Exclusive: Reid Detmers on His 2026 Rotation Return, Pitching Process, and Mastering the Mound

Angels southpaw Reid Detmers is enjoying a breakout campaign as a starter. Returning to the rotation full time this season, Detmers has been particularly dominant at home where he has struck out 72 batters in 60.2 innings and has a microscopic WHIP of 1.04.

The Angels are in an interesting spot with Detmers who would command a gold mine on the trade market. However, he is also under club control for two seasons after 2026 and could be a foundational piece as the Angels rebuild.

I first met Reid at the Angels Play Ball clinic for youth baseball players and spoke with him the day after he blanked the Detroit Tigers over 7 frames. Here is the transcript of our talk from the Angels dugout.

Angels starter Reid Detmers coaching at a Play Ball clinic. — Reid Detmers giving a young fan a fist pump after tossing him soft toss. | Jeff Joiner

Reid, you are having an amazing season. Are you able to actually enjoy it on the mound or are you just pitch by pitch while you're out there?

"It's pitch by pitch. I try not to think about everything going on all around me, I guess. It's kind of hard to explain. When you're in the moment you don't think about anything you're just trying to make the best pitch at that time."

The pitch by pitch thing. Did moving the bullpen last year help you focus on just going pitch by pitch or have you always been that way?

"I feel like I've always been that way. I might have gotten away from it a little bit. I would say the bullpen definitely helped, for sure just with attacking guys, always staying on the attack. I wouldn't say I was pitching around guys but I was going out of the zone a lot. I'd get to 0-1, 0-2 and then I would waste three pitches and then it would be 3-2 and I'd walk them.

So it's more just kind of staying on the attack which I learned from the bullpen. Because you really don't want to give up baserunners when you're out the bullpen in a leverage role.

So I would say taking that mentality into starting is helping a lot, especially with runners on.

How old were you when you realized your curve ball just could not be hit by normal people?

"(Chuckles) I didn't start throwing it until freshman year of high school, I would say. Once I started throwing it in games I knew it was something special."

And then you went to Louisville. Did you have offers to go pro or did you always want to go to college?

"Yeah, I had offers to go pro but at the time I knew I wanted to go to college. I knew I wanted to go there, experience the college lifestyle, try to go to Omaha. And we did go to Omaha.

But just develop was the main thing. I knew I needed to get stronger. I needed to learn more about my body. Because in high school I didn't really know what I was doing, it was kind of just random workouts.

But going to college really set the base and I knew what to do and how I did it and stuff like that. So i think it helped a lot."

Louisville pitcher Reid Detmers (42) throws in the bottom of the first against Vanderbilt in the 2019 NCAA Men's College World Series at TD Ameritrade Park Sunday, June 16, 2019, in Omaha, Neb. Gw54194 | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

I love watching college baseball. SEC, ACC, there are some really good teams. At its high level, what do you think that relates to as far as minor league baseball? A or High A?

"I would say SEC is probably...it's hard to say. You hear a lot of people compare it to like AA and stuff like that. I would say maybe some teams are AA, maybe I would say most teams are more like High A. But there's definitely some teams in the ACC and SEC that are equivalant to AA teams.

It's hard because it is so much different."

You came out as the most polished pitcher in your draft class. That was the scouting report on you. What did you find out you really needed to work on when you got to the pro level?

"I needed to develop my pitches a little bit. Probably to get the command a little bit better. Command was really good in college and then in pro ball I gained a couple miles per hour and that kind of threw everything off. So command was not terrible but it wasn't great once I got the extra velo.

So I think that was the big thing I needed to work and then the mindset, the mental part of it. It's a long season. Like in college you're making 13, maybe 10-13 starts, maybe if you get into the post season. Where here you're making 30 plus starts and need to stay heathy all year. '

Kind of learning your body. Not overdoing it throghout the season. Trying to stay healthy but... you don't want to not do anything but at the same time you don't want to over do it. You want your body to feel good.

I think that was the biggest learning curve was trying to figure that stuff out and then the mental side is just going out there against the best players in the world and not trying to overdo it. You've just got to be yourself."

What is your recovery routine between starts?

"It's pretty basic. The day after do conditioning, get some soft tissue. And then throughout the week I'll get some soft tissue after the bullpen, probably needles or something like that. I don't really do anything super crazy it is more just the basic stuff. Let the body rest, obviously, working out a couple times between starts. There's not a whole lot to it, maybe sit in front of the red light for every other day."

Earlier you talked about going pitch to pitch. But you've had some really big moments. A no hitter, an immaculate inning, lots of saves and tight situations. Do you really not hear us in the stands when you're out there on the mound?

"No, I black out when I'm out there. Once I step off the mound I can hear people but when I'm on the mound I don't hear anything. It's just me and the catcher."

How did you choose your warmup music (Simple Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd?

"I was driving to the field one day and I heard it and I was like 'hey, that might be a good walk out song' and that was it."

Thank you so much for your time Reid. I appreciate it and know you need to head back to the clubhouse.

"Any time. Thank you."

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