Only a little over a year ago, Jack Dreyer wasn’t even on the Dodgers’ 40-man roster. Now the left-hander is coming off a stellar first season in the Dodgers bullpen and even earned National League Rookie
of the Year votes for his efforts.
Signed as an undrafted free agent out of Iowa in 2021, Dreyer was added to the roster last November, then made the opening day roster in Tokyo
, and stayed there all year.Just two Dodgers pitchers remained on the active roster for the entire regular season and postseason — ace of aces Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Dreyer. In a bullpen full of moving parts and fluctuating performances, Dreyer was a steadying force, smoothing out the wrinkles of a staff that led the majors in relief innings (657 2/3) and ranked second in relief appearances (581).
Dreyer pitched so much that he ranked sixth on the entire team with 76 1/3 innings pitched. He and fellow rookie Ben Casparius (77 2/3 innings) had load-bearing roles during the regular season, but it was Dreyer who had the steadiest performance.
The left-hander in his 67 appearances had a 2.95 ERA and 2.63 xERA, the latter ranking 17th among the 339 major league pitchers with at least 50 innings. He limited left-handed batters to just .181/.264/.245, but righties didn’t fare too well either with a .214/.363/.346 line, and the southpaw had better strikeout (25.5 percent) and walk (6.5 percent) rates against righties than lefties (21.5 percent, 10.3 percent).
Primarily using a slider and fastball with an occasional curve, Dreyer got a lot of swings in the strike zone and was able to mostly avoid the sweet spot of the bat, with a 5.3-percent barrel rate in the 90th percentile in MLB and allowed only four home runs all year. Dreyer’s fastball averaged 92.7 mph, but was the 13th-most valuable four-seamer among pitchers with at least 50 innings in 2025, averaging 2.06 runs above average per 100 pitches.
That allowed Dreyer to pitch in a variety of roles, including 12 outings of at least two innings, seven more appearances of four or five outs, and also 12 games pitched on zero days rest. He went from bulk reliever earlier in the season to pitching three games in four days five times after the All-Star break plus another stint of pitching three days in a row from July 29.
Dreyer pitched well enough to record four saves, third-most on the staff. Basically whatever was asked of him, the southpaw did it, and did it well. You’d be hard-pressed to find a cross word about Dreyer.
The left-hander tied for ninth in NL Rookie of the Year voting, earning one third-place vote and one fifth-place vote.
2025 particulars
Age: 26
Stats: 2.95 ERA, 2.63 xERA, 4 saves, 67 games, 76 1/3 innings, 74 strikeouts, 24 walks
Postseason: 4 games, 4 scoreless innings, 2 unintentional walks, 4 strikeouts
Salary: $760,000
Game of the year
On April 2 against the Atlanta Braves, Dreyer entered in the eighth inning with the Dodgers down two runs at home. He retired all six batters he faced, including a strikeout and four groundouts. The Dodgers tied the game in the eighth, Dreyer protected the tie in the ninth, and two batters into the bottom of the inning Shohei Ohtani sent everybody home with a walk-off home run.
Dreyer earned his first major league win, and the Dodgers improved to 8-0 to set a record for best start by a defending champ.
Roster status
Dreyer has one year of major league service time and three option years remaining.
