Son of Steve and Courtney Dreyer … father played for the Texas Rangers and played collegiately at Northern Iowa … has two younger brothers, Will and Nick. 

Attended Johnston High School where he led team to the 2017 state title, tossing a complete game shutout in the championship game. He holds school record for most strikeouts in a season in the pitch count era.  Four-time CIML All-Academic Award selection in soccer and baseball… two-time all-conference honoree in soccer. 

In 2017, he played at World University Games, where he went 0-0 with a 5.68 ERA in two appearances … allowed one unearned run on one hit over four innings in a start against Japan (8/22). 

Jack attended University of Iowa from 2018-21 where he majored in finance. He missed a majority of the season in 2019 with a shoulder injury and missed entire 2021 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery. He finishes his Hawkeye career with an 8-3 record and a 3.41 ERA over 20 games, including 10 starts. 

MLB DAD

The road to becoming an elite pitcher with four polished pitches, a 90 mph fastball and a Division I scholarship is hard and sometimes lonely. But in the case of Jack Dreyer, he’s had some help and guidance from a dad who’s been there.

“It’s great,” Dreyer said. “He’s just the calm in your ear, making sure that you never get ahead of yourself, that you’re taking every pitch for what it’s worth and that you’re just making sure to take in the moment.” The name alone will cause '90s baseball junkies to blink twice — yes, Dreyer’s father is Steve, the same Steve Dreyer who relieved Nolan Ryan during the Hall of Fame pitcher’s final major league start on Sept. 22, 1993. Ryan threw 29 pitches that day and walked off the mound to a standing ovation. Steve Dreyer took the mound thereafter and threw 4.1 innings of four-hit ball. The 6-foot-3, 185-pound lefty has accomplished all of that thanks, in part, because of the skills taught to him by his father. The two spent hours together, working on different grips and pitches — including the nasty slider that Steve Dreyer first learned at Ames High School, perfected at Northern Iowa and used to help elevate him to the major leagues.

“I try to do everything that he tells me, and it’s worked so far,” Jack Dreyer said. “It’s a little different because he’s a righty and I’m a lefty, but it allows us to be able to mirror each other exactly.”

To some, they mirror each other almost too well. When comparing Jack’s senior pictures to Steve’s baseball card, they could almost pass as brothers, if not twins. Johnston assistant Craig Kruger coached Steve at Ames and is now coaching Jack at Johnston. The similarity strikes others when they watch the two play catch. “When you get them together and they go out and play long toss, you see a lot of the similarities,” Johnston coach Michael Barta said. “The way they throw, the way they move, the way they’re able to spin pitches. You can just tell, father and son, for sure.” (Goodwin - Jul 25, 2017 - Des Moines Register)

In some ways, Steve has been preparing Jack since he was very young. Before Jack’s stellar career at Johnston — he’s 21-2 as a starter over four years — he played on the same youth league as many of his Dragon teammates, and Steve often coached them.

The elder Dreyer preached the game’s fundamentals, instilling his wide-ranging baseball knowledge on those who were beginning to love the game. He made perhaps his biggest impact with the pitchers by helping expand their arsenals.

“Growing up, he taught us all how to pitch,” said Nathan Buckallew, another Johnston senior pitcher. “It’s pretty sweet. I credit a lot of my success to him because most of my pitches, he’s been teaching me since I was like 12, and I’ve been working on them ever since.” 

Along the way, Steve Dreyer told the kids stories of his professional days. After his stint in the majors between 1993-94, he was traded to the Twins organization and sent to the minors, where he crossed paths with a young slugger named David Ortiz.

“He told me one time David Ortiz was pinch-hitting one game, and the other team brought in a new pitcher to face him,” Jack Dreyer said. “Every single warm-up pitch was a slider, all seven of them. Then, on the first pitch of the at-bat, he throws a fastball, and David Ortiz cranks it out of the park for a home run to win the game.” (Goodwin - Jul 25, 2017 - Des Moines Register)

Jack Dreyer has had a long and winding path to becoming the baseball player he is today. In both the 2015 Future Games and the 2017 Super 60, Dreyer showed his pitch-ability on the mound, committing to the University of Iowa between the two showcases. His performance granted him first rank among LHPs in 2017 and third in the state overall by PBR. PBR also ranked him 17th nationally among 2017 LHPs. With family, coaches, and experience on his side, Dreyer has developed as a pitcher and found success.

Dreyer started talking about collegiate baseball as a sophomore in high school. “I had been contacted by Iowa,” he said. “I actually reached out to them initially, and then they came to see me. So we had talked a few times, but they were the only school that I had talked to.”

But after attending the Future Games, things changed. “I threw two innings, and I hit 87, which was a lot harder than I thought I could throw,” Dreyer said. “After that weekend, I had 40 or 50 calls from different schools around the nation. And some more serious than others, but it basically served as an opportunity for me to leverage Iowa a little bit.”

The decision followed shortly after. “The fall going into my junior year was when I committed to Iowa,” Dreyer said. “From that point on, I just kept working really hard.”

Dreyer’s dad continues to support and influence his training. “I have to say, my dad because I grew up throwing with him, and he helped throughout high school and even still helps today,” he said. 

But mental training has impacted Dreyer greatly. “But outside of family, [Michael] Barta was the biggest influence because he changed the mentality behind the way that I go about baseball,” he said. “No matter what, your mental state is the biggest part of all of baseball because that sets you up for how you're going to progress.”

Having an edge in baseball will benefit a player during showcases and games. “For younger players, if you don't have a competitive advantage, then you shouldn't compete,” Dreyer said. “And obviously, that isn't always true. But I think it holds true for a lot of the time because you shouldn't be going to showcases if you're not going to be throwing up near the hardest or hitting the ball the farthest. I think that your development prior to the showcase is so much more important.”

In the end, it will work out. “If you have talent, you will be found, no matter what, because you play high school baseball and word travels quickly,” Dreyer said. “So people are gonna find you.”

Since moving on to collegiate baseball, Jack Dreyer has continued persevering through the ups and downs of baseball to find success. Family, focus, hard work, and mental and physical development all played a role in the growth he has had throughout his baseball career. And as he continues on that path, new success will follow.  (Dennis - Mar 5, 2021 - PrepBaseball.com)

In 2025, the Baseball America Prospect Handbook rated Jack as the 25th-best prospect in the Dodgers system.

2025 Spring Training: Dreyer hasn’t discussed his hobby with Ohtani yet, but it has become one of the spring’s more lighthearted subplots, with everyone from Tony Gonsolin to Jackson Ferris to Yoshinobu Yamamoto toying around with the cubes Dreyer has brought into the room.

“He carries a Rubik’s Cube everywhere he goes,” manager Dave Roberts joked. “Some guys carry a golf club. He carries a Rubik’s Cube.” Dreyer can solve the cube in 14 seconds. (Fabian Ardaya - March 5, 2025 - The Athletic)  

Most Indispensable 'Under-the-Radar' Player - Dodgers

GM Brandon Gomes: “Dreyer has done everything, from being an opener to closing out games for us. He shows the professionalism of a longtime veteran in just his first year in the big leagues.” (Bowden - Aug 22, 2025 - The Athletic) 

Jack Dreyer, the Dodgers’ dependable rookie reliever, pulled out his iPad and Apple pencil and started to create. By the time the plane landed, he had made his own crossword puzzle for readers of The Athletic. 

Dreyer, 26, has always enjoyed brainteasers. Growing up, he watched his dad, Steve, a former big-league pitcher, solve the crossword in the newspaper, and when Jack was old enough, his dad would let him take a shot at it.

“I was always in awe of how good he was,” Dreyer said, and he was equally impressed by his dad’s stories of doing the crossword with teammates in the majors.

Dreyer’s interest in crossword puzzles was sporadic during college and in the minors. Still, when he made the Dodgers’ roster this year, he joined a team of enthusiasts: Clayton Kershaw, Freddie Freeman, Will Smith and Blake Treinen, among others.

Crossword enthusiasts are all over MLB clubhouses, from the Brewers to the Tigers to the Rays. Players say it’s a way to challenge themselves, stimulate their minds, and stay sharp mentally during downtime. Some studies suggest there are benefits to regularly doing crossword puzzles.

“I would say that creating a bond over a puzzle is one of the simplest ways to get to know each other a little better,” Dreyer said.

Dreyer has formed an especially close bond over crosswords with Treinen, another reliever. Some days they compete, racing to see who can finish the USA Today crossword first. Other days, they combine their minds to take down the tricky weekend crosswords in the Los Angeles Times or The New York Times.

Just the other day, Dreyer did as much as he could and left the crossword for Treinen to finish with a handwritten note: I need my closer. And Blake finished it up.

In his free time, Dreyer leans into activities that stimulate his mind. He is an avid and dedicated journaler. He loves chess, Sudoku, and can solve a Rubik’s Cube in 20 seconds. And pitching, after all, is kind of like solving a puzzle. (Jenks - Sep 24, 2025 - The Athletic)

TRANSACTIONS

Jack has a mid-90s FASTBALL, a mid-80s SLIDER, and a high-70s CURVEBALL.

Dreyer is a pure relief prospect and hasn’t made a single start in 100 minor league appearances. He works primarily with two pitches: a mid-90s fastball that peaked at 96 mph and a mid 80s slider with sharp, devastating break toward the feet of righthanders.

He also mixed in the occasional curveball in the high 70s. The fastball featured nearly 19 inches of induced vertical break and racked up a miss rate of 29%. His slider was even more successful and got misses at a 36% clip. The curveball was more of a change of pace offering.

The biggest reason for Dreyer’s leap forward was because his control took a giant leap forward. In 2023, he walked more than six hitters per nine innings. In 2024, he walked  just 12 hitters in 57.1 innings and raised his strike rate by 8%.(Josh Norris - BA Prospect Handbook - Spring 2025)

Dreyer missed most of the 2019 season because of a shoulder injury but was excellent in his four 2020 starts before the coronavirus-mandated shutdown. Dreyer was 2-1, 3.12 with 23 strikeouts in 21.2 innings. Dreyer doesn’t have a clear plus pitch, but his slider will flash above average. His 90-93 mph average fastball has enough oomph to make hitters respect it. His slow curveball is a little big and loopy and his changeup needs further refinement. (BA - 2020)

2024 Season: Dreyer posted fantastic numbers in the upper minors this year. Between Double-A Tulsa and Triple-A Oklahoma City, he turned in a 2.20 earned run average across 57 innings. He struck out nearly 32% of batters faced while limiting his walks to a 5.3% clip.

Dreyer made his MLB debut this season and finished third among all Dodgers pitchers with 67 appearances. He finished 3-2 with four saves, a 2.95 ERA and 1.03 WHIP.

Dreyer regularly earned praise from Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, particularly with his emergence early in the year as the bullpen dealt with injuries and inconsistent performances from veterans.

“Jack’s been great,” Roberts said in September. “It’s hard to quantify baseball aptitude or heartbeat, but because of his intelligence, his calmness, he’s been able to handle whatever role, whatever leverage.

“He takes the information, understands what he’s trying to do every time he’s on the mound. And that’s shown itself. He’s unflappable. Very, very valuable for our ballclub and the ‘pen.” (Matthew Moreno - Nov 11, 2025 - dodgersblue.com)