LOS ANGELES — At the onset of MLB’s 2020 amateur player draft, the Los Angeles Angels broke with a recent organizational trend and selected a pitcher, left-hander Reid Detmers from the University of Louisville, with the 10th overall pick.
The last time the Angels selected a pitcher in the first round was in 2014, when they took college pitcher Sean Newcomb. He never played for the Angels; general manager Billy Eppler traded him to acquire Gold Glove shortstop Andrelton Simmons from the Atlanta Braves. Since scouting director Matt Swanson’s arrival ahead of the 2017 draft, the Angels have tended to select athletic players considered higher-risk picks with higher upside in the first few rounds.
Detmers, 6-foot-2 and 210 pounds, is more of a sure thing. He was a first-team All-America selection in 2019 after going 13-4 with a 2.78 ERA in 113 1/3 innings while setting Louisville’s season strikeout record with 167. The Illinois native later played for USA Baseball’s collegiate national team, giving up one run in 12 innings spanning three starts.
When the coronavirus pandemic halted the 2020 season, Detmers had compiled a 1.23 ERA with 48 strikeouts in 22 innings.
Detmers will not turn 21 until July, but former MLB Network analyst and former pitcher Al Leiter said after the Angels’ selection that Detmers, one of the most polished arms available in the talent pool, “could be in the big leagues next year.”
The slot value for the 10th pick is $4,739,900. The Angels, who will make four selections in the five-round draft because they lost one when they signed third baseman Anthony Rendon, were allocated a signing bonus pool of $6,397,100 to bring their draftees into the farm system.
Here are snippets of the scouting report Baseball America compiled on Detmers:
“Detmers doesn’t have the biggest pure stuff, but is one of the more high-likelihood major leaguers in a deep 2020 pitching class.
“Detmers’ fastball averages around 90-91 mph and touches 94 mph at his best, but it plays up and generates whiffs because Detmers is able to hide the ball well. Detmers also has outstanding control and command, along with one of the better breaking balls in the class.
“His low-70s curveball is a hammer, with massive depth and shape, which grades out as a plus offering at least. The pitch jumps out of his hand at times, and some evaluators have mentioned that it’s rare for a breaking ball with such a low velocity to fool professional hitters, but he has enough feel to add more power to the pitch at the next level if necessary.
“On top of his curveball, Detmers has a changeup that’s an above-average future offering and a slider that grades out as fringe-average, with little current usage.”
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