LOS ANGELES — Fresh off a sweep of the Mets, the front office turned its attention to a familiar area of need, pitching depth with upside. The result is a low-risk, high-reward move that fits the Dodgers’ organizational identity.
They’ve acquired right-hander Chayce McDermott from the Orioles in exchange for 20-year-old righty Axel Perez.
McDermott was designated for assignment just last week. His brief major league resume, five appearances across the 2024–25 seasons, hasn’t yet translated the promise he showed in the minors. And his early 2026 results at Triple-A Norfolk (6.75 ERA in five outings) won’t quiet skeptics.
But the Dodgers aren’t betting on results. They’re betting on traits.
Jim Rassol-Imagn Images
Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Chayce McDermott (60) pitches against the Miami Marlins in the first inning at loanDepot Park.
McDermott’s calling card is unmistakable: swing-and-miss stuff. Across six minor league seasons, he’s struck out hitters at a staggering 12.5 per nine innings, piling up 568 strikeouts in just 409 innings. That kind of bat-missing ability doesn’t grow on trees, and it certainly doesn’t often come available at this acquisition cost.
A year ago, he was viewed as the Orioles’ top pitching prospect. That matters—not because prospect rankings guarantee anything, but because they signal raw ingredients the Dodgers’ pitching development group believes it can still refine.
And if there’s one thing this organization has earned the benefit of the doubt on, it’s pitcher development.
This is a team that has made a habit of identifying arms with one or two loud tools—velocity and spin, and turning them into viable major league contributors. Sometimes that happens quickly. Sometimes it takes a mechanical tweak, a pitch mix adjustment, or simply a change of environment.
McDermott now gets that environment.
He’ll report to Triple-A Oklahoma City, where the Dodgers can get to work. There’s no immediate pressure, no need to rush him into a big league role. Instead, this is about evaluation, refinement, and seeing whether elite strikeout ability can be molded into consistent production.
For the Dodgers, this is about building layers.
Even after a strong stretch like the Mets sweep, the realities of a 162-game season, and the attrition that comes with it, are never far from mind..
Perez, the 20-year-old heading to Baltimore, is still very much in the early stages of his development. Signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2024, he posted a 5.48 ERA in 10 games in the Dominican Summer League in 2025. There’s projection there, as there is with most arms at that age, but he’s years away from impacting a major league roster.
The Dodgers are trading time for immediacy—or at least proximity. McDermott may not be a finished product, but he’s far closer to helping at the big league level if things click.