The Dodgers have acquired left-hander Xavier Cedeno from the Nationals in exchange for cash, Washington announced. Cedeno, 28, broke camp with the Nationals but did not last long after giving up two earned runs in three innings of work.
His most extensive work came in 2012 with the Astros, when he tossed 31 innings of 3.77 ERA ball while striking out 10.5 and walking 4.1 batters per nine. Since then, Cedeno has logged 22 1/3 frames with a 5.64 ERA, and has seen his strikeout rate drop to 7.3 K/9.
Cedeno is the latest in a series of DFA’ed arms that the Dodgers have added. The others were in turn designated before seeing action. If Cedeno makes it into the bullpen mix, he will join fellow southpaws J.P. Howell and Paco Rodriguez.
Trading players for cash is so unsatisfying. First Sandy Leon, now Cedeno. I’m not dense- I realize they weren’t going to bring a return otherwise, but a name is better than an unspecified amount of money.
I would bet that a cash return on Cedeno is a coup and given the last few transactions he would get designated again for the chance at minor league depth.
Nats say, “We don’t need any more lefties in the pen. We’ll go the whole year with 1 or 2 at the most between the majors and AAA.”