The Angels are accustomed to quickly promoting top talent, but last year's No. 2 draft pick Tyler Bremner is battling injury and personal hurdles.
With the No. 2 pick in last year’s draft, the Angels could have taken any pitcher in America — they chose UC Santa Barbara right-hander Tyler Bremner.
While alternative targets Kade Anderson and local prep star Seth Hernandez have surged, Bremner remains in Class A, his season stalled by illness and arm fatigue. Now the sole Angel on MLB’s top-100 prospect list, Bremner is juggling grief over his mother’s death with pressure to perform.
“It just means more” is a fine slogan. When it comes to the baseball draft, however, the Southeastern Conference can take a back seat to our oceanfront pitching factory.
First pitcher selected in this year’s draft: Jackson Flora, UC Santa Barbara, taken fourth overall by the San Francisco Giants. Bremner followed the first round of Saturday’s draft from an airplane, watching from the screen on the back of the seat in front of him. American League catcher Nathan Flewelling greets American League pitcher Tyler Bremner, left, during the MLB All-Star Futures game on Sunday in Philadelphia.
Bremner has yet to rise above Class A, but he did participate in Sunday’s Futures Game. He retired the only batter he faced. The pitchers the Angels might well have taken in place of him, Kade Anderson and Seth Hernandez, each pitched a scoreless inning in the Futures Game. After the Angels drafted Bremner with the second pick, the Seattle Mariners selected Anderson, an LSU product considered the most polished pitcher available.
Anderson is 8-1 with a 1.36 ERA at double-A, likely the next man up should the Mariners’ rotation need one. The Mariners had alerted him after the first pick — infielder Eli Willits, by the Washington Nationals — that they would take him with the third, he said.
“I got to watch the Angels make their pick, and then it was my turn,” Anderson said. “I never talked to them. ” Anderson signed for $8.8 million, Bremner for $7.7 million. Under Minasian, the Angels chose to spend less on the first-round pick and spread the savings among players drafted in lower rounds.
Bill Shaikin writes that with the arrival of John Mozeliak as interim general manager, the Angels have legitimate hope they can finally will. The first high school pitcher selected last year, Seth Hernandez, played at Corona High, about 20 miles from Angel Stadium. Hernandez is 6-foot-1 with a 2.61 ERA at Class A for the Pittsburgh Pirates, with 111 strikeouts in 69 innings.
He said he had talked with the Angels but did not expect them to select him because he “knew what direction they were going. ” “It would have been cool to go there,” Hernandez said, “but I’m happy with where I’m at with the Pirates.
”Whatever success the Angels might have in developing players drafted in the lower rounds, their 2025 draft will be remembered for this: They had their choice of any pitcher in America, and they chose Bremner. Anderson and Hernandez as the game’s top pitching prospects, and among the top six overall. Bremner ranks 44th overall, the only Angels prospect among the top 100. His season started well, with a 1.08 ERA over five starts.
He then missed a month because of illness and arm fatigue. Since his return, he has a 5.63 ERA over six starts. Arte Moreno is unlikely to sell the Angels amid steady fan protests, but he can respond by ditching veterans and giving young talent a chance. The 48 strikeouts over 34 total innings is good news.
The 34 innings to this point means his season grade can only be marked as incomplete.
“I think it all comes down to how I perform and how I execute. They gave me all the opportunity in the world this year. ”In addition to adjusting to the first season of his professional career, Bremner is playing his first full season without his mother, who died from breast cancer last June.
“It’s not something that gets brought up too much. I don’t want to say people move on, but it has been a year, and people start looking toward the next thing. That’s just how life moves.
“It’s still on my mind a lot. I’m trying to focus on what I need to be focusing on, and that’s being present and competing and having success in the sport. It’s my job right now. It’s not easy, but I’m getting through it.
” In a year in which three of the starters in the Angels’ opening rotation have been injured; demoted; or c) demoted and recalled, it’s hard not to imagine that a healthy and productive Bremner might have made the majors by now.
“I think about it sometimes,” he said, “but I’m content: not really contentment with where I’m at, but content going day to day and figuring out the process as I go through it. “You can’t really think about getting to the big leagues before going through the other steps. Just kind of enjoying where I’m at right now, and realizing I need to have success here to make it there.
“You can’t just expect it to be handed to you. That’s something they made clear to me: It’s not going to be handed to me. It needs to be earned. I think I have a little ways to go, but I’m confident I can get there.
”During his introductory news conference Saturday, John Mozeliak didn’t rule out becoming the new general manager, and will work with team president Molly Jolly on the best plan. He is confident, too, that Santa Barbara was an optimal launching pad toward getting him there.
“They develop pitchers well,” he said. “It’s a good location. It’s a fun school. I can’t say enough about my time there.
“Playing a lot of guys who have played in those big stadiums and in those big settings — Omaha, whatever — you do realize it’s the same game once you get here. It’s an even playing field. I feel like I fit in just fine. ” He should.
The number of Cy Young winners this decade from the SEC is the same as the number from UCSB: one.
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