Breakouts: AL West
My favorite 2026 fantasy baseball picks from the five teams in the AL Central
Click here to view the whole Breakouts & Busts series
Angels
Reid Detmers
We know that Detmers is heading back to the rotation in 2026, and that’s where he belongs. He was bad in 2024 and got sent to the minor leagues, which I thought was ridiculous, because his underlying numbers were not that bad at all:
ERA: 6.70
SIERA: 3.77
K-BB%: 18.2%
They just hated the guy or something, I don’t know. He threw 63.2 innings in relief last year with a 30.1% K% and a 9.4% BB% while completely fixing his home run problem with a 0.85 HR/9.
The K% will come down if he’s stretching back out as a starter, no doubt. But his career rate is 25.7%. He’s always been able to get strikeouts. And there’s a lot of room for his stuff to come down.
Four seamer: 55% Strike% (elite), 17.2% SwStr%, .305 xwOBA
Slider: 51% Strike%, 21.9% SwStr%, .297 xwOBA
I think the upside is well worth a shot at his current ADP of 350.
Christian Moore
Nothing in the profile last year was good, but this is a bet on talent. He was a first-round pick, and he’s still less than 200 PAs into his big league career. I expect a large step forward for the young infielder. He got to the Majors in a hurry, so it wasn’t surprising at all to see him be overwhelmed a bit. It seems like the Halos just like to let guys learn on the job at the highest level.
His EV90 being above 105 shows that he has some power in there, and he’s a quick runner as well. The raw skills are there, and I think we’ll see a lot of progress in 2026.
And that is curtains for the free subscribers. There’s no better time to become a paid subscriber than right now! This post is the launch of full-on 2026 draft content, and, in my opinion, the tools, resources, and projections alone are worth the small monthly fee. Come along for the ride!