I really wanted the Guardians to target Reid Detmers this offseason thinking he was on the verge of a breakout… which happened! Time to revisit the idea.
You can view our larger trade deadline piece here as we discuss a wider pool of options the Guardians may consider. To make my position clear, I expect the Guardians to make smaller moves, like trading Bo Naylor and getting a castoff/undervalued reliever. But, in the interest of exploring potential larger moves, we are doing a series looking at some
of those bigger names. So far, we have discussed Spencer Steer, Luis Arraez, Shea Langeliers, Taylor Ward, Heliot Ramos, Jo Adell, Ty France, Tyler Soderstrom, Heriberto Hernandez, Kyle Stowers, Alec Burleson and Otto Lopez. Although the Guardians’ greatest need is hitting, the market is aflush with starting pitching so it also may make sense for the Guardians to see if they can find a good value there, as we wrote here and looked at specifically with Jose Soriano.
In the Guardians’ defense on Detmers, they may very well have tried to acquire him and the Angels shut down the conversation because their owner is insane. However, it sounds like their new GM MAY be getting owner Arte Moreno to listen to reason on doing a little rebuild. Detmers is 27 years old and under control through 2029. Right now, he is putting up a 4.04 ERA but a 3.36 FIP with a poor Angels defense behind him, with an excellent 10.44/2.74 K/BB%. He is middle of the road with extension, something the Guardians’ love, but that may be part of what they could help him go after when they get him out of the barren wilderness that is Angels’ pitching development.
Why target a pitcher when hitting is the glaring need on the Guardians? I think the Guardians can target a short-term help or two with the bat (Ty France and the Angels’ own Jo Adell) and still have the ammo for a run at a controllable asset like Detmers. I think Detmers is a no-doubt front of the rotation starter here, but the market is pretty saturated with starting pitchers and Detmers’ track record of success is short… so he may be able to be acquired with one top 100 prospect of the Genao/Velazquez/Caceres/ Doughty/Ingle/Chourio bunch and additional pieces. If so, this would be a no-brainer move for me. It also allows the Guardians to move Slade Cecconi to the bullpen where he would be very effective. They could, alternatively, see if the Angels wanted to skew younger and trade them Joey Cantillo and a great prospect for Detmers.
The playoff rotation of Williams, Messick and Detmers with Bibee for a game four as needed stands up to any group in MLB. That’s why this potential deal excites me so much. Let me know what you think about it in the comments below!
