The Los Angeles Dodgers traded for Chayce McDermott in the middle of the season, sending international bonus pool money and minor league pitcher Axel Perez to get McDermott and Griff McGarry. McDermott is now reporting to Triple-A Oklahoma City, where the Dodgers will try to turn his power arm into a usable major league piece.
McDermott’s path to Los Angeles was shaped by a rough first look in the majors. He threw 12.2 innings for the Orioles and finished with a 12.79 ERA, allowing 17 hits and 14 walks while striking out 12. That stat line explains why the move drew attention when Pitch Profiler posted on April 16, 2026, that the Dodgers had added another hard-throwing supinator and were betting their development system could clean up the command issues that had haunted him.
The appeal is hard to miss. FanGraphs graded McDermott’s command at 30 out of 80 and said he could get to a 40, while Pitch Profiler described his stuff as high quality, especially his splitter, four-seam fastball and sweeper. For a Dodgers club that has a track record of helping pitchers sharpen command, that is the bet here: the raw material is good enough to justify the swing, even after the Orioles scoreline on McDermott’s major league debut made the risk obvious.
Griff McGarry is part of that same trade, but McDermott carries the clearer path to Los Angeles because his 40-man roster status gives him the edge for a major league appearance. The friction point is simple and familiar: the Dodgers are trying to build around velocity and movement, but McDermott’s walk rate still has to be fixed before the stuff starts to matter at the next level.
If the Dodgers really can move McDermott from command liability to useful pitcher, they will have turned a midseason trade into another example of how they keep finding value in arms other clubs have not finished developing. If they cannot, his first 12.2 innings with Baltimore may end up looking less like a bad stretch than a warning.