Dodgers Digest Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Blog
Welcome back, old friend.
#Rays are sending Hunter Feduccia back to #Dodgers https://t.co/9xdqEekzS5
— Marc Topkin (@TBTimes_Rays) August 3, 2026
The full deal, per source: The Rays send catcher Hunter Feduccia and right-hander Jacob Kmatz to the Dodgers outfielder Jack Suwinski and international bonus pool money. https://t.co/YhskvkLNBv
— Jorge Castillo (@jorgecastillo) August 3, 2026
So, the Dodgers accomplished clearing a Triple-A outfielder in Jack Suwinski so that Josue De Paula can move up while acquiring even more catching depth in Hunter Feduccia. They re-acquired Ben Rortvedt earlier in the day. They also landed a 23-year-old reliever in Jacob Kmatz, the Rays’ 5th-round pick in 2024 who ranked as the Rays’ 27th-best prospect, according to MLB Pipeline. He’s not Rule 5-eligible until next offseason, so the Dodgers can see what they have in him. Here’s what Pipeline has to say about him:
“Kmatz has an over-the-top delivery that makes him hard to read. As could be expected, an across-the-board velocity jump has coincided with the role change. His fastball now sits 94-97 mph with tremendous ride to the top of the zone, and he plays off that with two tremendous breaking balls. An 86-88 mph slider has gotten huge whiffs running down and away from righties this season, and his upper-70s curveball can really snap with truer 12-to-6 action.
Kmatz can get empty swings against lefties with his secondaries, but without a true changeup, he’s run pretty ordinary splits out of the bullpen in 2026. He commands his north-south mix well though, and he can get batters to bite plenty on pitches outside of the zone, thus limiting his walks in the new role.”
Neat!
Not much to say about Feduccia. He’s hitting just .234/.306/.340 with an 82 wRC+ in 160 plate appearances. He’s really good at framing (88th percentile), but struggles with blocking (20th), caught stealing above average (14th) and pop time (10th). He does have an average exit velocity of 90.4 MPH this season, which is nearly 3 MPH better than his career-best. He’s fine for depth, just as Rortvedt is.
But what this move does more than anything is signal that Dalton Rushing‘s arm injury might be more serious than we’ve been led to believe. He missed Sunday’s game as a late scratch and isn’t in today’s lineup. We know Will Smith is probably 3-4 weeks out, but to acquire Feduccia and Rortvedt (who has, apparently, already been added to the 40-man roster despite spending all season in the minors with the Mets) signals that Rushing — who didn’t even make the trip to Chicago — is bound for the injured list.
Update (3:27 p.m.): Rushing to the IL.
Dalton Rushing to the IL, Dave Roberts said. Mild elbow strain showed on the MRI.
— Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) August 3, 2026
We’ll see what happens, but this is a solid last-second trade to boost around the fringes while getting an interesting arm for the future. Now, let’s see De Paula move up to Oklahoma City and let’s hope Rushing’s injury isn’t too serious.
