The Angels have defeated left-hander Reid Detmers in arbitration, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. He’ll be paid at the team’s desired $2.625MM rate rather than his camp’s $2.925MM filing figure.
Detmers is coming off a strong season in which he worked as a full-time reliever. The former 10th overall pick tossed 63 2/3 innings of 3.96 ERA ball while striking out more than 30% of batters faced. He picked up his first three career saves but worked mostly in a leverage role in front of Kenley Jansen, collecting 13 holds in the process.
The season ended on a bit of a sour note, as Detmers was placed on the injured list in the middle of September with elbow inflammation. It’s not expected to impact him going into camp. He’ll build back up as a starter, the role he held for the first four seasons of his MLB career. Detmers has shown flashes out of the rotation but has been up and down, ultimately tallying a near-5.00 ERA over 75 career starts. He projects as the #3 arm in Kurt Suzuki’s rotation behind Yusei Kikuchi and José Soriano. The Angels are counting on a handful of reclamation types — arguably including Detmers considering he posted a 6.70 ERA in his most recent rotation work — to fill out the back of the staff. Grayson Rodriguez and Alek Manoah are the favorites for the final two spots.
Detmers was the only Angel player to go to a hearing this year. His loss is just the second for the players out of nine cases that have been announced so far.
Cha ching! Arte showing the little guy who is the boss! That $300K will take the sting out of the TV contract losses.
Its wild that they don’t just settle in the middle for these. I guess teams wanna keep arb salaries down across the board. But still.
That’s exactly it.
With how small the gap was I bet the costs of everything that went into the hearing was more than the $300k
Except the Angels could have met in the middle, avoiding arb, then hope for 32 solid starts with a questionable elbow. I’m assuming whomever is on the Angels arb team is already on salary and it doesn’t cost much to go through the process.
Wow! Only the second win. This is less than normal.
Relievers are under valued by the arbitration system.
This is doubly worse for Detmers because they are converting him back into a starter.
Well relievers play 50-60 innings a year. Some players do that in a week.
In 60 innings a pitcher accounts for about 200 at bats.
Those 200 at bats generally come in close ball games.
Relievers have a major impact on the outcomes of games.
Close games? In Anaheim?
Obviously everyone on a team has the ability to affect a game. The 200AB that you reference is relative. An everyday starter and starting pitcher will account for 600-700 plate appearances.
I believe there have been 3 or 4 relievers that have won the MVP and they were all closers.
Don’t forget that the Angels swept the Dodgers in 2025.
6 and 0 against the Dodgers and swept the Red Sox.
Best bad year ever.
“Close games? In Anaheim?” Under Washington they did and had one of the best records in 1 run and in extra inning games. After he was gone, not so much.
HalosHeavenJJ – The Angels played Toronto really well too. They did lose the season series, but all close games including some extra inning games. That one series came when Toronto was red hot with a long win streak including a sweep of the Yankees. Really, under Washington they were very good against good teams. Among the top teams in 1 run games, extra inning games and come from behind wins. If you look at the record under Washington against the teams that made the playoffs. they did very well. The problem was with the weak teams and then losing Washington.
We won’t be reading “The Angels have defeated…” much this year, ha ha.
This is worthy of a Main Street Disney Electrical Parade!!
Mainstreet Sports?
Good news is whatever you say the opposite happens. Last season you said the Angels would undoubtedly lose over 100 and that the Doyers would walk all over them.
I never predicted 100 losses. Not hard to find i predicted a 73-89 season.
crashingthepearlygates.com/2025/03/26/ctpg-staff-2…
The Dodgers were the better team. Sweeping them was sweet and I loved every win, but nobody favored the Angels in those series.
The Angels announced their TV viewing options today on their website.
@dole. I was hoping they were going to victory+. Looks like they took the mlb deal to get half the money back. Atleast the check won’t bounce.
@Rex. YesSir
So much for the rumor about them starting their own RSN.
@kellin. That’s probably why they’re under 54 million from last year. I heard it could be alittle less than 50%. arte calculated the 4 million crunching numbers.
You would think the cheap s.o.b. would do his own network and charge people 75 bucks a season. He would probably pocket more than doing it with mlb.tv
I’ve heard that the Angels have partial ownership of MSS (fanduel sports network). If they bought out MSS’s part of their ownership there’s all kinds of things they could potentially do.
A victory+ contract made too much sense for the Angels to proceed with.
@kellin. Im hoping arte is keeping everything short and open for new ownership. It looks that way, and I have my fingers crossed. Maybe Cuban buys them he’s been wanting to get into baseball, and he doesn’t own the Mavericks anymore.
They still might start the RSN.
It’s just, at this point, something needed to be done to able to televise spring training games and beyond. They can get out of MLB.tv if needed next season.
As good as he was last year outside of a few implosions my gut says he is going to struggle back in the rotation.
Yep and then be pushed back into the pen.
Reid Detmers losing his arbitration case is just another reminder of how badly this organization handles its own talent. The Angels spent years bouncing him between the bullpen and AAA, jerking around his development, and now people are supposed to believe he’ll stick around once he hits free agency. No shot. Not after the way they’ve treated him.
And while they’re busy mishandling arms, they still haven’t figured out the obvious: Zach Neto is a franchise shortstop. He’s tough, he’s electric, he’s the kind of player you extend early and build around. But instead of locking him up long‑term, the Angels are doing what they always do waiting, hesitating, pretending they have all the time in the world when they could’ve locked up, Shohei Ohtani long time ago miss opportunity
Meanwhile, Arte Moreno feels like he’s halfway out the door already. The energy, the direction, the commitment it’s all fading. And the players see it. The fans see it. Everyone sees it.
This is how you lose talent.
This is how you waste potential.
Lock up Neto. Treat your young arms like they matter. And if Arte’s not committed to that future, then maybe it’s time he steps aside and lets someone who actually cares take over.
The Halos are not the only team not locking up their young stars. I don’t get it really. If you don’t trust your scouts, why do they still have a job with you?
This one belongs to the Reds: “If you don’t trust your scouts, why do they still have a job with you?”
The Angels cut down the scouting staff during covid and Arte doesn’t like to pay them even now. Not exactly the kind of organization that will draw and keep quality scouts who have other options.
That wasn’t just meant for the Halos, we have seen that with a lot of teams in general, including the one I root for.
I remember Marge Schott getting rid of a bunch of scouts because “they just sat around watching ballgames”. Wonder if Arte agrees.
At least that much as changed down by the river, though the van is missing. 😁 I bet Bob sold it after having Earl Scheib paint it. Naw, scratch that, he wouldn’t pay $49.95.
Isn’t that the job of scouts? Watching games to determine the ability of players?
A baseball scout’s job is find talent, judge talent, and report talent.
He travels, watches games, grades players, and tells the front office who’s worth drafting, signing, or keeping an eye on. That’s the whole gig spotting the next guy before anyone else does.
There are also “bird dog scouts” who are basically people not on the payroll that give advice on a player they go see when asked by people in an organization (can be a college or a MLB team) they know who trust their opinion. Usually unpaid or just reimbursed for travel expenses.
I have some experience there. 😁
Obviously to be expected from Moreno, but man, this is just another one of those “penny wise, pound foolish” moves. Guy trims back on costs everywhere to milk the franchise dry. Scouting, coaching, freakin…air conditioning. Congrats on saving $300K on a pitcher, man. Hope it’s worth torching whatever goodwill you could have built with a guy approaching free agency.
Reid Detmers bought into the Reid Detmers 2025 fantasy baseball hype…
Detmers for the most part has been awful in his time in the big leagues. He’s shown flashes for sure, but no consistency and no development. Not sure development is entirely his fault, but he is close to being a draft bust. I hope he can put it together finally this year and get out of his own head, which has been his main problem. Clearly, he did not deserve $3 million yet. I hope he can prove everyone wrong and be an ace finally. I am rooting for him.
@redstitch. That’s pretty the same with Sandoval, canning and detmers. They all have mental flaws. Canning was just oblivious said everything was great even though he got tagged for 8 runs. Sandoval would hulk up when he wasn’t getting calls, and implode. Detmers might be able to turn it around with maddux. Just needs someone to help with a gameplan and pitch selection. Probably more a development issue since he really didn’t had any time to adjust from college.
Why a Six‑Man Rotation Makes Sense in 2026
The Angels finally have the arms to justify something they should’ve been doing for years: rolling with a six‑man rotation. After adding Yusei Kikuchi Grayson Rodriguez in the trade with Baltimore, the depth is finally there and the upside is higher than anything this team has had in a decade.
A six‑man setup protects innings, keeps everyone fresh, and gives the Angels a chance to maximize two high‑variance arms coming off injuries (Rodriguez and Manoah). It also fits perfectly with Kurt Suzuki’s open competition” spring and the club’s push to avoid another season of overworked starters.
This is the first time in years the Angels can look at their staff and say we can actually have a chance to win
Six‑Man Rotation
Yusei Kikuchi
José Soriano
Grayson Rodriguez
Reid Detmers
Alek Manoah
Jack Kochanowicz
Johnny Bravo – I think with Manoah and Rodriguez they should share one 6 man spot and also fill in for long relief. They have not throne enough innings to expect them to throw that many. I do think this could be a good year the pitching staff. I even think Kochanowicz can bounce back. He had an increase to his off speed velo last year and some other things I think Maddox will clean up.
Tim Stewart — I hear your point I’m sure Rodriguez and Manoah will be limited innings thrown because of injuries let’s talk about Soriano and Kochanowicz who are hard throwers, but relied too heavily on their sinking fastball When you keep throwing nothing but 97‑mph bowling balls, big‑league hitters locked on sinkers that’s thrown 90% of the time big league hitters are looking for it in the lower strike zone and big league hitters hit it you need mix in a four‑seam fastball with ride action at the top of the zone Elevated changing eyesight blowing a raising fourseam fastball in the upper zone then drop the sinker or vice versa That’s how you keep hitters off balance and turn these pictures into strikeout machines instead of predictable sinker‑throwers.
Johnny Bravo = I agree but I think Kochanowicz also decreased the difference between velocities by a margin.. at least that’s what I recall.
@Tim Stewart
I think we are all very curious to see what Maddux can bring to the table.
My eyes tell me that there are some talented arms in the organization.
Publications like BA agree to some extent, but always point out that they are an enigma, not quite realizing their potential.
We’ve all seen Soriano look like Bob Gibson vs the Yankees one start, then inexplicably implode vs the Nationals the next.
I’m hoping that Maddux (and Brady A on the hitting side) can bridge that gap.
johnnyangel- Agree again about Maddux and such , but I am just frustrated that they did not sign any of the 2 3B or starting pitcher from Japan. Really believe Perry wanted to sign all three from his comments. Not sure where they would play Murakami. Okamoto was a perfect fit and really liked the Angels. They showed interest in all three. All three signed for low amounts. It was kind of a good perfect storm thing for the Angels. Oh , well.
God, if you could just have a little bit more consistency