Bullpen help looks like a must for the Philadelphia Phillies ahead of the 2025 trade deadline.
The Phillies’ relief pitchers have a combined 4.53 ERA, 24th in Major League Baseball. They’ve converted 19 of 28 save opportunities, which is not deplorable, but also far from optimal.
Most importantly, the Phillies have lost José Alvarado until August due to suspension, and the lefty will also be ineligible for postseason play. So if relief pitching is on the list anyway, left-handed relief pitching sits at the very top.
One baseball writer has an intriguing solution for the Phillies: a recently converted Los Angeles Angels starter with great raw stuff, but brutal results on the field for several seasons now.
On Tuesday, CBS Sports’ R.J. Anderson named Angels lefty reliever Reid Detmers, a former starter who has been struggling in his new bullpen role, as a potential trade deadline reclamation project for the Phillies.
“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. 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,” Anderson wrote.
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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.”
It’s been a perplexing career path for Detmers, who threw a no-hitter at age 22 three seasons ago, but has pitched to a progressively higher ERA every season. He went from 3.77 in 2022 to 4.48 in 2023, then 6.70 in 2024, and now 6.85 this year.
Detmers would hardly be the first Angels pitcher to escape Anaheim and immediately turn their career around. Just look at the New York Mets’ Griffin Canning, who owns a 3.23 ERA a year after putting up a 5.19 mark for the Halos.
Could the Phillies’ braintrust turn him around? We might find out the answer in a few months.
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