BB/9. Keep in mind that Detmers' usage is high, he is only one of 14 relievers with 25 or more innings pitched in the past two months. So, even though he is not built up as a starter he does obviously have a history of starting, and he is posting damn-near every day.

The logical move here is for the Angels to trade for a starter whose contract does not expire at the end of the 2025 campaign, which would fill a need both this year and beyond given that impending free agents Tyler Anderson and Kyle Hendricks' statuses beyond this year with the team are in doubt.

Angels News: Yusei Kikuchi has an injury scare

Yusei Kikuchi already was not going to pitch in the All-Star Game, but especially not after his latest outing against Arizona. Josh Naylor hit a line drive that struck Kikuchi in his throwing shoulder during the 6th inning. The starter rolled around on the ground for a bit before standing back up and conversing with Angels staffers that rushed to the field to evaluate him. He threw some practice pitches to test out his arm, and stayed in the game to face one more batter before being removed.

“There’s a little bit of pain,” Kikuchi said, “but I don’t think it’s that big of an issue.”

The Angels keep their cards close to their chest when disclosing information about player injuries to the media, so Kikuchi's comments are the only true source to go off of. If he says he is fine, then he's fine. He threw two curveballs, so there's no way to know if his velocity dipped (the two curveballs were not his slowest pitches of the day).

A trip to the injured list for Kikuchi would cripple this team that only has four starters at the moment. It's great that he has a break to rest, and hopefully he comes out of it available and lethal.

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