Southern California fire danger zones increase 76% in new maps

• March 25, 2025

The number of acres in the top two fire zones that must comply with stiffer, fire-safe building codes increased 76% in Southern California areas protected by local firefighters, new state hazard maps released Monday, March 24, show.”

The number in the highest tier, the “very high fire hazard severity zone,” increased by 26% in the region, meaning that more residents will have to remove flammable plants and materials around their homes and will have to have properties inspected before a sale.

The maps are part of a 40-year-old program in which the state Forestry and Fire Protection Department, or Cal Fire, periodically documents areas that are most prone to having a wildfire within the next several decades.

Using data on variables such as climate, vegetation, terrain and fire history, Cal Fire calculates whether the probability of wildfire in a given area is moderate, high or very high.

Also see: Altadena fire zones grow under new state maps, but officials say won’t impede permitting in rebuild

The previous maps only designated land in very-high fire hazard zones.

Residents and local governments in the two highest fire-hazard zones have to comply with regulations covering construction, urban planning and landscaping.

The purpose of the maps, said state Fire Marshall Daniel Berlant, is to guide local governments and residents in mitigating their fire risk.

“These aren’t just colors on a map,” Berlant said in a recent interview. “They are a planning tool.”

The maps released Monday cover eight counties in Southern California and along the Nevada border: Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Imperial, Inyo and Mono.

The Southern California’s five most populous counties saw the size of the very-high fire zone grow to more than 812,000 acres in the latest update, up from just over 644,000 in the previous maps, compiled between 2007-11.

The number of acres where property owners must comply with the stiffer building code — encompassing the high and very-high fire zones combined — increased to more than 1.1 million.

“In the aggregate, there’s considerably more acres. … The (fire) hazard has gotten more extreme,” said Dave Sapsis, a research manager with Cal Fire who was part of the team that developed the mapping model. “Burn probability is a foundational component of hazard, and the amount of area burning per year has gone up.”

The size of the very-high fire zones increased in 70 jurisdictions in the region’s most populous counties, and shrank in 77. The biggest increase occurred in Riverside County town of Jurupa Valley, which had 6,195 acres in the very-high zone, vs. 226 in the previous map.

Very-high fire zones increased in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, but decreased 13% in San Diego County.

Five cities that had very-high fire zones in the 2011 map — Covina, Irwindale, Cathedral City, Desert Hot Springs, Palm Desert and Yucca Valley — had no very-high zones in the update.

Meanwhile, 35 cities without any fire zones in the previous map now do, including Santa Monica, La Cañada-Flintridge, South Pasadena, Alhambra, Huntington Beach, Laguna Hills, Chino Hills and Rancho Cucamonga.

Local governments now have until April 23 to make the new maps public and have until July 22 to adopt them as their own designations. While cities and counties can’t reduce the size of their fire zones, they can increase them.

L.A. County Fire Chief Albert Yanagisawa said his department has yet to come up with any proposed additions to Cal Fire’s designations, although he was surprised more of Altadena wasn’t included in the new designations.

“I thought the very high fire severity zones were really going to reach deep, deep down into Altadena, and they haven’t,” Yanagisawa said Monday during a news conference.  

Previous maps designated just three to six blocks along Altadena’s northern edge as being in a “very-high fire hazard severity zone.”

The new state maps show fire zones extend at least seven to eight blocks further south. However, the Eaton fire penetrated 18-28 blocks into the community, so much of the Altadena burn area still is not designated as a fire hazard zone.

The 23,000-acre Palisades fire area already had a very-high fire hazard designation.

Wildfire building code

Construction in the high and very-high fire zones must comply with Chapter 7A of the state building code, which mandates that homes have ember-resistant roofs, vents and rain gutters, have outer walls capable of withstanding heat and flames for up to an hour and have heat impenetrable windows and doors.

“It will apply as homeowners now go to rebuild,” Berlant said. “These homes will now be built to a higher standard than most of them were built to initially.”

Residents in very-high fire zones also have to maintain “defensible space” within 100 feet of homes and buildings. Trees need to be trimmed, dead or dying vegetation must be removed and brush must be cleared.

County fire departments in L.A. and Orange counties conduct more than 200,000 brush inspections each spring to ensure compliance.

In addition, state officials are drafting new “Zone 0” rules mandating that residents in very-high fire zones remove flammable plants and materials from the first five feet surrounding homes and buildings.

Statewide, the size of the the very-high fire zones — where residents must maintain defensible space and have inspections before a real estate sale — increased to 1.16 million acres, up 35% from 860,000 in the 2011 maps, according to Cal Fire numbers. The combined high and very-high fire zones, where construction must comply with stiffer building codes — reached 2.3 million acres in the updated maps.

New builds affected

The new fire designations will affect efforts by The Foothill Catalog Foundation, a nonprofit group up of architects and other housing professionals creating pre-approved home designs families can use when rebuilding.

Homeowners will be able to pick a design from the foundation’s catalog, with much of the permitting process already baked into the product, said founder Alex Athenson.

“Certain areas and properties indeed are going to have different restrictions based on their location within the fire maps,” Athenson said.

Nic Arnzen, vice chair of the Altadena Town Council, predicted some residents will object to the new designations, but believes it will be a pretty isolated group.

“Overall, I expect acceptance,” Arnzen said.

L.A. County has yet to approve any building permits in the Eaton fire area, Board of Supervisors Chair Kathryn Barger said Monday. But the county fire department will work with planning and public works departments to provide guidance for rebuilding requirements in high fire hazard zones, she said.

Inland Empire changes

In San Bernardino County, areas under very-high hazard designations now include the unincorporated area south of Redlands and west of Calimesa, as well as an area north of the 210 freeway in the city of San Bernardino.

In Yucaipa, the size of the very-high fire zone increased to almost 10,100 acres, up from 6,679. Another 941 acres have been added to the high fire zone.

“We went … to being completely surrounded,” said city spokesman Joe Pradetto. Yet, he said, the state doesn’t provide any money to cover the cost of increased brush inspections.

In Riverside County, an area along the Santa Ana River where homeless people have started fires for warmth or cooking is now a moderate hazard area.

Maps in three phases

Cal Fire began rolling out updated fire maps in February, releasing maps for Northern and Central California in three prior phases.

Berlant said rapidly changing weather delayed the updating of state fire maps.

Over the past five to eight years, California weather has changed “faster than ever before,” he said.

“The ability for us to pivot to building a new (mapping) model, to be able to incorporate these changes, as well as predict out into the future, has taken us a while,” Berlant said. “And we really wanted to ensure that the newest addition of these maps were as accurate as possible.”

Cal Fire hopes to release the next update in five years, he said.

Two fire scientists say it’s a given that Southern California will have repeated wildfires during dry, high-wind episodes. The problem is the lack of preparation for those fires, they said. And the cost of preparation is dwarfed by the cost of the fire losses.

“The problem is not wildfire or the wildfire hazard, which is a given. It’s how do the communities respond to that wildfire,” said Jack Cohen, a retired research physical scientist with the U.S. Forest Service who worked in Southern California during the 1980s. “And we have abundant empirical evidence that the communities aren’t responding very well.”

SCNG staff writers Anissa Rivera, David Wilson and Brian Rokos contributed to this report.

​ Orange County Register 

Lakers fall to Magic, beginning trip with 3rd straight loss

• March 25, 2025

ORLANDO, Fla. — Lakers coach JJ Redick recognized that his team developed “bad habits defensively” over the last couple of weeks while they worked to get healthier.

And with those habits showing themselves in the Lakers’ blowout home loss to the Chicago Bulls on Saturday, Redick made it clear what he wanted to see from his team as they kicked off a four-game road trip against the Orlando Magic on Monday night.

Be more physical. Offer more resistance on opponents’ drives. And if they get to the rim, provide even more resistance.

The Lakers’ early efforts made it evident that the message was received, but they didn’t sustain the physicality and defensive play necessary against a big, physical Orlando squad, falling to the Magic, 118-106, in the opener of a four-game road trip.

“We had a really good intention to start the game,” Redick said. “We tried to clean some things up in film. We still gotta clean some things up with some of our execution of coverages.”

The Lakers (43-28) have lost three straight games by a combined 72 points, and they’ve lost seven of their past 10 games dating to March 8.

Luka Doncic led the Lakers with 32 points, seven assists and seven rebounds, but the 26-year-old Slovenian star was regularly targeted defensively by the Magic (34-38), whether it was in screening actions or drives to the rim from Franz Wagner (32 points, eight assists, four rebounds) or Paolo Banchero (30 points, seven rebounds).

“They’re both great players,” Doncic said of the Magic’s young star duo. “That’s the first thing that makes them special. They’re young and this team is built around them. Obviously, saw how they started this season. They had some bad luck with injuries, but this team is built around those two. Just trying to stop them is very hard. They can do a little bit of everything and those two are special players in this league.”

LeBron James, playing in his second game since returning from a groin injury that sidelined him for two weeks, finished with 24 points, eight assists and six rebounds.

Austin Reaves added 18 points, six rebounds and four assists, while Dorian Finney-Smith had 14 points, seven rebounds and a pair of steals.

But the Lakers didn’t overcome their defensive deficiencies, with the Magic taking advantage of the Lakers in transition (20 fast-break points).

“We look tired,” Redick said. “And I don’t know what contributes to that. That happens periodically throughout a season where the group gets tired. That’s what it feels like right now. We weren’t able to sustain our level of intensity that we started the game with.”

And the Lakers’ strategy to give space to players who are viewed as non-shooting threats backfired.

The Magic, who entered Monday as the league’s worst 3-point shooting team (31.1%), shot 15 for 40 (37.5%) from behind the arc and outscored the Lakers 34-18 in the third quarter.

Once it became clear the Lakers weren’t going to be able to shoot their way back into the game, their collective fatigue after playing eight games in 12 days, became apparent.

“We need the adversity,” Finney-Smith said. “Especially being a new team, we get to learn a lot about each other during tough times. You usually don’t see things when you winning. So we got the chance to grow. We’re going to use this opportunity to grow.”

The Lakers held a nine-point lead late in the first half (60-51), but Orlando used a 7-0 run to cut into that before halftime, then the Magic’s big third quarter gave them a 92-78 lead going into the fourth. They led 100-83 early in the final period.

“We let our offense mess up with our defensive energy,” Finney-Smith said. “It was just tough to fight back.”

​ Orange County Register 

Chargers, safety Tony Jefferson agree on a new 1-year contract

• March 25, 2025

Safety Tony Jefferson, who came out of retirement to join the Chargers last season, is back for another one with the team. Jefferson and the Chargers agreed on a new one-year contract on Monday, bolstering the team’s already solid secondary for the 2025 season.

It’s expected that he’ll be a backup for safeties Derwin James Jr., Alohi Gilman and Elijah Molden for the upcoming season. He had a similar role last season, making the 53-man roster after an exhibition game in which he had 14 tackles and two interceptions against the Dallas Cowboys.

Jefferson, 33, played eight games last season, starting four, after Chargers general manager Joe Hortiz lured him from retirement. Jefferson spent the 2022 season with the New York Giants, announced his retirement and then joined Hortiz and the Baltimore Ravens as a front office intern in 2023.

Hortiz was hired as the Chargers’ general manager after 26 years in various roles with the Ravens. Jefferson decided to unretire and return to the field with the Chargers after playing with the Giants, Ravens, Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers in a nine-year career. He had 27 tackles in 2024.

Jefferson, a Chula Vista native who grew up rooting for the then-San Diego Chargers, signed with the Cardinals as an undrafted free agent from the University of Oklahoma in 2013. His most productive seasons were with the Cardinals for four seasons and then with the Ravens for the next two, ending in 2019.

​ Orange County Register 

Chino Hills nonbinary author and podcaster celebrates being “Black, Fat, Femme” in book debut

• March 25, 2025

Growing up in the Jehovah’s Witnesses faith, nonbinary Inland Empire author Jonathan “Jon Paul” Higgins struggled to find positive representations of their identity. They used media — especially television — as a way to escape gender and societal pressures felt as a Black, queer person.

As a child, watching TV shows like “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” “Making the Band,” or America’s Next Top Model” — and seeing the cast with queer, Black, feminine representation — helped Higgins, who uses they/them pronouns, feel seen. In these brief episodes of people expressing their truest selves, they suddenly felt affirmed for who they are — not who the religious elders or others wanted them to be.

“I was looking for folks who looked like me on television because I didn’t have access to them in my real life,” Higgins, 39, said. “I didn’t know anyone who looked like me or celebrated being like me.”

Now the Chino Hills resident wants to do the same for others through their work in education, social justice, writing, podcasting, and working with queer youth in the Inland Empire and beyond.

Higgins is also embracing their newest role as a published author. Their debut book, “Black. Fat. Femme: Revealing the Power of Visibly Queer Voices in Media and Learning to Love Yourself,” out March 25, is part memoir, part examination of queer media, and part self-help, they said.

The book explores the transformative role queer media and identity have played in Higgins’ life, and the “magic” of being “Black, fat and femme.”

“Our stories deserve to be told,” the author writes. “We deserve to exist beyond the stereotypes and archetypes created around us.”

Higgins connected the work to their own, strict religious upbringing, which was “extremely monitored.” It initially put pressure on them to “perform” as someone else, as a Black, hypermasculine youth, they said.

Writing such a personal book and helping others was the natural next step for Higgins, who has made a name for themselves through their award-winning podcast of the same name, “The Black Fat Femme Podcast,” on iHeartMedia.

The show, started in 2021, features Higgins and co-host Jordan Daniels; two “queer, fat and Black change makers” sharing their joys and struggles while uncovering what it means to “love oneself unapologetically” in a world where that often feels impossible, the show’s description reads.

Higgins and Daniels talk amongst themselves and with guests about the intersections of race, queerness and fatness, with episodes about celebrating Black history to the erasure of “DEI.”

“It’s hard finding yourself and being happy in your identity, in a world constantly telling you that you’re not supposed to be here,” Higgins said.

“B.F.F.” has amassed over 75,000 downloads and a few accolades, including a Shorty Award and a Webby Award.

Higgins’ new book of the same title invites readers to learn about how “standing at the intersection of multiple identities, communities, and causes shapes people and how they see the world.”  It goes in-depth about Higgins’ life in Compton and later in San Bernardino County, the hardships and abuse they endured, and highlights other Black and queer icons they had growing up.

Higgins said they have a deep love for the Inland Empire —”flaws and all”— and its diverse queer community. They work as a communications director with the Rainbow Pride Youth Alliance, a nonprofit that provides a safe space for LGBTQ+ people in the region.

“I want queer youth living in Colton or Norco — or anywhere in San Bernardino, where it’s very anti-Black, anti-queer, anti-fat — to be able to feel uplifted by seeing my successes,” Higgins said.

Podcast co-host Daniels praised Higgins’ book debut as a “blueprint for people on how to navigate finding themselves.”

“There aren’t many — if any — books that focus on being Black, being fat, and being femme, so I think Jon’s book will give people a lot of tools to thrive,” Daniels, 30, said. “This book is very affirming — I think for some, it will actually be lifesaving.”

Going through painful and abusive experiences became a driving force for their mission: to uplift queer and plus-sized representation, helping to make it more inclusive.

Higgins said they are concerned about the Trump administration’s stance on LGBTQ+ and transgender issues, including attempts to end policies that protect the community’s rights and visibility — from ending gender-affirming care, to disallowing trans women to participate in sports or serve in the military.

“That’s kind of the world we’re living under right now, when we think about what it means to be queer, trans and nonbinary.”

Excited for more people to read the book, Higgins said that community has been the biggest source of “queer joy” during this time.

“We need to be worried about what’s going on in the world and how we take care of our community,” they said. “But we also need to be worried about being in community, being around people who fill our cups back up.”

“Black. Fat. Femme: Revealing the Power of Visibly Queer Voices in Media and Learning to Love Yourself” can be found on Amazon, Bookshop, Audible, and wherever books are sold.

A free book launch is set for Tuesday, March 25 at 7 p.m. at The Plus Bus Boutique, 5031 York Blvd., in Los Angeles.

​ Orange County Register 

Some US embassies in Europe post warnings to would-be visa seekers: Watch your step

• March 25, 2025

By DEEPTI HAJELA

Some U.S. embassies in European nations are taking to social media with pointed warnings to would-be visitors: Watch your step.

Embassies in at least 17 countries have put up posts featuring images of administration figures, including President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, warning those seeking visas that engaging in behavior deemed harmful by the government could get deported.

In a post put up by the U.S. Embassy in Tallinn, Estonia, the message reads: “When you apply to enter the United States and you get a visa, you are a guest. Now, if you are in this country to promote Hamas, to promote terrorist organizations, to participate in vandalism, to participate in acts of rebellion and riots on campus, we never would have let you in if we had known that. You lied to us. You’re out.”

Another post put up by the U.S. Embassy in Budapest has a quote from Rubio, saying, “We don’t want people in our country that are going to be committing crimes and undermining our national security or the public safety.”

The posts come at time when the Trump administration is clamping down on those with visas, like international students or professors, who have taken part in protests on university campuses around the conflict in Gaza in support of Palestinians and against Israel’s military actions.

That’s included taking visas away and putting the visa holders in immigration detention, and blocking people from entering the country. Among the cases is that of Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia University.

At a regular briefing Monday, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce called the warnings “reasonable.”

“Follow the law, behave yourselves, be a good visitor and you’ll be fine,” Bruce said. “It’s a visa. It’s not an entitlement. A visa and a green card are not birthrights. These are privileges you’re granted … because of what you present to the United States.”

She added, “Every sovereign nation in the world has an interest in controlling who comes in, knowing who’s coming into their country, what their intentions are.”

While it’s standard practice for those who apply for visas to enter the United States to come under scrutiny when they apply, the language being used in the posts and the social media campaign nature of the posts showcases the stance the administration has taken in regard to who’s allowed to be in the country and what behavior the U.S. government deems acceptable.

Some of the posts reflect the administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, such as the one posted by the U.S. Embassy in Denmark. It features a Noem quote saying, “If you’re considering traveling to the United States illegally, don’t even think about it.”

AP Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee contributed.

​ Orange County Register 

‘Give me liberty or give me death’ turns 250. Here’s what it meant in 1775

• March 25, 2025

By BEN FINLEY

The phrase “Give me liberty or give me death!” has survived the centuries like a line in a Shakespeare play.

It’s been expressed by protesters from the 1989 Tiananmen Square uprising in China to those who opposed COVID-19 restrictions in the U.S. in 2020.

Malcolm X referenced it in his 1964 “Ballot or the Bullet” speech, demanding equal rights for Black Americans. President Donald Trump quoted it on his Truth Social platform last year, lambasting a judge during his criminal hush money trial.

The phrase was reportedly first used 250 years ago Sunday by lawyer and legislator Patrick Henry to persuade Virginia colonists to prepare for war against an increasingly punitive Great Britain, just weeks before the American Revolution.

The liberty, of course, largely was for white, landowning men, not the people Henry and other founders enslaved. He was demanding a specific kind of freedom from the British Empire. Tensions were coming to a boil, particularly in Massachusetts, where the British replaced elected officials, occupied Boston and shuttered the harbor.

“The entire episode was about helping our brethren in Massachusetts,” said historian John Ragosta, who wrote a book on Henry. “It’s about the community. It’s about the nation. It’s not about, ‘What do I get out of this personally?’”

The printed version of Henry’s speech was about 1,200 words. And yet those seven words have lived on, often contorted to fit a political moment.

“It’s a very malleable phrase,” said Patrick Henry Jolly, a fifth great-grandson of Henry. “It’s something that can be applied to many different circumstances. But I think it’s important that people understand the original context.”

Jolly reenacted Henry’s speech Sunday in the same church where his ancestor delivered it. His presentation and others were part of Virginia’s commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the nation’s birth.

Here’s more information on Henry and his speech:

Who was Patrick Henry?

Born to an influential Virginia family in 1736, Henry became a successful trial lawyer in his 20s.

According to the Library of Congress, he once astonished a courtroom with an argument that “man is born with certain inalienable rights,” an idea echoed in the Declaration of Independence.

In 1765, Henry won a seat in Virginia’s colonial legislature. He was instrumental in opposing Great Britain’s Stamp Act, which levied a direct tax on the American colonies to raise money for Britain.

As tensions increased, many Americans felt like second-class citizens with no representation in parliament, Ragosta said. By the time of Henry’s speech, many were thinking: “The king won’t listen to us. They’ve invaded Boston. What should we in Virginia do about that?”

When Henry demanded liberty, he was aware of the contradictions, if not hypocrisy, of the moment.

In a 1773 letter to antislavery Quaker John Alsop, Henry acknowledged that slavery was continuing as “the rights of humanity are defined and understood with precision, in a country, above all others, fond of liberty.”

The “lamentable evil” would someday be abolished, he wrote, but apparently not yet.

“I am drawn along by the general inconvenience of living without them,” he wrote. “I will not — I cannot justify it, however culpable my conduct.”

Did he really say it?

In his 2004 book, “Founding Myths,” historian Ray Raphael wrote “it is highly unlikely” Henry said, “Give me liberty or give me death!”

Henry did not write down the speech and the version we know today was published 42 years later in an 1817 biography of him. The biographer, attorney William Wirt, pieced together Henry’s words from the decades-old recollections of people who were there.

The printed version, Raphael wrote, “reflects the agendas of 19th century nationalists who were fond of romanticizing war.”

But other historians said there is ample evidence Henry uttered those words.

“We have multiple people, years later, saying, ‘I remember like it was yesterday,’” Ragosta said, adding that Thomas Jefferson was one of them.

They recalled Henry lifting a letter opener that looked like a dagger and plunging it under his arm as if into his chest before saying the famous phrase.

“That’s 18th century oratory,” Ragosta said. ”It’s very impassioned.”

Jon Kukla, another historian who wrote a book on Henry, cited other evidence. Men in Virginia’s militias soon embroidered their heavy canvas shirts with “liberty or death.”

The popular 1712 play “Cato” about a Roman senator also contains the line, “It is not now a time to talk of aught, but chains or conquest, liberty or death.”

“It would have been part of the literate culture of the age,” Kukla said.

What happened next?

The most immediate impact of Henry’s speech was more support for independence and the expansion of Virginia’s militias.

In the months afterward, Henry and others also were driven by fears that the British would free enslaved people, Raphael suggests in “Founding Myths.”

Virginia’s royal governor, Lord Dunmore, offered freedom to enslaved people who fought for the British.

But Ragosta said that was not a primary motivation for Henry, who enslaved dozens of people.

“That does move a lot of people off the fence into the patriot column, undoubtedly,” Ragosta said. “But that’s not really what’s going on with the Jeffersons, the Washingtons, the Henrys. They had already been very committed to the patriot movement.”

An estimated 30,000 people escaped Virginia plantations in attempts to reach British lines, according to Simon Schama’s 2005 book, “Rough Crossings: Britain, the Slaves and the American Revolution.”

One was Ralph Henry, who was enslaved by Patrick Henry and evidently took the famous words “very much to heart,” Schama wrote.

Following independence, Henry served as Virginia’s governor five times. He also became known as an anti-federalist, opposing ratification of the U.S. Constitution and a strong central government.

But Henry later spoke in support of the founding document at George Washington’s urging in 1799, the year Henry died.

“He says, ‘Look, I voted against the Constitution, but we the people voted for it. And so we have to abide by it,’” Ragosta said.

Liberty versus license

Jolly, Henry’s descendant, said most people react positively to his ancestor’s famous words and acknowledge their historical significance.

“And there are some people that react thinking that it’s a rallying cry for them today to defend their rights — on both sides of the aisle,” Jolly said.

Yet Henry and his contemporaries were careful to distinguish liberty from license, said Kukla, the historian.

“Liberty, as they understood it, was not the freedom to do anything you damn well pleased,” Kukla said.

​ Orange County Register 

Orange County scores and player stats for Monday, March 24

• March 25, 2025

Support our high school sports coverage by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribe now

Scores and stats from Orange County games on Monday, March 24

Click here for details about sending your team’s scores and stats to the Register.

The deadline for submitting information is 10:45 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 p.m. Saturday.

MONDAY’S SCORES

BASEBALL

ANAHEIM LIONS TOURNAMENT

Katella 10, Whittier 6

El Dorado 5, Simi Valley 0

Buena Park 7, Whittier 3

Katella 10, Marshall 2

NONLEAGUE

Kennedy 11, Barlow (OR) 4

Foothill 10, Lincoln (OR) 1

Whittier Christian 24, Excelsior Charter 0

BOYS LACROSSE

PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE

St. Margaret’s 18, Northwood 3

GIRLS LACROSSE

PACIFIC COAST LEAGUE

St. Margaret’s 19, Portola 6

GIRLS BEACH VOLLEYBALL

EMPIRE LEAGUE

Costa Mesa 4, Ocean View 1

CRESTVIEW LEAGUE

Yorba Linda 3, Esperanza 2

​ Orange County Register 

Jack Kochanowicz gets final spot in Angels’ rotation; Reid Detmers to bullpen

• March 25, 2025

ANAHEIM — Perhaps the biggest position battle of the Angels’ spring training has been decided.

Angels manager Ron Washington announced Monday that Jack Kochanowicz has earned the final spot in the starting rotation and Reid Detmers will stay with the major-league team in the bullpen.

Kochanowicz was outstanding in the final months of the 2024 season, posting a 2.45 ERA in August and a 3.03 ERA in September. He continued trending upward during spring training with a 2.92 ERA in 12⅓ innings.

“Watching the way Kochanowicz pitched, he’s been doing it since September all the way through spring training, he won the job,” Washington said. “Not that Detmers lost it, but we had to make a choice.”

Kochanowicz, 24, was told Sunday prior to the game at Dodger Stadium in a meeting with Washington, General Manager Perry Minasian and pitching coach Barry Enright.

“I’m beyond excited. They told me yesterday. I had to give them two hugs each, I just felt like I needed to,” Kochanowicz said. “Obviously it’s a dream come true to start up here, but any chance I’m given I’m happy to be here.”

Kochanowicz will start the Freeway Series finale against the Dodgers on Tuesday night.

“I’m just going to continue doing what I’m doing,” Kochanowicz said. “Nothing different. Sinkers at the bottom and see how it goes.”

Detmers, 25, has also pitched well in spring training after a tumultuous 2024 season. He posted a 2.79 ERA in 19⅓ innings with 17 strikeouts.

Detmers was optioned to Triple-A Salt Lake last June after going 3-6 with a 6.14 ERA in 12 starts.

“Obviously being a starter is where I’d like to be and I believe that’s where I’ll end up being eventually. But right now it’s getting off to a different path,” Detmers said. “I’m looking forward to it. Whatever way I can help this team win is what I’m going to do and right now it’s out of the bullpen.”

Washington said he plans on using Detmers for multiple innings out of the bullpen to keep his arm stretched out, but that game situations will ultimately dictate how he is used.

“We had a conversation with him yesterday and his head is in a very good place,” Washington said. “He just wants to pitch and whatever he has to do to help the team, he is willing to do it. When he gets out there on that mound, it will be for an extended period of time.”

The Angels might face a challenge keeping Detmers and newly acquired Ian Anderson’s arms stretched out from the bullpen, but Detmers isn’t concerned about the change of regimen from being a starting pitcher to a bullpen pitcher.

“I’m not really sure how it’s going to work but we’re going to figure it out,” Detmers said. “They are going to take care of me. They are going to have a plan. It is what it is, I’m not mad about it. I’m excited to go on with this new role and get things going.”

The Angels used 18 different starting pitchers in 2024, so it’s highly likely Detmers will end up in the starting rotation at some point this season.

MONCADA UPDATE

Third baseman Yoán Moncada, who has been sidelined since March 12 with a bruised right thumb, took ground balls during batting practice Monday and did some light throwing.

Moncada was not wearing the same brace he wore over his thumb on Sunday, but did have a wrap around his thumb. He was softly throwing the ball back toward home plate rather than throwing the ball to first base and his status for Opening Day is still in question. Moncada has not swung a bat since the injury.

“If Moncada is ready to play Opening Day, I’m not worried about where he is as far as his bat. His presence is the key,” Washington said. “Even though he doesn’t have the reps of swinging the bat, you don’t lose the ability of understanding the strike zone and he understands the strike zone.”

UP NEXT

Dodgers (RHP Dustin May) at Angels (RHP Jack Kochanowicz), Tuesday, 6:07 p.m., FanDuel Sports Network, 830 AM

​ Orange County Register