Former Dodgers prospect is quietly starting to pitch like an All-Star

The Los Angeles Dodgers typically do a great job in trading away the right prospects in big deals. Willie Calhoun, Yusniel Diaz and Grant Holmes are recent examples of top-100 prospects that LA traded who have not amounted to much.

However, trading Yordan Alvarez and Oneil Cruz has been grabbing more attention lately, as Alvarez has turned into the best DH in the league and Cruz is an extremely promising young shortstop. With as many trades as the Dodgers make, they are bound to trade away some productive big leaguers.

Another name might join that list with a strong performance thus far this season. While Diaz was the cornerstone of the Manny Machado trade and has not yet panned out, another prospect from that 2018 trade is finally starting to amount to something for the Baltimore Orioles.

That former prospect is Dean Kremer, who spun five scoreless innings against the Los Angeles Angels on Saturday to continue a quiet All-Star-caliber season. Kremer won’t make the All-Star Game, as he has less than 40 innings pitched, but his numbers certainly turn heads.

Kremer’s five scoreless innings lowered his season ERA to 2.15. Not only does he have an extremely low ERA, but he is also starting to get the attention of Pitching Ninja.

The Dodgers may not have to worry yet, though, as Dean Kremer’s success might be a mirage.

While Kremer’s ERA is among the best in the league, the Dodgers may not have to panic yet, as all signs are pointing to him eventually coming back down to earth. Kremer was extremely poor for the Orioles last season, posting a 7.55 ERA and 1.64 WHIP in 53.2 innings pitched.

Granted, that was a small sample size, but the numbers beneath the hood this season are not as promising as his ERA. Kremer still has a 1.25 WHIP and he only strikes out 7.1 batters per nine innings. His expected stats on Baseball Savant are even worse.

Heading into Saturday’s start, Kremer ranked in the 21st percentile in expected ERA, the 15th percentile in expected slugging percentage and the 15th percentile in expected batting average. His fastball spin and curveball spin are in the 72nd and 75th percentile, respectively, but those are really the only promising numbers that Kremer has.

Is Kremer going to pitch his way to a sub-3.00 ERA this season? Probably not. But he has shown an improvement in his pitch arsenal and he could very well blossom into a serviceable back-end rotation arm.

Rumors claim Dodgers could lose Xander Bogaerts chase to NL rival

Rumor has it the Los Angeles Dodgers could miss on shortstop target Xander Bogaerts to the Chicago Cubs this offseason, per experts.

But then again, every offense he has faced thus far this year ranks in the bottom half of the league in runs per game. Based on the Orioles’ current rotation, he will make another four starts against a bottom-half offensive team, so Kremer may continue this trend until he faces the Toronto Blue Jays in August.