Reid Detmers has turned the second half into his own showcase, and the Angels are staring at a decision that only gets harder by the start.
The 26-year-old left-hander is still in an Angels uniform, even after all the noise around the trade deadline and the false report that said he was on the move. Since the All Star break, he has pitched like the kind of arm a team builds around, not ships out. That reality leaves the Angels with two clear paths: lock him up and make him part of the future, or move him while his value is as high as it has ever been.
Either way, the clock is ticking.
Over his last 10 starts, Detmers has been flat-out dominant. He has logged 59.1 innings with a league-leading 1.37 earned run average, struck out 68, and issued just 10 walks. The run reached another level with last night’s performance in Boston, which only reinforced how sharp he has been.
Just as important, he has been doing it the same way every time out. Detmers has now stacked six straight starts of at least six innings while allowing one run or fewer. That kind of consistency gives the Angels a real chance every time he takes the mound, even with an offense that has not always done him many favors.
The financial side is about to get much louder. Last offseason, the Angels took Detmers to an arbitration hearing and tried to pay him like a reliever even though they knew he belonged in the rotation.
He earned $2.625 million as a first-time salary, and that number is only the beginning. He is due for a significant bump this winter, and another one will follow in his final trip through arbitration.
That matters because pitchers don’t stay cheap forever. The closer they get to free agency, the less incentive they have to sign early. A bigger payday in 2027, plus the chance to hit the open market and talk to all 30 teams, can make a player much more willing to bet on himself.
The price to keep Detmers is going to rise fast. Justin Steele turned a strong run in Chicago into $6.775 million in his second arbitration season, while Logan Gilbert pushed the bar even higher at $10.927 million in Seattle.
Detmers could easily land around $9 million next season and $15 million the year after that. If a team wants to buy out those years and the free-agent seasons beyond them, the number only climbs now that he is pitching like this.
That’s why the trade market would be so strong if the Angels chose to listen. A club trading for Detmers would be getting an ace for two seasons at a relatively manageable cost, and that kind of upside always pulls premium talent in return.
Milwaukee was one of the teams floated in July, and the kind of package that could come back has only gotten more interesting. The Brewers did not land a front-of-the-rotation arm, and a Detmers deal could bring back Luis Pena, who ranks among the best prospects in baseball. Another possibility would be a group of bats: Josh Adamczewski, Brady Ebel, AJ Gracia, and Blake Burke.
Adamczewski has hit .298/.410/.503 with 17 home runs across High A and AA. Burke has put up a .285/.367/.603 line with 30 homers in 96 games at AA.
Both are the type of near-MLB bats that could help the Angels as soon as next season. Ebel and Gracia are younger, teenage prospects with solid tools and a longer road ahead.
The fact that Detmers stayed put says the Angels value him. The bigger question is how much.
The best move now is to try to work out an extension that covers six seasons. If that can’t happen, then his trade value is too strong to ignore.
Recent pitching contracts give a sense of the range. The Red Sox gave Garret Crochet six years and $170 million after his dominant stretch, with two years left before free agency. On a lower scale, the Phillies gave Christopher Sanchez $107 million after his runner-up finish for the NL Cy Young Award.
The Angels have a choice to make, and it needs to come soon. If they loved the offers in late July, they might still be tempted to move him.
If they didn’t, this offseason probably won’t change that. But if extension talks go nowhere, Detmers should be traded while his value is at its peak.
The Angels may have already missed their chance to cash in on Zach Neto. They can’t afford to miss too many more.
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