The Diamondbacks have designated third baseman Emmanuel Rivera for assignment, reports Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. He’s out of minor league options and didn’t make the cut for the team’s Opening Day roster. They’ll instead turn his spot on the 26-man roster over to infield prospect Blaze Alexander, who’ll make his MLB debut the first time he gets into a game.
Rivera came to the D-backs in a 2022 trade deadline swap that sent righty Luke Weaver to the Royals — Rivera’s original organization. Kansas City selected the now-27-year-old Rivera in the 19th round of his Puerto Rico high school back in 2015. He ranked among the Royals’ top 30 prospects for several years, drawing praise for his arm strength and bat-to-ball skills, but he’s yet to provide much in the way of offense with either Kansas City or Arizona.
In 740 career plate appearances as a major leaguer, Rivera is a .247/.304/.380 hitter (88 wRC+). His 21.6% strikeout rate is a bit lower than league-average, but so is his 7.2% walk rate. He popped a dozen homers in a career-high 359 plate appearances in 2022 but hasn’t hit for power in either of his other two MLB campaigns. Rivera also has pretty notable platoon splits (.273/.327/.410 versus righties; .233/.293/.364 versus lefties), which isn’t ideal given that he’s on the short side of any platoon arrangement.
Defensively, he’s turned in sound marks at the hot corner. Defensive Runs Saved credits him at +9 in just under 1400 career innings, and Outs Above Average has him at +2. He’s only made 12 errors in his big league career at third base, and he’s also logged 94 innings at first base. The D-backs likely hoped that Rivera could emerge as an under-the-radar pickup who could help out at third base for several years, but last winter’s signing of Evan Longoria and especially this offseason’s pickup of Eugenio Suarez signaled that he wouldn’t be handed the everyday role.
The D-backs will have a week to trade Rivera, attempt to pass him through outright waivers, or release him. Since he’s out of minor league options, any team that acquires him will need to carry him on the big league roster or else attempt to pass him through waivers themselves.
I was hoping the Dbacks could have found a trade partner for Rivera, but no one has roster space right now. Now I hope he goes unclaimed so they can stash him in the minors. He can be good, it’s just that the Dbacks are absolutely loaded this year and when Alexander got red hot and stayed red hot throughout Spring Training, Rivera got squeezed off the 40 man.
Blaze is a beast!!!
It’s about f’n time. Guy is overrated. Let the Blaze begin!
How is a utility infielder overrated? He’s exactly that a utility infielder. They are on every single team.
Let me try this again, since it appears my last reply was deleted.
He’s limited to the corners, and is barely passable there. They had him play SS recently, and he was horrible. That’s not good enough to pass muster as a utility infielder. We have better.
And he was released he was not overrated in any capacity if he was they would have overrated him and kept him on the roster
Kept him on the roster? Oh, you mean like last season?
“Rivera also has pretty notable platoon splits (.273/.327/.410 versus righties; .233/.293/.364 versus lefties), which isn’t ideal given that he’s on the short side of any platoon arrangement.”
Wouldn’t those splits place him on the larger side of any platoon arrangement?
Devish
No, read article again carefully. He is a right handed bat, whose numbers should be better against left handed pitching, but are not. Right handed batters are the short side of a platoon, because they hit against the few left handed pitchers in the league. Rivera hits worse against lefties, therefore he is not a valuable platoon hitter.
That makes no sense. If I hit better against RH pitching, it doesn’t matter whether I hit LH or RH: I deserve to play the greater part of the time.
Overdue.
Once again MLBTR lets us know a player will “make his MLB debut the first time he gets into a game”
Blaze is a way better utility player because he plays an above average SS with a good arm. I think he can play OF too and get a lot of ABs. They need that type of player. I hope he continues to swing a hot bat in the season.
Homer,
Correct. Blaze will probably get 35-40 starts at SS, 40 more at DH, 25-30 at 3b, 20 or so at 2b and another 25-30 as PH. Super sub!
Agreed and I also think he can learn to play OF well under McKay. If he continues to hit, he will be a massively valuable super utility.
Trea turner 2.0 has begun
Any excuse to Blaze!
“who’ll make his MLB debut the first time he gets into a game.”
John Madden write this article?
n888 and Albies
Looks like Blaze will make his MLB debut tonight as DH which will be the first time he gets into an MLB regular season game.
Smile emoji
Remember when these comments were full of people complaining that the Royals let him go and how badly they got screwed