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Kremer has given up home runs at an outsized rate this season. The Twins are betting that’s small-sample noise. Evan Habeeb \/ USA TODAY<\/p>\n
Orioles get: OF Jhomnardo Reyes<\/p>\n
Twins get:\u00a0 RHP Dean Kremer<\/p>\n
Kremer should bounce back to be what he is: dependable rotation depth<\/p>\n
Orioles: A-
Twins: A-\u00a0<\/p>\n
For what the Twins sought \u2014 reliable rotation depth \u2014 I don\u2019t mind this trade one iota. Kremer is coming off two blow-up starts that ballooned his ERA to 6.50. Two weeks ago, he had a 4.15 season ERA, which was right in line with his career ERA (4.26) and similar to his ERAs for each of the previous three seasons (4.19, 4.10, 4.12). That\u2019s who he is. A solid, league-average starter. Don\u2019t get lost in the sloppiness of the last two outings.<\/p>\n
Now, Kremer also has clear flaws. Stuff models hate him. He continues to evolve and expand his pitch arsenal, yet he can\u2019t get a left-handed hitter out to save his life right now \u2014 they are putting up down-ballot MVP numbers against Kremer this season, slashing .281\/.341\/.622 \u2014 as he has gone splitter-heavy against lefties. But that\u2019s a seven-start sample; across his career, he hasn\u2019t had a huge lefty issue. Kremer is a homer-prone pitcher, yet that problem has typically been less pronounced away from Camden Yards. The fact that opposing hitters\u2019 pull-air percentage \u2014 the most likely batted balls to result in home runs \u2014 against Kremer is up 12 percent over his career norm this year also strikes me as more small-sample noise. The Twins will probably pay Kremer about $9 million over the 16 months before he is scheduled to reach free agency. They\u2019ll probably get 40 starts with a 4.15 ERA. They\u2019ll probably be happy with that.<\/p>\n
Typically, one-plus years of a starter of Kremer\u2019s caliber \u2014 yes, even league average is valuable \u2014 would bring back a couple top-30 prospects in a trade. The Orioles only landed one here because that prospect is a really intriguing one: Jhomnardo Reyes, a Dominican corner outfielder the Twins signed for $300,000 in 2025. Prior to the trade, FanGraphs ranked Reyes the No. 10 prospect in the Twins system. One team source profiles him as a likely corner outfielder who hits hard \u201cwith potentially above-average power but (is) already showing some swing-and-miss in the zone.\u201d MLB.com<\/a> currently has him as the Orioles\u2019 No. 20 prospect, though the arrow appears to be pointing up. Baseball America<\/a> called Reyes a breakout prospect and \u201carguably one of the top hitters across any complex league circuit this summer.\u201d He has an .855 OPS in rookie ball.<\/p>\n \u2014 Stephen J. Nesbitt<\/p>\n A lottery ticket for an arm you don\u2019t need in the long run? Sounds pretty good<\/p>\n Orioles: A- For Minnesota, this is the kind of unsexy move that should help stabilize the back end of the rotation. Ignore the 6.50 ERA (and even the 6.24 FIP) Kremer\u2019s shown in seven big-league starts this season. That\u2019s the product of an absurd 12 homers in 36 innings for a guy who\u2019s generally given up long balls at a league-average rate. That should even out over time, allowing Kremer to look more like the back-end starter with an ERA just above the league-average that he\u2019d been for years in Baltimore before this spring\u2019s quad strain.<\/p>\n Baltimore\u2019s growing number of near-ready starters in the minors was going to make Kremer superfluous soon enough, and Reyes is the exact kind of lottery ticket you like picking up this time of year. An 18-year-old lefty-swinging outfielder with the potential for some serious pop, Reyes raked in the Complex League before a recent move to the Florida State League. \u2014 Tim Britton<\/p>\n Aug 1, 2026<\/p>\n Connections: Sports Edition<\/p>\n Spot the pattern. Connect the terms<\/p>\n Find the hidden link between sports terms<\/p>\n Play today’s puzzle<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kremer has given up home runs at an outsized rate this season. The Twins are betting that’s small-sample…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":838344,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,1186,2364,591,85],"class_list":["post-838343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-baltimore-orioles","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=838343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838343\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/838344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Twins: B<\/p>\n<\/p>\n