Dean Kremer’s first start for the Minnesota Twins looked fine in the box score: one run, five innings, and enough steady work to make the trade seem promising on the surface.
But the real story was hiding in the way he got there.
Against the Kansas City Royals, Kremer’s splitter - the pitch that has long driven his strikeout production - stopped looking like the same weapon. It didn’t miss bats, it didn’t finish hitters, and once that happened, the rest of his pitch mix started to look far more ordinary.
In Baltimore during the 2026 season, the splitter was the backbone of his approach. Opponents whiffed on 41.5% of their swings against it.
Kremer threw it 30.2% of the time overall, leaned on it for half his pitches in two-strike counts, and got chases outside the zone 32.4% of the time. That pitch gave him a way to dictate at-bats.
Kansas City didn’t bite. Royals hitters offered at the splitter 12 times and missed all 12. When the pitch that usually ended plate appearances suddenly stopped creating any swing-and-miss, Kremer’s entire sequencing lost its edge.
That showed up immediately in how often he had to go to his four-seam fastball. Kremer threw 38 fastballs, which was 43% of his 88 pitches, more than doubling his season rate of 21.4%. Without the splitter doing its job below the zone, he was pushed into the strike zone far more often.
The fifth inning was the clearest example of how one at-bat can change everything.
Kremer got Michael Massey to 0-2 and looked set to finish the job, but Massey kept the inning alive by fouling off five straight pitches, including three splitters. On the seventh pitch, he stayed on another splitter down in the zone and lined a single to start the frame.
With runners on the corners and one out, Kremer went almost entirely with four-seam fastballs against Kyle Isbel. Isbel sat on the pattern, got a 92 mph heater in the zone, and lifted a sacrifice fly to center that tied the game.
Kansas City’s lineup didn’t beat Kremer with loud contact. It made him show his hand. Once the splitter stopped creating doubt, the fastball became easier to read, and even routine airborne contact started to matter.
There may be an answer in the cutter.
That pitch has quietly been one of his best this season, with a 104 Stuff+ and a 33.3% whiff rate to go with a 32.1% chase rate. Against right-handed hitters, it gives Kremer another option inside and another way to keep hitters from sitting on the four-seamer before he comes back to the splitter.
Even with the splitter issue hanging over the outing, Kremer showed why Minnesota wanted him in the rotation.
He retired the leadoff hitter in four of his five innings and stayed calm when things got messy. After Nick Loftin opened one inning with a single, Kremer worked out of it without needing strikeout stuff. John Rave grounded into an inning-ending double play, and Kyle Isbel followed with a routine popup to shortstop, letting Kremer get through the threat after facing only three more hitters beyond the leadoff runner.
That kind of poise still matters. Kremer can handle traffic, trust his defense, and keep competing with runners on base.
The bigger issue is whether the splitter can get back to being the pitch he had in Baltimore - the one that forced hitters to guess instead of react. Until that happens, his starts may keep living on the edge between solid results and a much shakier process underneath.
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