{"id":677135,"date":"2026-04-16T20:27:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T20:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/677135\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T20:27:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T20:27:15","slug":"orioles-trade-chayce-mcdermott-to-dodgers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/677135\/","title":{"rendered":"Orioles Trade Chayce McDermott To Dodgers"},"content":{"rendered":"

2:26pm: The Dodgers announced that they\u2019ve acquired McDermott in exchange for minor league righty Axel Perez<\/a>. They already had a 40-man vacancy, so no further moves are necessary.<\/p>\n

2:10pm: The Orioles are trading right-hander Chayce McDermott<\/a>, whom they designated for assignment last week, to the Dodgers, per Jon Heyman of the New York Post<\/a>. He\u2019s being optioned to Triple-A Oklahoma City with his new club, Jack Harris of the California Post adds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

McDermott, 27, is only a couple seasons removed from being considered one of Baltimore\u2019s top prospects. He fired 119 frames of 3.10 ERA ball between Double-A and Triple-A and followed that with 100 frames and a 3.78 ERA in Triple-A the following season. McDermott made a brief MLB debut in 2024, tossing four innings, and it looked as though he\u2019d soon emerge as a regular contributor on the Orioles\u2019 staff.<\/p>\n

That never happened, however. The 2025 season was a nightmare for the former fourth-rounder. McDermott was shelled for a 6.91 ERA in his first 11 starts at the Triple-A level. Opponents collected 43 hits \u2014 six of them homers \u2014 and drew 36 walks in just 43 innings across that brutal run of 11 starts. McDermott also hit four batters and was charged with seven wild pitches. In light of those struggles, the O\u2019s moved him to the bullpen. After a rough first outing (five runs in 1 2\/3 innings), he settled in to log a 1.76 ERA and 18-to-7 K\/BB ratio across his final 15 1\/3 innings out of the Triple-A bullpen.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a struggle for McDermott in 2026. He\u2019s pitched 5 1\/3 innings out of the Norfolk bullpen and surrendered four runs on five hits, six walks and a hit-by-pitch. McDermott also pitched three spring innings for Baltimore and was tagged for three solo home runs.<\/p>\n

Shaky command has long been McDermott\u2019s biggest flaw, and with the right-hander still struggling in that regard during what\u2019s now his final minor league option year, Baltimore moved on last week. McDermott\u2019s former prospect status was enough to generate some interest in the trade market, and he\u2019ll now see whether he can become the latest change-of-scenery candidate to find new life in the Dodgers organization. Los Angeles has plenty of success stories of this nature \u2014 at least in part due to the sheer volume of players they pick up in fringe transactions of just this nature. Often, they\u2019ll quickly try to pass said player through waivers themselves, though since McDermott can still be optioned, there\u2019s no urgency to do so in the immediate future.<\/p>\n

McDermott is sitting a career-best 95.3 mph on his four-seamer in Triple-A this season. The uptick in velocity isn\u2019t surprising for a longtime starter who\u2019s making the move to short relief. He\u2019s also all but scrapped his changeup and curveball, now pairing his four-seamer with a new cutter residing at 90.1 mph and a slider he\u2019s had for years (but is now throwing a few miles an hour slower, in the low 80s).<\/p>\n

As for Perez, he\u2019s a 20-year-old from the Dominican Republic who\u2019s in just his third professional season. He signed with L.A. as an 18-year-old in January of 2024 and made his organizational debut in the Dominican Summer League last year. Listed at 6\u20194\u2033 and 168 pounds when he signed, Perez has only 23 professional innings under his belt. He posted a 5.48 ERA during last year\u2019s DSL season, punching out more than 31% of his opponents but also logging an ugly 12.6% walk rate. He\u2019s a low-level lottery ticket who\u2019s years from being any sort of consideration at the MLB level \u2014 if he develops to that point at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2:26pm: The Dodgers announced that they\u2019ve acquired McDermott in exchange for minor league righty Axel Perez. They already…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677136,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[85790,5,1515],"class_list":{"0":"post-677135","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-axel-perez","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-chayce-mcdermott"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116416272443847006","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677135","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677135"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677135\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677135"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677135"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677135"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}