MLB.com's Angels break out candidate for 2023 is not a surprising one

There was an article on MLB.com highlighting one player from each team poised to break out in the 2023 season. The Los Angeles Angels have some young players who I believe are poised to break out, but one player in particular stands out to me, and Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com agrees.

Reid Detmers is poised to have a breakout season in 2023.

Reid Detmers began the season as a regular member of the Angels rotation. The beginning of his season was iffy, as he wasn't going particularly deep into games in April. The highlight of Detmers' first half and of the Angels season, of course, was the no-hitter he threw against the Rays in May. He struck out just two batters but was able to throw the twelfth no-hitter in club history and the first since the combined no-hitter in 2019.

After allowing five runs in five innings in a late-June start against the Royals, Detmers sat on a 4.66 ERA and 5.35 FIP through the first 12 starts of his season. Not great at all.

He was sent down to AAA Salt Lake for a start after this blunder against the Royals and that ended up helping save his season. In his first start back Detmers threw six shutout innings against the Orioles. He ended the first half of his season going 2-3 with a 4.11 ERA and a 4.81 FIP. The Angels were just 4-10 in his starts.

In the second half, Detmers was a completely different pitcher. He went 5-3 with a 3.36 ERA in 11 starts. He allowed just two home runs in 59 innings pitched after allowing 11 in 70 first-half innings. He struck 9.9 batters per nine in the second half after just 7.3 in the first half. He struck out eight more batters in 11 fewer innings pitched.

The Angels went from 4-10 in the first half in Detmers' starts to 6-5 in the second half when he pitched. It's not amazing, but considering how awful the team was down the stretch, that's pretty solid.

Detmers was much more consistent in the second half and even managed to pitch really well against some of the league's best offenses like Atlanta and Toronto.

Since returning from the minor league start, Detmers had a 3.04 ERA and a 2.51 FIP in 13 starts. The southpaw is just 23 years old. If he takes another step forward like Bollinger predicts that'd be huge for the Angels.