The Angels Have Suddenly Reaped an Elite Starting Rotation

For the 11th consecutive September, the Angels are using the final weeks of the schedule to run out the clock. They will finish with a losing record for the 11th straight season and run the sport’s longest active playoff drought to 12 years. But for the first time in what feels like ages, they do so with legitimate reason to believe that maybe, finally, brighter days are ahead.

No, this is not in reference to the franchise’s sale to Stan Kroenke, which was announced earlier this month and brought a sudden end to the tumultuous and spectacularly unsuccessful Arte Moreno era. While that seismic development should set the organization up for long-term success, there are more immediate reasons to pay attention to the American League’s worst team—namely, a starting rotation that’s quietly blossomed into one of the game’s very best.

Since Aug. 1, Angels starting pitchers have posted the second-best ERA (2.90) in the league, trailing only the Yankees’ mark of 2.73. They managed a 2.51 ERA in August, the lowest mark in a calendar month for the franchise since April 1982. And the standout performances have come largely from young players whose best years appear to be ahead of them.

None of that has made a difference in the standings, as the Angels have been mired in last place for months. But there are success stories abound in Los Angeles’s pitching staff, from resurgent veterans to out-of-nowhere rookies making history.

Let’s start with Reid Detmers, a first-round pick in 2020 whose career has been defined by extreme highs and lows. There was his no-hitter in ‘22, then a demotion to the minors in ‘24, followed by a year banished to the bullpen in ‘25. That winding odyssey appears to have unlocked something within the talented lefthander, as Detmers has returned to the rotation full-time this season and enjoyed a breakout year.

In 31 starts, Detmers owns a 3.47 ERA and ranks seventh in the majors with 204 strikeouts. With his final outing of the season slated for Friday in Seattle, Detmers is tied for the fewest wins (six) ever for a pitcher with at least 200 strikeouts, a fitting fate for a pitcher who’s spent his entire career with one of the losingest franchises of the past decade (the Halos are tied with the Pirates for the fourth-most losses during the 2020s).

Los Angeles Angels pitcher Reid Detmers — Angels pitcher Reid Detmers has a career-low 3.47 ERA this season in a career-high 179 innings. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Where Detmers was tabbed as a hopeful franchise difference-maker the moment he was drafted, rookie sensation Walbert Ureña’s emergence was not nearly as anticipated. Signed as a 17-year-old for $140,000 in 2021, the hard-throwing righty posted a 4.67 career ERA in the minors, which included a 6.48 mark in Triple A this year. His name never appeared on any top prospect lists, but his potential turned heads within the organization.

“A couple years ago watching him pitch [in spring training], I remember going into our meetings and saying, ‘This kid is legit,’” says Mark Gubicza, longtime Angels broadcaster who pitched in the majors for 14 seasons. “Now, he was raw, and wasn't throwing a lot of strikes at that point … I didn’t envision him being one of the best pitchers in baseball already, but he’s there.”

That high praise is plenty warranted. The 22-year-old Ureña has been a revelation this season, posting a 2.74 ERA across 26 starts (plus two relief outings). That’s the seventh-best mark this season among pitchers with at least 140 innings, ahead of names like Tarik Skubal, Cristopher Sánchez and Sonny Gray.

During a scorching hot second half of the season, Ureña has outdueled both Jacob Misiorowski and Jacob deGrom. He’s allowed one run or fewer in 16 starts, tied for third-most in over a century by a pitcher age 22 or younger, behind only Vida Blue and Dwight Gooden. He’s one of just five pitchers since 2000 to have an ERA under 2.75 with 140 strikeouts in his debut season, alongside deGrom, Paul Skenes, Roy Oswalt and José Fernandez. He’s six strikeouts away from setting the franchise record for punchouts by a first-year player.

Walbert Ureña's 3Ks in the 3rd. pic.twitter.com/O5eO0wSLjo
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) September 18, 2026

While the command issues that colored his path through the minors have persisted—his 11.1% walk rate is the sixth-highest among pitchers with as many innings—Ureña has managed to ramp up his development against the best hitters in the world with resounding success.

“First start, I was a little nervous and everything. Now, I feel more comfortable,” Ureña says. “I know I have really good stuff, I just have to be at the plate. There’s a lot of guys here where, if you make a mistake, they will take [advantage]. Just trying to go out and attack, be ahead of the count, that’s my plan.”

Ureña’s arsenal is headlined by a changeup that Statcast ranks as the best in baseball by run value. It averages 90.9 mph and opponents are hitting .173 against it, whiffing 38% of the time. Combined with a sinker that averages 98.1 mph, and Ureña is among the hardest in the league to square up, with a 55% ground ball rate.

“I tell people his changeup is a lot like Pedro Martinez’s changeup, and they’re [surprised],” Gubicza says. “Nobody’s really talked a lot about him … I don’t know why more people didn’t think that, but hitters certainly notice it. Whether the whole baseball world notices it or not, I don’t know yet, but I think they’re getting closer to noticing it.”

Los Angeles Angels interim pitching coach Tim Leveque talks with pitcher Ryan Johnson — Angels interim pitching coach Tim Leveque (left) talks with pitcher Ryan Johnson after the latter allowed just one hit in seven innings of work on Aug. 22. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

What’s even more notable about the rotation’s strong form is that the gains have occurred right as interim general manager John Mozeliak made the surprising decision to fire most of the team’s coaching staff, parting ways with veteran pitching coach Mike Maddux (among others) on Aug. 11. The move was reportedly due to the fact that the staff was not utilizing the team’s available technology sufficiently enough to help pitchers develop.

Maddux, bullpen coach Dom Chiti and assistant pitching coach Darryl Scott were replaced by coaches from the upper levels of the organization’s minor-league system, headlined by interim pitching coach Tim Leveque. That gave the new staff some familiarity with the youngsters in the Angels’ rotation who have recently spent time at Double and Triple A, a group that includes Ureña and righthander Ryan Johnson.

While the precise differences between the new regime and old one are not all known, one example of progression is how the new staff has handled Johnson. Leveque has allowed Johnson, who has an unorthodox delivery, to resume his long toss routine in between starts, something the previous coaching staff did not allow him to do.

Johnson credits the long tossing—a practice that features him throwing from one foul pole to the other—with building up his arm strength and training himself to maintain proper mechanics. It’s a drill that’s fallen out of favor in the modern game, but, directly or indirectly, it seems to have helped the 24-year-old unlock his potential.

Under the old pitching staff, Johnson had put up a 7.11 ERA across 50 ⅔ innings. Since the change, he has a 2.44 ERA in eight starts, leaning more heavily on his sweeper to great effect, with opposing hitters managing a .176 batting average against it.

Add in the development of Grayson Rodriguez—an oft-injured former top pitching prospect who’s finally healthy after being acquired last offseason from the Orioles—and the Angels look to have something brewing that every organization covets: young, controllable starting pitching enjoying success at the big-league level.

While that’s reason to be excited, expectations should still be tempered. The Angels are unlikely to be an overnight success story, and are in need of some deep-rooted changes to get back on track.

But the young arms provide reason for real hope. Incredibly, the Angels are the only team in MLB history that has never lost 100 games in a season. To avoid breaking that streak, the team will need to continue getting stellar production from its ascendant rotation.

If the new ownership invests wisely, though, these pitchers might soon find themselves playing for much more than that in short order.

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