Ex-LA Angels' top prospect is extremely close to a breakout

Reid Detmers has had an up-and-down season this year for the LA Angels, and some of those ups-and-downs have even happened within the same exact starts. Meaning, he sometimes throws very well when he's in the game, but doesn't stay in the game long enough to prove that he's taken the full jump this year.

In each of his last two starts, he didn't give up any runs, and in his last start only allowed three hits. The issue was that he only went 4.1 IP in both those starts.

While it is far from ideal for a starter to go less than five innings, the fact that he is pitching well while he's in the game shows that he's just a few tweaks away from really being a dominant pitcher in this league. And he certainly has been pitching well in the innings he has thrown this season.

Reid Detmers boasts a 3.83 ERA with a 1.014 WHIP and a .192 BAA for the LA Angels in 2022.

The problem is NOT that Reid Detmers isn't effective when he's on the mound for the LA Angels. It's just that he's not on the mound very much for the Angels. He's started ten games this year, so he's not missing starts. He is, however, booted from games a bit too early. He's only thrown 49.1 innings in his ten starts.

Earlier in the season, the (reasonable) excuse was that pitchers were all on short pitch counts due to the shortened spring training. At this point, however, Detmers is 10 starts in and should be going more than just 4 and a third like he had in his last start. He should also be going more than his 4.9 inning average on the year at this point.

Detmers has absolutely NAILED the ability to pitch effectively when he's on the rubber. Now it's just going to come down to Detmers STAYING on the rubber if he wants to take the full jump to being a strong starting pitcher in this league.

There's no pressure. He's still only 22 years old. The improvement he's already shown this year is already enough to prove that he is most certainly on an upward trajectory. There still IS, however, that room for improvement to become a high-impact guy night in and night out. All it takes is for Detmers to go a bit deeper into games. That adjustment absolutely can be made as early as this summer.