Reid Detmers' Hot Streak Earns Him Promotion to Angels

Maren Angus-Coombs | Sep 2, 2024

John Froschauer-USA TODAY Sports

Reid Detmers is back with the Los Angeles Angels after three months in Triple-A.

“I hope it’s an experience that he doesn’t ever want to go through again,” manager Ron Washington said shortly after general manager Perry Minasian revealed that Detmers would be back in the majors on Sunday, and start on Tuesday night against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“He had some things to work on,” Minasian said. “He’s pitched well over the last three starts. The big thing with him is just consistency. You see what he’s done over the last three starts. We felt like he’s in a great place mentally and ready to come back to pitch.”

Early in his stint at Salt Lake, Detmers struggled so much there appeared to be no return in sight. That began to change about a month ago. He was effective in five of his last seven starts, including a stretch of three straight in which he allowed three earned runs across 21 innings, with 29 strikeouts.

Those last three starts showed the Angels what they wanted. Now Detmers will have a chance to start three or four more games in the majors to close out the season.

Manager Ron Washington is looking forward to having Detmers back with his squad.

“We’re glad he’s throwing the ball well, and we just want him to come up and be Detmers,” Washington said. “We’re not looking for anything special out of him. We’re looking for him to come up here and do the same thing we’re looking for from all our pitchers, go as deep in the ballgame as you can and give us a chance to be successful. That’s all we’re looking for. And he earned his way back.”

Because Detmers was optioned in early June, he will fall a couple of weeks short of three years of service time at the end of the season but if he stays up the entire month of September, then he will have enough service time to become arbitration-eligible next winter.

When Detmers returns, the Angels will have six starters in the rotation, with him joining lefties Tyler Anderson and Sam Aldegheri, along with right-handers Griffin Canning, Jack Kochanowicz, and Caden Dana.

“If all six of them stay here, I guess we’ll go to a six-man rotation,” Washington said. “We haven’t talked about it yet. We may decide not to do it. But if we want to see all six of those guys pitch, that’s what we’ll do down the stretch.”