Detmers' rotation audition off to strong start

PEORIA, Ariz. -- Angels manager Joe Maddon has identified the three keys to left-hander Reid Detmers having success on the mound.

“Landing his curveball, getting the chase with the slider, pretty much throwing his fastball where he wants to,” Maddon said. “You see that, he’s going to be really good.”

On Sunday afternoon, Detmers did all three, and he was even better than “really good.” He was dominant in his first Cactus League start of the spring, striking out five of the seven batters he faced across two scoreless innings in a 7-3 win over the Mariners at Peoria Stadium.

Detmers, the No. 21 overall prospect in baseball per MLB Pipeline, is battling for the final spot in the Halos’ six-man rotation for 2022. Two other candidates for the role also pitched Sunday: right-handers Janson Junk (two runs allowed in two innings) and Jaime Barría (one run in two frames).

There's competition for that rotation spot, sure, but if Detmers’ next outings are like his first, the 22-year-old could run away with the job.

In the first inning, Detmers retired the Seattle side in order on 12 pitches. He then struck out the side in the second, working around a two-out single by Eugenio Suárez. Detmers rebounded from his lone blemish by punching out Jarred Kelenic on a big curveball, which MLB Pipeline grades at a 65 on the 20-to-80 scouting scale, the best of his four offerings.

“All my pitches felt good,” Detmers said. “Changeup I thought was good, slider was good, curveball … I was throwing all of them, and everything was working.”

Detmers still has only 82 2/3 innings of professional experience. The Angels took the southpaw out of the University of Louisville with the No. 10 overall pick in the first round of the 2020 MLB Draft, and because of the canceled Minor League season that year, his pro debut was delayed until ’21.

Over 14 starts between Double-A Rocket City and Triple-A Salt Lake last season, Detmers had a 3.19 ERA, a 1.15 WHIP, 108 strikeouts and 19 walks in 62 innings. He made only two starts at Triple-A -- where he had a 1.13 ERA -- before earning a promotion to the Majors last August.

Detmers showed glimpses of his potential. He earned his first big league win last Aug. 15, when he tossed six innings of one-run ball against the Astros. However, Detmers also endured his share of struggles, pitching to a 7.40 ERA in 20 2/3 innings over five starts.

“Obviously, the more time you spend up there, the more you learn. Going up there last year, I learned a lot,” Detmers said. “It didn’t go as planned most of the time, but I learned a lot from it, and I had all offseason to get back to where I wanted to be.”

With the Angels out of postseason contention late last season, Maddon wanted to get a look at Detmers, as teams often do with young prospects at that point in the year. But the Halos skipper also knows how beneficial it can be for those types of players to be surrounded by big leaguers, even if it’s only for a brief period.

“It’s different for a player having been in a Major League clubhouse for one month and then going out and attempting to start the next year. It’s different, in a good way,” Maddon said. “So it’s always good when you’re able to get a player that kind of experience before you think you’re going to really have to count on him.”

That time may not be far away. Detmers is built up to go three innings, and he’s ready to keep adding to that over the next 2 1/2 weeks of Cactus League action. He’s been working on refining his command and mixing his pitches in various counts, which he did effectively on Sunday.

With another strong showing or two, Detmers can prove that he’s worthy of making the Halos’ Opening Day rotation. But that’s not on his mind at the moment.

“I’m not too worried about it. I’m not trying to think about that,” Detmers said. “I’m just trying to go out there and do my thing.”