The Angels have a painfully obvious rotation upgrade staring them right in the face

The Angels' starting rotation has been very far from reliable in recent weeks as the hodgepodge of aging veterans and unproven youth has failed to find a groove in the absence of a true ace. As April draws to a close, the unit owns a 4.62 ERA that ranks 25th in the league.

One of the biggest deficiencies has been a lack of strikeout stuff. Veteran soft-tossers like Kyle Hendricks and Tyler Anderson have never been known for missing bats. 24-year-old sinker baller Jack Kochanowicz put up a laughably bad 3.44 K/9 last year, and hasn't improved much with a 4.44 mark this season. Yusei Kikuchi and Jose Soriano also haven't been able to translate their electric stuff into consistent strikeouts, and the starters as a whole rank dead last in the MLB with just 6.45 K/9.

Fortunately, the Angels have a young strikeout artist waiting in the wings. 25-year-old southpaw Reid Detmers may have lost the spring training fifth starter competition, but his performance in the bullpen thus far may warrant another opportunity in the rotation.

The Angels could give their lagging rotation a shot in the arm by re-inserting Reid Detmers

To be clear, the Angels' bullpen has been even worse than the rotation this season, with a 4.95 ERA that ranks 27th in the majors. However, Reid Detmers has been far from the reason the relief corps has had so many woes getting hitters out.

On the season, Detmers has primarily been a multi-inning weapon, tossing 14 innings over nine appearances and posting a 2.57 ERA and 3.06 FIP along the way. The home run issues that plagued him during 2024's disastrous campaign seem to have vanished as his HR/9 has decreased from a sky-high 1.85 to an extremely low 0.64.

One thing Detmers has always done well is rack up K's. For his career, he owns a K/9 of 9.73, with double-digit K/9 rates in 2023 (10.17) and 2024 (11.23). This year, he hasn't been quite as dominant with 9.00 K/9, but that number would still be a welcome improvement in the rotation.

Growth and development from their young core, as well as playing competitive baseball, are among the Angels' top objectives for 2025, and to further support that, they'd be wise to give key opportunities to young players with the potential to make the team more competitive in both the present and the future.

35-year-old Kyle Hendricks and his 6.65 ERA aren't going to win the Angels many games now, and none in the future, while the Angels' "best" starter this year, 35-year-old Tyler Anderson, owns a 5.23 FIP that indicates his results are merely a mirage.

Anderson, if he can keep getting results despite the ugly peripherals, might be the Angels' best trade chip; meanwhile, top prospect Caden Dana is knocking on the door of the bigs as he tears up Triple-A.

The Halos need to embrace a youth movement on the pitching staff, and that starts first with promoting Detmers back to the rotation and then leaning into giving opportunities to other talented young arms in the wake of the veterans' struggles. Otherwise, the Angels will be dooming themselves to mediocrity without the possibility of development and improvement for the future.

At the very least, Detmers can provide a skill that the rest of the starters are sorely lacking.

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