Dodgers non-roster invitee David Bote triggered an upward mobility clause in his minor league contract yesterday, reports Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. That clause forces the Dodgers to make the veteran infielder available to all 29 other teams and let him go if another club is willing to put him on its 40-man roster. Los Angeles would be able to counter by instead selecting Bote to its own 40-man. If no team wants to scoop Bote up and place him on the 40-man, he’ll likely head to Triple-A Oklahoma City to begin the season with the Dodgers’ top affiliate.
Bote, 31, had a monster spring performance, hitting .400/.471/.700 with a pair of homers in 34 plate appearances. He also enjoyed productive looks in the majors and in Triple-A with the Cubs last year. Bote slashed .259/.341/.546 (124 wRC+) in 123 plate appearances with Triple-A Iowa and hit .304/.333/.391 in a smaller sample of 48 big league plate appearances. He’s a career .234/.318/.392 hitter in 1213 plate appearances at the MLB level, dating back to 2018.
Originally an 18th-round pick by Chicago back in 2012, Bote debuted in 2018 and looked to have carved out a utility role on the Cubs’ bench in 2019, when he logged what’s still a career-high 356 plate appearances and hit .257/.362/.422. He signed a surprising extension with the Cubs that April, locking him in for five years and $15.0025MM and giving Chicago a pair of club options. The deal bought out all of Bote’s arb seasons, and the options covered his first two free agent seasons.
The deal went south quickly. Bote hit poorly in 2020-21, and he was passed through outright waivers in 2022. Bote didn’t have the service time to reject an outright assignment and retain the remainder of his guarantee, so he headed to Iowa and was used as an up-and-down bench player over the next couple seasons.
Even with the rocky track record, Bote has hit well in small samples during his most recent MLB looks (.272/.320/.420 in 175 plate appearances since ’22 — albeit with a 33% strikeout rate). He’s been a perennially productive hitter in Triple-A as well, and he has at least 400 career innings at all four infield spots and in the outfield (primarily the corners). Teams looking for a right-handed bat with some versatility could consider him for a bench spot. He technically still has a minor league option remaining, but he’s four days from reaching five years of service, at which point he’d have to consent to being optioned.
Bro is NOT making the Dodgers roster.
Dodgers have a ton of depth, he’s definitely low on the pecking order. He’s definitely going to be picked up by another team.
@Acoss1331
Padres?
He had a nice Spring Training, Padres always like collecting infielders which isn’t a bad idea.
Across: I wonder what players are thinking when they have good ST numbers (I know, you can’t always go by ST numbers, but what more can a player do to show he can hit?) I agree that it’s hard to make the LAD team especially when they have super-utiliry guys like Hernandez and Edman, but I would think there will be more than a few teams who will look at him.
I think this is the Yankees righty bat they are going to sign.
@Russian
I can’t see how the Padres get him as the Marlins and Rockies are far ahead of them in the claim order’s reverse record order.
@Mac
Yeah, that’s fair. I didn’t know that….thank you.
IMO, teams lnow better than to be swayed by ST numbers alone. They really mean nothing. However, you can see if they’re sustainable because of swing changes, etc. I believe numbers alone don’t matter in the slightest.
Joe,
Bote can play all decent third base, so he a good option for the Yankees.
Avenger,
At some point, even if Spring Training numbers don’t tell the whole story, if a guy is doing well teams just gotta take a chance.
Rockies probably won’t be involved. Although they just gave up Nolan Jones to get a utility infielder, so who knows anymore?
@coop
my comment about the Fish and Rox really has less with his strong Spring and more about the fact that those 2 teams are fielding minor league teams. Quad A players are better than their starters, lol.
ST for guys like this demonstrates hunger which isn’t nothing. Numbers like that indicate good choices at what to swing at.
Oddly, players who perform well are told it’s only ST. Players who perform poorly are sent down, DFAd etc.
But Bote will want more than league minimum salary, so that might be just too much for Bendix to try first put a claim in for Bote.
Dodgers have a ton of depth until they don’t. Rojas is 36, Taylor is 34, and Muncy is 34 and already dealing with injuries and Freeman is 35. And Kim is unproven. He will be needed at some point.
Keep in mind, he only has to find a spot on the 40-man roster, not the active roster, for the Dodgers to retain him. They can make the moves for this to happen if they’re interested.
He can make the Dodgers 40 man, which is all is required for this clause. I do believe the Dodgers haven’t moved Sheehan or Stone to the 60 day IL yet. Haven’t heard any real updates on Miller since he was hit in the head by a line drive maybe he could be a possibility as well. If the Dodgers really want to keep him around they can.
Whoa, didn’t I just say that? Anyhoo, Stone is already on the 60-day but Sheehan is not. Miller was optioned.
I replied to original poster not you
But he cannot make the 40 man without being on the 26 man roster because he is out of options. Even if he agreed to go to the minors, he would have to be removed from the 40 man to do so.
This is quite clearly not what the article says.
Dude is looking for more free money.
No, I earn my money.
It ain’t hard to earn $18K a year, man.
Yes it is. The people making $18K a year are working a LOT harder than those making millions per year. No matter what field they earn their money. You might have more stress as you move up the ladder, but you are definitely not working harder.
What’s your OF?
That’s just Bote being Bote
I forgot all about this dude lol.
He had a great spring but no room at the inn.
Aah the dreaded “upward mobility clause”. Bode should be thrilled to stick in AAA at this point.
WSox potential to replace injured Drury who also had a strong ST.
Yeah, Bote and Rizzo could at least bring a few women to the ballpark.
cwaOverhaul: I don’t know. Will Bote play for $1M or less so he can get flipped in July? He’s not great but he’s too good to play for the Sox.
He’s not being made a FA. He has the contract he signed with the Dodgers. It would just move to the team that takes him on.
I wonder if the Yankees would be interested in adding him and keeping Oswaldo a utility piece.
I always liked Bote. Hopefully he’ll get a chance with another club.
He got paid based on the 2019 baseball being juiced. That said, his story is a good one about changing his swing in the minors and he was a dutiful soldier while being outrighted in Chicago. But any of the expected fifth place teams could do much worse than having Bote on their bench as a RH guy to give a day off at 3B/2B/1B/LF – 200 PA against mostly lefties would be fine.
He signed the extension April 3, 2019.
He did? Wow, my mistake, I thought it was after the season.
David Bote YOU are a Detroit Tiger
He deserved the nod over Chris Taylor
Most definitely, but even if Bote put up Barry Bonds type numbers it wouldn’t matter. Dodgers still not ready to eat the rest of Taylor’s contract……yet.
It’s all about the options.
another contract based on juice-ball numbers. after 2019 many yankee fans including myself thought gleyber was a legit 35-40 homer guy
Yankees going to be all over him I think
Teams could strategically sign fringe players to minor league deals with upward mobility clauses, inflate their spring stats in controlled settings, and trigger the clause to force a market test. If no one bites due to roster crunch and service-time risks, the original team keeps a high-upside player at Triple-A for free. If someone claims him, the loss is minimal (a minor league deal). It’s a near-zero-risk arbitrage of MLB’s roster rules, exposing how the system’s design unintentionally suppresses the value of players like Bote, whose true worth lies in their versatility and peak potential, not their historical averages.
Chris Getz get him today.
Too expensive for the sox, even at the minimum
Although it would be an expensive move, I’d prefer CT3 is DFA’ed and Bote makes the club. Bote has earned a shot, while CT3 has continued to display exceptional strike out qualities.
There’s light at the end of the tunnel finally with Taylor. This is the final guaranteed year of that deal – $13M with a $4M buyout for ‘26. It will be interesting to see at what point this year they pull the chain on him and eat the rest. It needs to happen, and everyone knows it.
Should have happened last year. Thankfully KT3 will be gone after this year. Dodgers have taken a bath on that contract.
Mariners have an exta 40 Man roster spot available, I think. They’re already giving an active roster spot to Mastrobuoni, the other former Cub utility. It wouldn’t be a stretch to see Bote push to fill that role.
Bote would be perfect to bat behind Robert in batting order.
Someone will Shake Shake Shake, Shake Shake Shake, Shake your Bote, Shake your Bote
Why does not body want to employ this guy? Is he a clubhouse cancer? Why was he extended with the Cubs in the first place?
With the Cubs, it was that they were giving opportunities to others at 3B such as Patrick Wisdom and Christopher Morel. And Nico Hoerner has 2B on lockdown. Bote ran out of options but because he had the contract, he was easy to outright once, so he labored in AAA as a veteran presence.
Release Taylor and pick up Bote.
Never heard of this clause. Must be part of the no former major leaguer left behind.
I would roster Bote over Chris Taylor .
Bote had a few serious injuries after signing the contract. He’s a gamer but probably a corner infielder and an emergency corner outfielder. He wasn’t a good second baseman even as a younger player. A poor man’s Ben Zobrist. He would make a good platoon first or third baseman for a needy team. Good fit in the Bronx or on the Southside