SARASOTA, Fla. — Dean Kremer clarifies that the point has been made not as a directive to him but almost as advice.

“You have to do one of two things to stick around in this league,” he said. “You either have to have unbelievable stuff, or you’ve got to be the guy who takes the ball every fifth day. And I want that to be my MO. I want to be the guy that gets to 30 starts a year, and kind of be a staple in a rotation where you know what you’re going to get every time, and it’s going to be competitive.”

Much has been made of the Orioles’ rotation entering this season: the departure of Corbin Burnes, the short-term additions of Tomoyuki Sugano and Charlie Morton, and now the injury to Grayson Rodriguez, who at least for now joins Kyle Bradish and Tyler Wells on the unavailable list.

It shouldn’t take a crisis, real or perceived, for the value of someone like Kremer to be apparent. It’s clear, though, that the success he’s striving for — to be steady enough to essentially be taken for granted — is what the Orioles are going to need as they wait for this year’s rotation to take shape.

“I take pride in that,” Kremer said. “You’re going to have to pry it out of my hands. That’s my kind of game.”

Kremer was one of the key pieces of former Executive Vice President Dan Duquette’s trade return for Manny Machado, with that 2018 deal with the Dodgers setting off what would become a challenging rebuilding period for the club.

He finished 2019 at Triple-A and debuted in the shortened 2020 season with some promising outings. In 2021, though, Kremer struggled badly in the majors, with a 7.55 ERA in 13 starts.

He suffered an oblique strain warming up for his first outing in 2022 but was much better upon his return, with a 3.23 ERA and 3.90 fielding independent pitching mark in 125 1/3 innings. He made the full complement of 32 starts in 2023 and missed time with a triceps strain last year, but he has pitched more innings than anyone else for the team in the last three seasons.

Kremer has done so with a 3.85 ERA, a 4.25 FIP and a 4.36 xFIP, with 7.72 strikeouts per nine innnings and a 1.27 WHIP. Among the 55 MLB pitchers with at least 400 innings pitched in the last three years, those rank 32nd, 42nd, 47th, 40th and 39th. Hidden within those rankings are a few bits of useful context.

One is that only 55 pitchers have hit that innings threshold — which nets out to just over 133 per season, demonstrating the challenge of reaching it. That’s 22 starts of six innings or more, give or take a few outs here or there, and to achieve that requires not only a baseline level of durability and health but also quality. Bad pitchers don’t get the chance to hit those numbers.

Another is that Kremer is typically at his best at the end of the season. In that three-year span, his ERA after the All-Star break has been 3.53, with a 3.84 FIP. He often takes a bit to find his footing in a season but is good at ending where he wants to be, using the pitches he has at their most effective as the stretch run hits.

That was the case last year when Kremer finished with one of the best months of his career: a 2.25 ERA, a 1.000 WHIP and strong peripherals in four starts.

“I like where my stuff finished at last year and how I progressed,” Kremer said. “During one of my meetings with the pitching guys, [we talked about] trying to achieve the goals that I want to achieve and how do we get there. What’s the difference between me and the guys who eat 200 innings a year? It’s not necessarily just stuff. It’s count leverage, stuff like that. I think that’s kind of the next step.”

He looks to teammate Zack Eflin as someone particularly adept at that. He doesn’t believe their stuff is similar, but Eflin has become the durable starter Kremer wants to be. He sees the way he makes his life easier by finishing hitters off when he gets the chance, shortening at-bats, and thus extending his outings.

That’s already Kremer’s game to an extent, particularly in 2024 when Kremer was at his best in terms of limiting hard contact. He sees that as an area of growth, one that can potentially boost his strikeout numbers and help him progress in that sense. There’s no new pitch in the mix, like last year’s splitter, but Kremer is always trying to improve his arsenal.

It’s all in pursuit of being an even better version of what he’s already been: dependably himself. He realizes that’s what the Orioles need — and he looks around the clubhouse in Sarasota to see a lot of pitchers who can help them win by doing the same thing.

“There’s not a ton of guys who are like Corbin, or like [Clayton] Kershaw in his prime, the guys who have been great,” Kremer said. “There’s not a lot of those guys that come around this league, but there are plenty of guys who are solid, solid staples in a lot of rotations. If you put together five of those instead of one guy who is really good and a couple guys who you don’t know what you’re going to get, I would rather take that. I’d rather take the five guys who you know what you’re going to get.”