Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
The Dodgers have acquired their second utility player of the day. This time, he’s a more familiar face. They’re reacquiring Amed Rosario from the Rays for right-handed relief prospect Michael Flynn, who is not the former disgraced National Security Advisor. To make room on the 40-man roster, the Dodgers designated another 2023 trade deadline acquisition — Ryan Yarbrough — for assignment.
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Rosario, 28, is in the midst of a career-year for the Rays. He’s hitting .307/.331/.417 with a 115 wRC+ while playing second base, shortstop and the outfield (though none particularly well). With the earlier acquisition of Tommy Edman, this raises some concerns about the future roster spots of similarly minded players like Enrique Hernandez and Chris Taylor. More likely, guys like Nick Ahmed and Cavan Biggio will be on the chopping block shortly. And like last year, Rosario is a free agent after this season. Maybe the Dodgers will finally commit to him, especially if he keeps hitting the way he has so far this season.
This trade goes down almost a year ago to the day when they got Rosario from the Guardians for Noah Syndergaard (lol, remember he was a Dodger?). The reasons are similar as well, because LA needed to strengthen its bench and, if Edman is healthy in the next few weeks, they’ll have done just that. However, I wouldn’t rule out another position player acquisition. This time, though, I’d suspect it’d be more notable player like a Luis Robert Jr., or someone of his ilk.
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Going to Tampa Bay is Flynn, a minor-league free agent inked over the winter. He pitched with both Double-A Tulsa and Triple-A Oklahoma City, compiling a 4.25 ERA and a 24.1 K-BB%. The 27-year-old was a 6th-round pick of the Pirates back in 2018. He seems like a Rays-kinda player. I’m actually surprised this is all it took to get Rosario.
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There’s nothing not to like about this deal, other than things still don’t feel settled. We have about 21 hours until the trade deadline.
