The Minnesota Twins kept shopping ahead of the MLB trade deadline, landing starter Dean Kremer from the Baltimore Orioles in a deal that sends rookie-ball outfielder Jhomnardo Reyes the other way.
Kremer arrives with a 1-4 record and a 6.50 ERA in 36 innings this season for Baltimore, along with 38 strikeouts. Over his career before this year, he carried a 4.26 ERA and averaged 7.7 strikeouts per nine innings.
Reyes, 18, had put up a .296/.409/.541 slash line in the Florida Complex League before his recent move up to A-ball.
Minnesota is also taking on the $1.7 million still owed to Kremer, according to a league source told The Athletic. That comes on the heels of another payroll addition: the Twins are paying the remaining $3.3 million attached to reliever A.J. Minter, who came over from the New York Mets late Thursday night.
The moves point to a club trying to patch together more rotation help. Rookie Connor Prielipp has already logged 91 combined innings between Triple A and the majors, which is a career high, and he entered the season having thrown 112 2/3 professional innings since 2022. Friday’s starter, Zebby Matthews, had been sitting on a 5.21 ERA and gave up an early two-run double to Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh.
There are still question marks beyond that. Joe Ryan has been dealing with balance and lower-half issues, and his last two outings have gone poorly, including a July 20 loss to Cleveland in which he allowed a major-league record six home runs.
The Twins have not often been a team willing to absorb meaningful salary in season, but this deadline has already looked different. Tom Pohlad said on July 10 that GM Jeremy Zoll would have the resources needed to make deals, and Minnesota’s willingness to take on Minter’s money helped make that trade possible without surrendering any of its top prospects.
Now the same approach has brought in Kremer, and a Twins source speaking on condition of anonymity suggested Pohlad is prepared to give Zoll even more financial backing as the club keeps looking for help before the Aug. 3 deadline.
“We’ve got to be willing to make investments and make bold moves that allow us to be successful in the playoffs,” Pohlad said July 10. “This is a build-and-they-will-come situation.
The fans are not going to come back based on words. They’re going to come back once they see investment in the team and success on the field.
I know that.”
In Other News...
Orioles Fans May Hate What Adley Rutschman News Says About This Front Office
The Orioles rebuilding project has always been judged through the lens of patience, but any conversation about progress in Baltimore is going to feel different when it involves Adley Rutschman. The franchise centerpiece has been at the heart of everything the club has tried to build under general manager Mike Elias, which is why the latest news naturally lands as a referendum on the front office as much as on the player himself.
There is still a procedural step left before anything becomes official, and that is the part keeping this story from being complete. Even so, the mere fact that Rutschmans name is now tied to a move of this magnitude will force Orioles fans to reckon with how aggressively the organization wants to keep reshaping the roster, and whether the people making those calls can be trusted with the next phase of the rebuild. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Face One Deadline Decision That Could Define Their Rotation
The Orioles have already made one move that fits the deadlines usual balancing act, sending Dean Kremer out and bringing Jake Rogers in to shore up catching depth. Now the bigger question is whether they lean further into selling, or take a swing at adding help for a rotation that still has to carry them through a postseason chase. Baltimores front office is working with the same familiar tension that hangs over a contender near the deadline: protect the future, or push chips in for the present.
One possibility being discussed would address a clear need by adding a controllable left-handed starter, the kind of arm that could stabilize the staff beyond this season. It is the sort of deal that would require real prospect capital, and the Orioles have to decide how far they want to go to strengthen the rotation without thinning out the next wave of talent. For a club trying to thread that needle, this is the kind of decision that can shape not just the deadline, but the shape of the pitching staff for some time to come. [Read more 🡒]
Orioles Just Helped A Wild Card Rival And Fans Know It
A late-summer trade sent veteran outfielder Taylor Ward from Baltimore to Seattle, a move that immediately drew attention because the Mariners are pushing to stay in the playoff race. Ward, on a one-year deal, gives Seattle another right-handed bat as it tries to shore up an offense that has been looking for a lift.
For the Orioles, the deal is a tougher sell to the fan base because they are still sitting near the wild-card picture themselves and moved a useful bat in the process. Baltimore did bring back three minor-league right-handers in Alex Hoppe, Harrison Kreiling and Brock Moore, though none of them were among Seattles top 30 prospects, which only adds to the feeling that this was a small return for a player who could have helped in the standings race. [Read more 🡒]