With not much starting pitching depth after Joe Ryan, Taj Bradley, Bailey Ober, Connor Prielipp and Zebby Matthews, the Minnesota Twins addressed a major need by acquiring right-hander Dean Kremer from the Baltimore Orioles on Friday night. The Twins transferred right-hander Mike Paredes to the 60-day injured list with an oblique strain, so Kendry Rojas is the only other pitcher on the 40-man roster besides the aforementioned starters whom Minnesota can count on to make a start here and there. But even so, Rojas typically goes just 4-5 innings per start.
Even though the Kremer deal improves the Twins' rotation depth, it isn't the most exciting trade. Acquiring a starter like Reid Detmers or Kevin Gausman likely would have improved the roster much more, but at the same time would've cost the Twins more. To acquire Kremer, who is under team control through next season, the Twins surrendered 18-year-old outfield prospect Jhomnardo Reyes, who ranked outside the Twins' top 20 prospects (MLB Pipeline) before the deal.
Kremer has had a rough season. After just two starts this year, the 30-year-old veteran landed on the injured list with a right quad strain. Baltimore reinstated Kremer on July 1. Since then, the right-hander has posted an abysmal 7.56 ERA in 25 innings across five starts.
It's not a terrible trade for the Twins by any means. Reyes certainly has potential, but he most likely won't amount to an everyday big-leaguer given where he is ranked as a prospect. Giving up a lower-ranked 18-year-old prospect for a starter with roughly a year and a half of team control seems like a smart move for Minnesota.
Twins could still add another starter after Dean Kremer trade with Orioles but it seems unlikely
Still, it would've been nice to see Minnesota add a starter such as Gausman or Detmers. The Twins could still go out and acquire another starter before the trade deadline, but it seems more likely the club will add another right-handed reliever and then be done with moves before the deadline.
At best, Kremer can be a solid back-end rotation arm for Minnesota. He isn't a high-velocity pitcher, but he had a solid 2025 season, posting 2.2 bWAR and a 4.19 ERA with 142 strikeouts over 171 2/3 innings. Twins fans shouldn't look at Kremer's numbers this year and let that decide how they feel about him, but the trade for the Orioles right-hander is nonetheless an underwhelming move.
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