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Ben Rortvedt

Mets Claim Ben Rortvedt Off Waivers From Dodgers

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The Mets have claimed catcher Ben Rortvedt off waivers from the Dodgers, according to a report from Anthony DiComo of MLB.com. Right-hander Dedniel Nunez was transferred to the 60-day injured list to make room for Rortvedt on the 40-man roster.

Rortvedt was designated for assignment by the Dodgers earlier this week in order to make room for Evan Phillips on the club’s 40-man roster. Rortvedt made his big league debut with the Twins back in 2021, and since then has bounced between the Yankees, Rays, and Dodgers organizations at the big league level. His best season came in 2024 as a member of the Rays, where he slashed .228/.317/.303 with a wRC+ of 87 and 1.4 fWAR in 112 games. Rortvedt graded out as an above average catcher in terms of blocking and pitch framing, though he threw out baserunners at a below average clip.

Overall, Rortvedt has a strong reputation defensively as a catcher and that’s why he managed to catch on with the Dodgers as their primary option to backup Will Smith down the stretch and into the playoffs when Dalton Rushing was injured. Rortvedt even made some appearances in the postseason with the Dodgers and went 3-for-7 with a double during the playoffs for Los Angeles, earning himself a World Series ring with the club this past fall. He re-signed in L.A. on a small MLB guarantee and in the weeks since then has rode the DFA carousel around the league as teams try to sneak him through waivers to serve as a depth catcher. He’s been claimed by the Reds, then re-claimed by the Dodgers, and is now being claimed by the Mets.

Now that he’s headed to New York, Rortvedt still figures to be the third catcher on the team’s depth chart behind youngster Francisco Alvarez and well-regarded defender Luis Torrens. Rortvedt does not have options remaining, so the Mets will either have to designate him for assignment or carry three catchers on their roster if an injury doesn’t open up a spot for him at some point before Opening Day. In the meantime, however, he’ll join the Mets in Spring Training, working with the team’s pitchers and preparing for the 2026 season. For as long as Rortvedt remains in the organization, he’ll likely push catcher Hayden Senger further down the club’s depth chart. Senger made his MLB debut last year and slashed just .181/.221/.194 in 33 games as a 28-year-old last year, but does provide the Mets with optionable depth behind the plate.

Dodgers Re-Sign Evan Phillips, Designate Ben Rortvedt

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The Dodgers announced Wednesday that they’ve re-signed reliever Evan Phillips to a one-year deal worth $6.5MM. Catcher Ben Rortvedt was designated for assignment to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Phillips, a client of Apex Baseball, was non-tendered by the Dodgers in November after undergoing Tommy John surgery late last May but will return on a new one-year deal.

Phillips, 31, came to the Dodgers via a 2021 waiver claim out of the Rays organization. He pitched well enough down the stretch in ’21 to stick on the roster throughout that offseason, but Phillips didn’t immediately look like a waiver heist in the initial months following his claim.

That changed in 2022. A then-27-year-old Phillips erupted for 63 innings with a microscopic 1.14 ERA. He set down 33% of opponents on strikes and walked only 6.4% of the batters he faced, averaging better than 96 mph on his four-seamer and sinker alike. Phillips picked up 19 holds that year, but by 2023 he’d stepped into the closer’s role in L.A. — a job he handled with aplomb. Phillips turned in another dominant season, recording a 2.05 ERA with 24 saves, six holds, a 28.2% strikeout rate and a 5.6% walk rate.

For three full seasons from 2022-24, Phillips was a wipeout late-inning reliever. He combined for a 2.21 ERA with 44 saves, 34 holds and only nine blown saves, whiffing 29.6% of opponents with a 6.5% walk rate. His 2025 campaign got out to a strong start as well, with 5 2/3 shutout frames and six strikeouts. Phillips hit the injured list early in the year, however, and by late May the team announced that he’d require a Tommy John procedure, sidelining him for what’ll likely be 13 to 14 months.

Phillips figures to aim for a return around the All-Star break, give or take a couple weeks. If he’s able to do so, he’ll be a prominent midseason boon to the bullpen — effectively the same as picking up a prominent reliever ahead of the trade deadline. There’s risk in any pitcher coming back from major surgery, but if it works out, he’ll be healthy for October, which has been the Dodgers’ primary concern (relative to the regular season) with all their higher-end pitchers in recent seasons.

The Dodgers are an annual luxury tax payor and are well into the top bracket of penalization. Phillips will come with the maximum 110% tax on his salary, meaning he’ll cost the Dodgers $13.65MM overall. It’s a steep price to pay, particularly relative to the risk, but the Dodgers’ spending knows virtually no bounds.

As for Rortvedt, he’ll likely head back to the waiver wire on the heels of his latest DFA. He ended the season on the Dodgers’ 40-man roster and quickly inked a $1.25MM deal to avoid arbitration. The Dodgers then placed him on waivers, hoping he’d clear and could then be stashed in Triple-A Oklahoma City as upper-level depth. Ideally, the $1.25MM salary would’ve dissuaded other clubs from claiming him while also giving Rortvedt a reason to accept the minor league assignment; he has enough service time to reject an outright in favor of free agency but not enough to do so while retaining his guaranteed salary.

The Reds scooped Rortvedt up anyhow and carried him on the 40-man roster for much of the offseason. When he was designated for assignment earlier this month, the Dodgers placed a claim to bring Rortvedt back to the organization. They’ll now hope to pass him through waivers, as they initially planned.

It’s easy to see why clubs would be happy to have the out-of-options Rortvedt in the upper minors but might be wary of carrying him on the big league roster. He’s a plus defender behind the plate whose keen eye typically lends itself to strong walk rates. Rortvedt is strikeout-prone and consistently hits for a low average, however, and he has little in the way of in-game power. He’s a career .190/.279/.270 hitter in 633 MLB plate appearances and a .239/.328/.412 hitter in 574 Triple-A plate appearances.

The Dodgers can trade Rortvedt or place him on waivers at any point within the next five days. Waivers are a 48-hour process, so his DFA will be resolved within a maximum of one week.

Dodgers Claim Ben Rortvedt

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The Reds announced that catcher Ben Rortvedt has been claimed off waivers by the Dodgers. Cincinnati designated him for assignment when they signed Eugenio Suárez earlier this week. The Dodgers have a full 40-man roster and will need to open a spot for Rortvedt.

The Dodgers clearly like Rortvedt as a depth catcher. They acquired him at last year’s deadline and he got some playing time down the stretch when Will Smith was hurt. After the season, he and the Dodgers avoided arbitration by agreeing to a $1.25MM salary for 2026.

They then tried to sneak him through waivers, hoping that the salary would be enough to make other clubs pass, therefore allowing Rortvedt be in the minors as non-roster depth. They tried a similar move with infielder Andy Ibáñez, signing him to a $1.2MM deal and then putting him on the wire. It didn’t work in either case. The Reds claimed Rortvedt in November and the Athletics claimed Ibáñez today.

The Dodgers are taking this chance to bring Rortvedt back again. For now, he appears to be the clear #3 catcher behind Smith and Dalton Rushing. They could option Rushing to the minors but seemingly don’t think he has anything left to prove there, which is why they called him up last year and moved on from Austin Barnes.

Assuming Rortvedt is indeed third on the chart, he could be bound for the waiver wire again in the future. He is out of options and would have to be nudged off the 40-man if he’s not going to be on the active roster.

Time will tell how that plays out. For now, he’s back with the champs. His performance has been up and down in recent years. With the Rays in 2024, he posted a .228/.317/.303 line in 328 plate appearances. His 87 wRC+ indicated he was 13% below league average but that’s not bad for a part-time catcher. Thanks to some solid defense, FanGraphs credited him with 1.4 wins above replacement in that role.

Things turned sour in 2025. He slashed .095/.186/.111 and got outrighted to the minors. As mentioned, he was traded to the Dodgers and got some time filling in for Smith. In his 58 plate appearances, he hit .224/.309/.327, somewhat similar to his 2024 production. Teams clearly view him as a useful depth catcher but what remains to be seen is if he can hold onto a roster spot or if he can be passed through waivers.

Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images

Reds Designate Ben Rortvedt For Assignment

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The Reds announced that catcher Ben Rortvedt has been designated for assignment. That’s the corresponding move to open a 40-man spot for infielder Eugenio Suárez, whose signing is now official.

Rortvedt, 28, has never appeared in a game for the Reds. Cincinnati just claimed him off waivers from the Dodgers in November. At the time of that waiver claim, it was reported that Rortvedt and the Dodgers had already signed a deal for 2026 to avoid arbitration. The backstop will make $1.25MM this year.

The Dodgers were likely hoping that figure was high enough that no other club would claim him off waivers. Rortvedt is out of options and therefore can’t be sent to the minors while staying on the 40-man roster. Since he has at least three years of big league service time, Rortvedt has the right to reject outright assignments. But since his service clock is less than five years, he would have to forfeit his salary commitments in electing free agency. Had he cleared waivers, he likely would have stayed with the Dodgers as non-roster catching depth.

Instead, the Reds claimed him and have held him for the past few months. They might now be hoping that they get to keep Rortvedt as non-roster depth instead of the Dodgers. With this DFA, Cincinnati now has Jose Trevino and Tyler Stephenson as the only two catchers on the 40-man roster. Will Banfield is their most experienced non-roster guy at the moment, even though he has just seven big league games on his track record.

Rortvedt’s career has been up and down but he would be a solid depth option. He showed his potential by having a decent showing with the Rays in 2024. He stepped to the plate 328 times and put up a .228/.317/.303 line. That line led to an 87 wRC+, indicating he was 13% below league average. But since catchers are usually about ten points below the rest of the league, that’s not bad for a part-time backstop. Rortvedt’s glovework also got decent reviews, enough for FanGraphs to credit him with 1.4 wins above replacement for the year, even with that so-so offense.

Things backed up with Tampa last year. He hit .095/.186/.111 in his 70 plate appearances before getting outrighted off the roster. He was flipped to the Dodgers at the deadline as part of the three-team trade which saw the Reds gets Zack Littell. The Dodgers called him up in September when Will Smith was injured and Rortvedt bounced back somewhat, with a .224/.309/.327 line in a small sample of 58 plate appearances for the eventual World Series champs.

The Dodgers liked him enough that they seemingly hoped to keep him around as relatively expensive depth behind Smith and Dalton Rushing. The Reds will now have a maximum of one week of DFA limbo to work with. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so they could field trade interest but will likely place Rortvedt on waivers at some point in the next five days. If another team claims him, the Reds would likely need to add some veteran depth via minor league deals.

Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images

Reds Claim Ben Rortvedt

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November 13th: Prior to being put on waivers, Rortvedt and the Dodgers avoided arbitration by signing a one-year, $1.25MM deal, reports Kiley McDaniel of ESPN. The Dodgers presumably hoped that Rortvedt would clear waivers and accept an outright assignment, therefore staying as depth without taking up a roster spot. However, the Reds prevented that from happening.

November 12th: The Dodgers announced that catcher Ben Rortvedt has been claimed off waivers by the Reds. There was no previous indication that Rortvedt had been designated for assignment, so this drops the Los Angeles 40-man roster count to 39. The Reds, meanwhile, go from 37 to 38.

Rortvedt, 28, has bounced around the league quite a bit. He has just 227 big league games under his belt but those have come with four different teams. He has suited up for the Twins, Yankees, Rays and Dodgers. He has put up good defensive numbers in that time but hasn’t hit much. Overall, he has a .190/.279/.270 batting line in 633 plate appearances.

Given the strength of his glovework, even a bit more offense can make him a valuable player. He showed that with the Rays in 2024. His .228/.317/.303 slash wasn’t great in a vacuum. It led to an 87 wRC, indicating he was 13% below league average overall. However, that’s not so bad for a catchers, as backstops are usually about 10% below par. Thanks to his glovework and that passable offense, FanGraphs credited him with 1.4 wins above replacement on the year.

He couldn’t keep it going into 2025. He started the year with a .095/.186/.111 performance and was outrighted to the minors by early June. He was then flipped to the Dodgers as part of the three-team deadline deal which sent Zack Littell to Cincinnati. Rortvedt was called up when Will Smith was injured and hit a more serviceable .224/.309/.327 down the stretch. With Smith still injured as the playoffs began, Rortvedt was the club’s regular behind the plate. He put up a hilarious .429/.500/.571 line in four games before Smith took over. Rortvedt stayed on the roster through the rest of the playoffs but didn’t play in the NLCS or World Series.

Going into 2026, Smith and Dalton Rushing project as the Dodgers’ top two catchers. Rortvedt is out of options. He’s also eligible for arbitration, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting him for a $1.3MM salary. Presumably, the Dodgers weren’t planning to tender him a contract. They put him on waivers and gave him a chance to land somewhere else.

The Reds are an interesting landing spot for Rortvedt. They had Tyler Stephenson and Jose Trevino as their primary catchers in 2025. Trevino has been a strong defender in his career but was closer to average in 2025. His bat has never been great but his .238/.272/.351 line in 2025 was below his own standards. He is signed through 2027 with a club option for 2028.

Stephenson, meanwhile, has never received strong grades for his work behind the plate. He has been a good hitter in his career, however. He was league average in 2025 but has shown the potential for more. He slashed .296/.369/.454 for a 120 wRC+ from 2020 to 2022. Over the past three years, he has a .246/.325/.414 line and 99 wRC+. Stephenson is heading into his final arbitration season with a projected salary of $6.4MM.

With Rortvedt now in the fold, the Reds have some options. Since Stephenson isn’t a strong defender, perhaps he could spend more time at first base this year, while leaving the catching duties to Trevino and Rortvedt. It’s also possible the Reds look to see if there’s any trade interest in Stephenson or Trevino. Alternatively, they could hold all three. They could tender Rortvedt a contract and then try to pass him through waivers later. Since his service time is between three and five years, he would have the right to elect free agency but would have to forfeit his salary commitments in exercising that right.

Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images

Will Smith Suffering From Hairline Fracture In Hand

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Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic) today that catcher Will Smith had undergone additional scans following his placement on the injured list last week, and that testing revealed a hairline fracture in Smith’s injured hand. The news makes it “doubtful,” in Roberts’s words, that he’ll play again during the regular season this year. More concerning is that whether or not Smith will be available for the start of the playoffs remains “up in the air.” 

Smith, who made his third All-Star game earlier this year, enjoyed a career season with the Dodgers this year as he hit .296/404/.497 with a 152 wRC+ in 110 games. He swatted 17 homers and paired a decent 20.4% strikeout rate with an elite 14.7% walk rate to emerge as one of the league’s top on-base threats, and between his impressive offense and solid defense behind the plate put together 4.1 fWAR in just 436 trips to the plate.

Arguably the best right-handed hitter in the Dodgers’ lineup this year thanks to Mookie Betts’s tough first half this year, losing Smith for any part of the postseason would be a crushing blow for the Dodgers. Since his first full 162-game season in 2021, Smith has averaged 126 games played a year and is a fixture of the L.A. lineup with more innings caught over the past five years than anyone other than J.T. Realmuto. Smith’s combination of durability and excellence allowed the Dodgers to not worry much about the quality of their catching depth this year, so much so that they even designated longtime backup Austin Barnes for assignment back in May to make room on the roster for unproven youngster Dalton Rushing.

Rushing has not taken to the big leagues in his part-time role, and has slashed just .184/.246/.288 with a wRC+ of 49 and a 39.1% strikeout rate across 47 games in the majors. Rushing’s combination of lackluster offense and unimpressive defense behind the plate have seemingly left the Dodgers without much confidence in his ability to handle the jump from little-used backup to potential playoff starter, and as a result of that Roberts indicated today that Ben Rortvedt instead be tasked with serving as the Dodgers’ primary catcher while Smith is out of commission.

Just five days shy from his 28th birthday, Rortvedt turned in a respectable enough season with the Rays last year but this year has hit just .165/.250/.196 in 39 games between L.A. and Tampa. It’s a performance that offers virtually no reason for optimism about his ability to contribute offensively, but Rortvedt is a very well-regarded game caller who gets solid marks from advanced metrics for his glove behind the plate. That solid defense should help create a higher floor than Rushing could provide for a Dodgers team that will need to rely on a bullpen that has looked shaky in recent weeks to preserve any leads passed to them by an elite starting rotation. With that said, it would of course be preferable if Smith’s bat could take some pressure off Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman to carry the offense headed into the playoffs.

Dodgers Designate Alexis Díaz For Assignment

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The Dodgers announced that they have selected the contract of catcher Ben Rortvedt, a move that was previously reported. In corresponding moves, they optioned infielder Alex Freeland and designated right-hander Alexis Díaz for assignment.

Díaz, 28, was Cincinnati’s closer not too long ago but has fallen on hards times lately. In 2023, he racked up 37 saves for the Reds. He posted a 3.07 earned run average over his 67 1/3 innings. His 12.6% walk rate was too high but he struck out 30.1% of batters faced. He kept it going in 2024 but with some signs of worry. He added another 28 saves with a 3.99 ERA but his strikeout rate dropped all the way to 22.7%.

Despite the trend lines moving the wrong direction, the Reds still tendered him a contract. He had qualified for arbitration for the first time going into 2025, with exactly three years of service. He and the Reds avoided arbitration by agreeing to a $4.5MM salary.

Things have gone from bad to worse this year. He started the season on the injured list due to a hamstring strain. He was reinstated by mid-April but the Reds had Emilio Pagán closing games and didn’t commit to Díaz retaking the ninth inning job. Díaz then allowed eight earned runs in his first six innings with just three strikeouts but five walks, in addition to hitting two batters.

The Reds optioned him to the minors at the start of May. Things didn’t get much better down on the farm. In 13 2/3 innings for Louisville, he had a 22.9% strikeout rate but walked 12 opponents, a 17.1% clip. He hit another two batters and also uncorked two wild pitches. The Reds then traded him to the Dodgers in what was essentially a salary dump deal. The player they got back, right-hander Mike Villani, was a 22-year-old with just two professional innings under his belt at the time.

The Dodgers initially sent Díaz to their Arizona facilities to try to get him back on track. His small sample of major league work since then has been decent enough. In nine innings, he has allowed five earned runs via seven hits, two walks and hitting two batters while striking out nine. But he has also thrown ten Triple-A innings, allowing nine earned runs via seven hits, eight walks and hitting three batters while striking out ten.

It seems that the Dodgers have seen enough and are willing to risk losing Díaz to another club. It will be interesting to see if there’s any interest in a claim. The short-term benefits would be minimal. Now that it’s September, Díaz wouldn’t be postseason eligible with a claiming club. He’s a likely non-tender candidate, given this year’s struggles.

On the other hand, there is theoretical upside. Due to spending most of this year in the minors, Díaz can still be controlled for another three years after this one. It also means he won’t be able to command a notable arbitration raise for the 2026 season. If some club out there sees a path to getting him back on track, perhaps they would consider grabbing him now. Tendering him a contract for $4-5MM next year would be akin to signing someone like Ryne Stanek or Jonathan Loáisiga, who signed one-year deals in that range last offseason.

Though if the Dodgers can’t figure him out, that doesn’t leave a lot of hope for other clubs. And he is still owed about $580K this year, which is a decent amount for a struggling reliever who can’t even help in the postseason. If he passes through waivers unclaimed, he will almost certainly stick with the Dodgers as non-roster depth. Since he has three years of service, he will have the right to elect free agency. But since he has less than five, he would have to forfeit that remaining money in exercising that right.

Freeland came into the year as one of the club’s top prospects. He got called up in late July as several infielders were dealing with injuries. He slashed just .190/.292/.310 in his first 97 plate appearances and a few infielders have come off the IL in the interim. He’ll make way for the club to carry three catchers, at least for as long as Will Smith is injured. It’s not uncommon for prospects to struggle when first promoted, so Freeland could still be a big part of the club’s future, but he’ll head back to the minors for now.

Photo courtesy of Aaron Doster, Imagn Images

Dodgers To Select Ben Rortvedt

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The Dodgers are going to select catcher Ben Rortvedt to their roster, reports Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. That’s to give the club another catcher for the next few days as it’s unlikely Will Smith will play this weekend. Ardaya noted earlier that Dalton Rushing will start tonight, so Rortvedt will presumably back him up while Smith rests. Corresponding moves will be required to add Rortvedt to the active and 40-man rosters.

The issue stems from last night, when Smith was struck by a foul ball on his throwing hand, as seen in this video from MLB.com. Per Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times, Smith is getting a CT scan today which will determine if he needs to go on the injured list. Even if he avoids the IL, he’s going to miss a few days. The Dodgers naturally don’t want to play with Rushing as their only catcher, so they are adding Rortvedt to give them a bit of cover.

Losing Smith for any amount of time is a blow. He has a .296/.405/.497 batting line and 153 wRC+ this year. His glovework isn’t particularly well regarded but he has nonetheless been credited with 4.1 wins above replacement this year by FanGraphs. Naturally, the Dodgers will be hoping he can be back after a few days. At this time of year, anything longer than a day-to-day issue runs the risk of pushing through the end of the regular season.

Rushing will try to make up some of the slack. He has only hit .190/.256/.293 in his first 129 big league plate appearances but in sporadic playing time while backing up Smith. He has far better minor league numbers and it’s possible he could get into a better groove with more reps. Though if Smith is back in a few days, that may be a moot point.

Rortvedt, 27, seemed to establish himself as a legit big league catcher with the Rays last year. He got into 112 games and slashed .228/.317/.303 in 328 plate appearances. His 87 wRC+ indicates he was 13% below the league average hitter, but backstops are usually about 10% below par, so that’s decent enough for a backup. Given his solid defensive grades, he was credited with 1.4 fWAR last year.

Unfortunately, he didn’t carry that over into 2025. Through late May, he had a .095/.186/.111 slash line. He was designated for assignment and no club claimed him off waivers. A couple of months later, the Dodgers picked up him as part of a three-team trade with the Rays and Reds. The Dodgers subtracted some catching depth in that deal by sending Hunter Feduccia to Tampa but got back prospect Adam Serwinowski and reliever Paul Gervase.

Rortvedt effectively replaced Feduccia as the Dodgers’ #3 catcher. He hasn’t been having a good season in the minors either, with a combined .205/.299/.333 line and 66 wRC+ between the Triple-A clubs of the Rays and Dodgers, but he’s a competent defender who’s been in the big leagues for a few years. If the Dodgers want to cut him from the roster later, he is out of options.

Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images

Reds Acquire Zack Littell In Three-Team Trade

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The Reds announced the acquisition of starting pitcher Zack Littell from the Rays in what’ll reportedly be a three-team trade. Righty Brian Van Belle is headed from Cincinnati to Tampa Bay. The Reds are reportedly sending pitching prospect Adam Serwinowski to the Dodgers, who’ll trade catcher Hunter Feduccia to Tampa Bay. Reliever Paul Gervase and minor league catcher Ben Rortvedt are headed from the Rays to the Dodgers. As of Wednesday night, only the Littell for Van Belle/Serwinowski portion of the trade has been finalized.

Littell tossed five scoreless innings tonight against the Yankees in his final appearance with the Rays. That lowered his earned run average to an impressive 3.58 mark across 22 starts. Littell turned in a very similar 3.63 ERA in 29 appearances a season ago. He has led the Rays in innings in each of the past two seasons while putting together steady mid-rotation results.

It’s excellent work for a player whom the Rays snagged off waivers from the Red Sox a little over two years ago. Littell had bounced around the league mostly as a middle reliever before Tampa Bay built him up as a starter. His fantastic control played well in a rotation role. Throwing strikes is the 29-year-old’s standout trait. Littell has walked fewer than 5% of opposing hitters in consecutive seasons. He issued four free passes tonight in the Bronx, but that’s only the second time he has done so in the past two years.

Littell doesn’t have eye-popping stuff. He sits in the 91-92 MPH range with both his four-seam fastball and sinker. Neither his slider nor splitter are huge swing-and-miss offerings. Littell had roughly average strikeout and whiff rates a season ago. This year’s 16.6% strikeout rate and 9.1% swinging strike percentage are each subpar. Littell surrenders a lot of hard contact and has had issues with the home run ball throughout his career. That includes an MLB-high 26 longballs allowed this season.

That profile seems a suboptimal fit for a pitcher who’ll now call the extremely hitter-friendly Great American Ball Park home. Littell’s consistency was clearly a plus for Cincinnati. He has worked at least five innings in all but one start this year. He has allowed three or fewer runs in 18 of 22 appearances. Littell has had a better season than Nick Martinez and Brady Singer have managed. Rookie Chase Burns has also been up and down over his first six starts.

Adding Littell will push Martinez to the bullpen. Ace Hunter Greene is on a rehab assignment as he works back from a groin strain. That’ll presumably push Burns back to Triple-A. Cincinnati would have a starting five of Greene, Nick Lodolo, Andrew Abbott, Littell and Singer at that point.

Littell is playing on a $5.72MM salary for his final year of arbitration. The Reds are taking on a little more than $1.8MM for the final two months. He’ll be a free agent at season’s end. Tampa Bay wasn’t going to make him a qualifying offer. They’ve played terribly this month and dropped below .500 with tonight’s loss. Their 3.5 game deficit in the Wild Card race isn’t insurmountable, but the team’s performance coming out of the All-Star Break discouraged the front office enough that they’re at least soft sellers.

Trading Littell, their only true impending free agent, is the obvious starting point. Closer Pete Fairbanks and second baseman Brandon Lowe are controllable for next season via club options. Shortstop Ha-Seong Kim has a $16MM player option. Yandy Díaz and Drew Rasmussen are each signed through 2026 with team options covering the ’27 campaign. Lefty reliever Garrett Cleavinger is arbitration controlled through 2027. It remains to be seen how aggressively they’ll shop players whom they control beyond this season, but the Rays have the potential to make a significant impact on the deadline.

The Reds part with a couple controllable players to land Littell. Serwinowski, a 6’5″ left-hander, is the more significant loss. The Reds drafted him out of high school in 2022. He has developed into one of their more intriguing low minors pitchers. Serwinowski ranked 10th in the Cincinnati system at MLB Pipeline and 12th at Baseball America. Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs had him as high as sixth in the organization in May. Scouting reports praise his plus fastball-slider combination, crediting him with a mid-90s heater that can touch 97. Like many tall young pitchers, he has below-average command. Serwinowski also doesn’t have a great third pitch, raising questions about his ability to turn a lineup over multiple times.

There’s a decent chance the 21-year-old will end up as a reliever, but it’s easy to see the appeal of a pitcher with this kind of stuff and physical projection. Serwinowski has spent the season in High-A, allowing a 4.84 ERA across 74 1/3 innings. He has punched out an above-average 27.7% of batters faced while walking nearly 12% of opponents. He’s the headliner of the return from the Dodgers’ perspective as a low minors development flier.

Van Belle, 28, has yet to make his MLB debut. The Red Sox called him up in June but designated him for assignment a few days later without getting him into a game. Cincinnati added him on a cash deal and has kept him on optional assignment to Triple-A Louisville. A former undrafted free agent out of the University of Miami, Van Belle has combined for 81 1/3 innings of 3.21 ERA ball at the top minor league level this year. That comes with a below-average 20.2% strikeout rate but a sterling 3.2% walk percentage. His fastball barely scrapes 90 MPH, but he’s a fantastic strike-thrower who relies mostly on a mid-80s changeup to stay off barrels. He’ll provide the Rays a depth starter or long relief type who is in his first of three minor league option seasons.

Feduccia is the bigger get from Tampa Bay’s perspective. He’s a 28-year-old catcher who had a limited path to playing time behind Will Smith and Dalton Rushing in L.A. Feduccia has held a spot on the 40-man roster for two seasons but has only gotten into seven MLB games. He has been forced to bide his time in Triple-A, where he owns a .277/.387/.450 batting line in more than 1200 plate appearances. A left-handed hitter, he takes plenty of walks and has decent contact skills with minimal power.

Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs slotted Feduccia 31st among Dodger prospects in his writeup of the farm system in April. Longenhagen wrote that he struggles to control the running game but is a plus receiving catcher. Tampa Bay has cycled through catchers for years. They swapped out Danny Jansen for Nick Fortes in separate trades with Milwaukee and Miami earlier this week. Feduccia could push the out-of-options Matt Thaiss for the backup job immediately. He’s in his second of three option years and could be assigned to Triple-A Durham if the Rays don’t want to risk losing Thaiss on waivers.

Landing him required sending the 25-year-old Gervase to Los Angeles. A 6’10” righty reliever, Gervase was acquired from the Mets last July. Tampa Bay promoted him a few weeks ago. He has made five appearances, giving up three runs across 6 1/3 innings. He has posted monster strikeout numbers in Durham, fanning nearly 40% of opponents while pitching to a 3.12 ERA across 28 appearances. Gervase has paired that with a 7.5% walk rate that represents dramatically improved control relative to his early minor league work. The LSU product leans mostly on a 93-94 MPH fastball and mixes in a slider and cutter. He’s in his first option year and will begin his Dodger career as middle relief depth.

Rortvedt, who is not on the 40-man roster, backfills L.A.’s lost catching depth at Triple-A. At age 27, he’s actually younger than Feduccia but has far more MLB experience. He’s a .186/.276/.265 hitter in 209 big league contests. Rortvedt hit .095 in 26 big league games this year before Tampa Bay ran him through waivers. He is hitting .183 in 19 Triple-A games. He’ll be a minor league free agent at the end of the season if the Dodgers don’t call him up before then.

Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported that the Reds were closing in on a deal for Littell. Gordon Wittenmyer of The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that Cincinnati was giving up Van Belle and Serwinowski. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale first mentioned the three-team trade, with C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic relaying that the Rays were flipping Serwinowski elsewhere. Passan had the Dodgers’ involvement and the full breakdown.

Images courtesy of Imagn Images.

Ben Rortvedt Accepts Outright Assignment With Rays

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Catcher Ben Rortvedt, who was designated for assignment by the Rays last week, has cleared waivers and been sent outright to Triple-A Durham. He had the right to elect free agency but has chosen to accept. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times was among those to relay the information.

Players with at least three years of big league service time have the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. However, exercising that right means forfeiting any remaining salary commitments, unless a player has at least five years of service time.

Rortvedt is between three and four years. He qualified for arbitration for the first time after last season. He and the Rays avoided arbitration by agreeing to a $1.125MM salary for 2025. Rortvedt has pocketed about a third of that already but would have to walk away from the rest of it in order to head to the open market, so it’s not surprising that he has chosen to report to Durham.

For the Rays, they get to keep a bit of experienced non-roster depth behind the plate. Rortvedt had a solid season for them in 2024, getting into 112 games and stepping to the plate 328 times. His .228/.317/.303 slash line wasn’t tremendous, as his 87 wRC+ indicates he was about 13% below league average at the plate. However, catches are usually about 10% below league-wide par, so Rortvedt’s offense was passable enough.

He also received solid marks for his work behind the plate. Putting the two together, FanGraphs considered him to be worth 1.4 wins above the replacement on the year, with Baseball Reference putting him a bit lower at 0.9 WAR.

The Rays were satisfied enough to give him a raise and bring him back for 2025 but his bat has disappeared. Rortvedt slashed .095/.186/.111 in 70 plate appearances before getting designated for assignment last week. A tiny .122 batting average on balls in play wasn’t helping him out but his batted ball metrics all trended in the wrong direction as well. The Rays signed Danny Jansen in the offseason and then acquired Matt Thaiss last week, pushing Rortvedt down the depth chart. Since Rortvedt is out of options, he got pushed off the 40-man entirely.

Though he’s not having a strong season, he should get some regular playing time for Durham and could perhaps get his offense back on track. If he’s able to do so, he could be the first man up if either Jansen or Thaiss suffers an injury. Logan Driscoll is also on the 40-man roster but he started the year on the minor league injured list due to an ankle injury and still hasn’t played an official game this year.

If Rortvedt isn’t called up by the end of the season, he will be able to elect free agency, as is the case with all players with three-plus years of service who are outrighted off a 40-man roster during the season.

Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images

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