{"id":677177,"date":"2026-04-16T21:36:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T21:36:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/677177\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T21:36:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T21:36:55","slug":"dodgers-add-former-top-prospect-chayce-mcdermott","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/677177\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers add former top prospect Chayce McDermott"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2014 Fresh off a sweep of the Mets<\/a>, 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<\/a>\u2019 organizational identity.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve acquired right-hander Chayce McDermott from the Orioles in exchange for 20-year-old righty Axel Perez.<\/p>\n

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McDermott was designated for assignment just last week. His brief major league resume, five appearances across the 2024\u201325 seasons, hasn\u2019t 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\u2019t quiet skeptics.<\/p>\n

But the Dodgers aren\u2019t betting on results. They\u2019re betting on traits.<\/p>\n

\"BaltimoreBaltimore Orioles starting pitcher Chayce McDermott (60) pitches against the Miami Marlins<\/a> in the first inning at loanDepot Park.<\/p>\n

Jim Rassol-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Chayce McDermott (60) pitches against the Miami Marlins in the first inning at loanDepot Park.<\/p>\n

McDermott\u2019s calling card is unmistakable: swing-and-miss stuff. Across six minor league seasons, he\u2019s 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\u2019t grow on trees, and it certainly doesn\u2019t often come available at this acquisition cost.<\/p>\n

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A year ago, he was viewed as the Orioles\u2019 top pitching prospect. That matters\u2014not because prospect rankings guarantee anything, but because they signal raw ingredients the Dodgers\u2019 pitching development group believes it can still refine.<\/p>\n

And if there\u2019s one thing this organization has earned the benefit of the doubt on, it\u2019s pitcher development.<\/p>\n

This is a team that has made a habit of identifying arms with one or two loud tools\u2014velocity 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.<\/p>\n

McDermott now gets that environment.<\/p>\n

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He\u2019ll report to Triple-A Oklahoma City, where the Dodgers can get to work. There\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

For the Dodgers, this is about building layers.<\/p>\n

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..<\/p>\n

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\u2019s projection there, as there is with most arms at that age, but he\u2019s years away from impacting a major league roster.<\/p>\n

The Dodgers are trading time for immediacy\u2014or at least proximity. McDermott may not be a finished product, but he\u2019s far closer to helping at the big league level if things click.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 Fresh off a sweep of the Mets, the front office turned its attention to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677178,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2395],"tags":[47,5,1515,39,1816,778,58,4171,60,4,4377,1558,812],"class_list":{"0":"post-677177","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami-marlins","8":"tag-baltimore-orioles","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-chayce-mcdermott","11":"tag-dodgers","12":"tag-marlins","13":"tag-miami","14":"tag-miami-marlins","15":"tag-miamimarlins","16":"tag-minnesota-twins","17":"tag-mlb","18":"tag-oriole-park-at-camden-yards","19":"tag-the-dodgers","20":"tag-the-mets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116416548759724406","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677177","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=677177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}