14 hours ago
Reid Detmers has had big moments. To succeed now, he's only thinking about the next moment
It was the top of the ninth inning at Angel Stadium just over three years ago, and the eyes of all 39,000 fans in attendance were fixated on Reid Detmers. With the count at 2-2, the 10th pick in the 2020 MLB Draft was one out away from a no-hitter in his rookie season.
As Detmers stood on the mound, the cheers and claps grew louder in anticipation of the final out. The rookie then threw a curveball, and Yandy Diaz poked it towards short, where Andrew Velazquez threw it to first to get the out and cement Detmers' place in history.
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The stadium erupted in celebration as Detmers' teammates rushed out of the dugout to congratulate him on the once-in-a-lifetime performance.
'It's like you're on the top of the world,' Detmers said of his no-hitter. 'The next couple days, you're kind of riding that high.'
Detmers felt like that was only the beginning of good things to come. But over three years as a starter, the results fell well below the heights that Detmers and those around the Angels believed he could reach after that night in May of 2022.
With an ERA at nearly five over that span and a demotion to Triple A for three months last summer, it looked as if Detmers' best days were behind him. However, a move to the bullpen this season has seemingly revitalized the young pitcher's career.
Three consecutive rough outings around the start of May inflated his ERA for the season to 4.88, but that bad stretch aside, Detmers has been rock solid, arguably delivering the best ball of his career in relief. But with the way Detmers has been thriving, how long will it be before he assumes a starting role again, either with his current team or possibly another?
'That's just a prelude to him getting back in the rotation,' Angels manager Ron Washington said of Detmers' success out of the bullpen. 'Now he has learned how to get outs, because when you come out that bullpen, it's about one thing: getting outs. And getting them as quickly as possible. When Reid Detmers gets back into the rotation, he's going to be a force to be reckoned with.'
His success in the bullpen was no foregone conclusion. Detmers was open to it, but entering spring training, he prepared as a starter, with the bullpen in the back of his mind.
'I'm either gonna be starting or I'm going to be in the pen,' Detmers said. 'I didn't know which one was going to happen.'
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The 25-year-old started all spring, but on the final day of the preseason, he was told that he would be sent to the bullpen in favor of right-hander Jack Kochanowicz for the fifth and final spot in the rotation.
For the first time in Detmers' life, he was coming out of the bullpen. But simply having a roster spot was opportunity enough for him; to succeed, Detmers called on his experience from when he was sent down to the Angels' Triple-A affiliate, the Salt Lake City Bees. During that unexpected setback, he shifted his mindset from thinking ahead into the future too much to living in the present and controlling what he could in that moment.
That approach proved crucial for Detmers' transition to the bullpen. He's not worried now about what he has to do for each player to set them up for the next at-bat. As a reliever, it's all about going one, two, three.
'He's going out there with his best stuff right out the gate,' said Angels reliever Hunter Strickland, an 11-year veteran. 'He doesn't have to more or less save himself for five, six, seven innings or whatever it may be. There's no setting up hitters. It's just attacking the zone and using his best stuff, and obviously his stuff is pretty phenomenal.'
Keeping his focus on getting three outs has simplified the game for Detmers significantly. Slowing down his thought process on each at-bat has given the left-hander the ability to improve on the little things on the way to getting outs.
'I think he's started to control the running game better,' Angels pitching coach Barry Enright said. 'He's starting to slow down everything better. He's starting to take his breath better out there.'
The mental adjustments came into play during the ugliest part of his season — that three-game stretch at the end of April into the beginning of May in which Detmers gave up 11 hits and 12 earned runs, and recorded zero strikeouts.
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As he worked to escape that rough stretch, rather than worry about the future, Detmers instead looked back at previous at-bats to figure out what he needed to do differently next time. Checking to see if he executed properly on the pitch and if he followed through on his process throughout the day up until that point are things that he's more cognizant of in the bullpen.
'When you have a process, and you go through it every single day, you don't always worry about the result,' Enright said of Detmers' approach to struggles this year. 'Through the struggles he went through last year, he's able to draw up how to get out of those (situations).'
Detmers' process has clearly worked well so far. Excluding that three-game skid, the reliever has a 1.45 ERA through 31 innings. Detmers' presence in the bullpen has brought consistency and reliability, things that haven't always been there in the past.
While he's committed to supporting the team in a bullpen role, Detmers said that he 'eventually' wants to start again. In recent years, relievers such as Clay Holmes and Seth Lugo have successfully made the transition from bullpen arms to standout starters. Not to mention, Detmers has plenty of experience in starting.
The possibility of Detmers starting somewhere else isn't out of the question. In The Athletic's Top 30 trade targets, Detmers ranked 30th as the July 31st MLB trade deadline inches closer.
When asked about whether the team would consider moving him at the deadline, Washington said the lefty wasn't going anywhere. After taking their third straight from the Yankees on Wednesday, the Angels are just 1 1/2 games out of a playoff spot. For a team that hasn't been to the postseason since 2014, it wouldn't be a surprise if they were buyers rather than sellers at the trade deadline. Much will depend on how the team performs over the next month. If they end up falling out of the race, maybe a team takes a crack at Detmers as a reliever with a chance to be a quality starting pitcher next season.
For now, he remains in the Angels bullpen, a place where some feel he belongs.
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'I think for his future right now, this is where he's best,' Enright said. 'He's learning things about himself that will only help him as a starter if it ever comes again. Whether it's the end of this year, whether it's next year hasn't really been a topic of discussion because he's been so good, and honestly, we've needed him back there, so he's there to stay for now.'
