The New York Mets are becoming a pitching lab, and it will be intriguing to see who becomes their next project.
Since poaching David Stearns from the Milwaukee Brewers to be their president of baseball operations before the 2024 season, the Mets have become specialists at turning pitchers’ careers around. Luis Severino, Sean Manaea, and Griffin Canning are just a few early success stories.
With injuries hitting every pitching staff hard early in 2025, the Mets are sure to seek reinforcements ahead of the July trade deadline. And the possibilities are endless as to who they could pursue.
On top of the typical one-year rental relievers who are always available, one baseball writer believes the Mets could be among the teams vying for a former top-10 draft pick whose career has gone sideways.
Earlier this week, CBS Sports’ R.J. Anderson named the Mets a prospective trade suitor for Los Angeles Angels reliever Reid Detmers, a converted starter who flashed brilliance early in his career before being demoted to the bullpen.
“Detmers is an enigma. The pitch-quality models love him and his fastball-slider combination, and he’s usually good for two to three strikeouts per walk,” Anderson wrote. “Unfortunately, he’s been a well-below-average pitcher from a runs-allowed perspective dating back through last season — and that’s even with the Angels relegating him to the bullpen all year.
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“Other teams are going to try to buy low on Detmers, making this a matter of if/when the Angels decide they’ve had enough. Potential fits: Dodgers, Phillies, Mets.”
Detmers, the 10th overall pick in the 2020 Major League Baseball Draft, got his career off to a hot start with a no-hitter and a 3.77 ERA as a 22-year-old in 2022. But he’s regressed every year since, and a move to the bullpen hasn’t done much to help his stock.
But the Mets already proved that they could take a struggling Angels pitcher and turn him into a quality big-leaguer in Canning. Will they get a chance to do it again with Detmers?
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