St. Louis Cardinals trade packages for recently demoted players

LHP Reid Detmers

Reid Detmers, along with Bryce Elder, is a very interesting player to me. Bryce Elder seems to be a bit out of the range of possibilities for the Cardinals, but Detmers may be the perfect consolation prize. He's always had the potential to be a good starting pitcher in the majors, but he hasn't been able to put it all together.

The left-handed starter has a no-hitter to his name, and he's just shy of his 25th birthday. Detmers is in his final year before arbitration next year, and he won't be a free agent until 2028 at the earliest. A trade for him would give assurance to the Cardinals' rotation that it doesn't necessarily have after this year.

Detmer's 2022 season was his best, as he threw 129 innings with a 3.77 ERA, 3.79 FIP, 1.209 WHIP, and 8.5 K's per 9 innings. He has gradually increased his strikeout rate, but he has also started walking more batters, allowing more hits, and giving up more home runs.

His breaking balls have plummeted in effectiveness these past two years, but he has managed to control his offspeed pitches better this year. He has a 6.14 ERA, 4.36 FIP, and 1.476 WHIP in 63 innings. He has given up the most amount of earned runs this year in all of baseball, primarily due to a sky-high home run rate. All of this has contributed to his demotion.

What's most interesting about Detmers is that he's been able to get batters to chase more this year and limit contact in the zone, but he's not hitting the edges of the strike zone as well. Batters are chasing on 30% of his pitches, but he's hitting the edges of the zone just 41.4% of the time. He's been in the zone less than 50% of the time.

The Angels are in full rebuild mode after losing Shohei Ohtani this offseason and Mike Trout this year to another injury. The Cardinals could skate by with trading a younger prospect with a wide range of potential outcomes who could have a high ceiling. The Angels could also ask for a current major leaguer.

Cardinals trade: OF Won-Bin Cho OR OF Dylan Carlson
Angels trade: LHP Reid Detmers