Kmatz worked as a starter in all three of his years at Oregon State and enjoyed his best season as a junior in 2024, finishing with a 3.38 ERA, 1.00 WHIP and 96 strikeouts in 88 innings. The Rays took him in the fifth round that summer and the righty never quite found results in the Single-A Charleston rotation in 2025. Tampa Bay moved him to a relief role this year with significantly better returns, leading to an in-season promotion to Double-A before a deal that sent him and Hunter Feduccia to the Dodgers for Jack Suwinski and international bonus pool money at the Trade Deadline.
Working exclusively out of the stretch from the first-base side of the rubber, Kmatz has an over-the-top delivery that makes him hard to read. As could be expected, an across-the-board velocity jump has coincided with the role change. His fastball now sits 94-97 mph with tremendous ride to the top of the zone, and he plays off that with two nasty breaking balls. An 86-88 mph slider gets lot of whiffs running down and away from righties this season, and his upper-70s curveball really snaps with truer 12-to-6 action.
Kmatz can get empty swings against lefties with his secondaries, but without a true changeup, he has run pretty ordinary splits out of the bullpen in 2026. He commands his north-south mix well and he gets batters to bite plenty on pitches outside of the zone, thus limiting his walks in his new role. He could contribute to Los Angeles' bullpen in the very near future.
