The Dodgers acquired Chayce McDermott from the Orioles on Monday and will option the 25-year-old right-hander to Triple-A Oklahoma City. Baltimore designated McDermott for assignment last week, and the trade cost Los Angeles minor league righty Axel Perez.
The move was announced at 2:26 p.m., shortly after Baltimore completed the trade at 2:10 p.m. The Dodgers already had a 40-man vacancy, so no additional roster move was needed.
McDermott was considered one of Baltimore’s top prospects a couple of seasons ago, when he put up 119 innings with a 3.10 ERA between Double-A and Triple-A, then followed that with 100 innings and a 3.78 ERA in Triple-A the next year. He also made a brief major league debut in 2024 and threw four innings.
But 2025 was far more difficult. McDermott opened the year with a 6.91 ERA in his first 11 Triple-A starts, allowing 43 hits, including six home runs, while issuing 36 walks in 43 innings. He also hit four batters and was charged with seven wild pitches. Baltimore moved him to the bullpen, and after a rough first relief outing he finished his Triple-A run with a 1.76 ERA and an 18-to-7 strikeout-to-walk ratio over his final 15 1/3 innings.
The right-hander entered this year in his final minor league option year, and the stuff has still given evaluators something to work with. He is sitting a career-best 95.3 mph on his four-seamer in Triple-A this season and is pairing it with a new cutter at 90.1 mph and a slider he has thrown for years. Even so, his command remains the issue that has followed him through stops in Norfolk and beyond.
McDermott pitched 5 1/3 innings out of the Norfolk bullpen this season and allowed four runs on five hits, six walks and a hit-by-pitch. He also threw three spring innings for Baltimore and gave up three solo home runs. The Dodgers, who have a history of taking fringe pitchers and trying to develop them further, are betting they can clean up enough of the rough edges to make his arm matter again.
Perez, meanwhile, is 20 and from the Dominican Republic. He signed with the Dodgers as an 18-year-old in January 2024, made his organizational debut in the Dominican Summer League last year and has 23 professional innings under his belt. In that DSL season, he posted a 5.48 ERA, struck out more than 31% of his opponents and walked 12.6% of them.
For Los Angeles, the trade is a low-cost swing on a former top prospect with power stuff and obvious flaws. For Baltimore, it is a clean exit from a once-promising arm that never found the control to match the velocity.
