The Rays and Dodgers announced a deal sending reliever Garrett Cleavinger from Los Angeles to Tampa Bay. Minor league outfielder Germán Tapia is headed back the other way. To create a spot on the 40-man roster, Tampa Bay designated reliever Luke Bard for assignment. The move frees a roster spot for the Dodgers as they look for upgrades over the next day.
Cleavinger doesn’t have a whole lot of big league experience, tallying 23 innings over the past three seasons. Four of his 27 MLB appearances have come this season, but he’s spent the bulk of the year at Triple-A Oklahoma City. Cleavinger owns a 2.79 ERA through 29 Triple-A innings on the season. He’s fanned an excellent 37.9% of opponents, but he’s also walked a massive 13.7% of batters faced.
It’s been a similar story for the 28-year-old southpaw at the big league level. He’s punched out an above-average 25.9% of opponents in the majors, but he’s doled out free passes at a 13.4% clip. Owner of a fastball that averages just shy of 96 MPH and a low-80s breaking ball with strong spin and downhill action, Cleavinger obviously has intriguing raw stuff. He’s not yet been able to control it consistently enough to carve out a permanent big leaguer roster spot. but he can bounce between Tampa Bay and Triple-A Durham for the rest of this season — his final minor league option year.
Bard, who was displaced on the roster, tossed 14 innings over eight big league outings this season. He had a 1.93 ERA but a meager 14.3% strikeout rate and an elevated 12.5% walk percentage. Bard has much better strikeout and walk numbers through 19 appearances with Durham, but marked home run troubles there have contributed to a 4.88 ERA. The 31-year-old can be traded between now and tomorrow’s deadline, but it’s likelier he’ll find himself on waivers over the next few days.
Tapia, an 18-year-old outfielder from the Dominican Republic, has spent the past two seasons in rookie ball. He’s a 6’2″ right-handed hitter who has played in the corner outfield thus far as a professional.
Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times first reported the deal.
They could have just gotten him in 2021 for Alvarado but okay then.
Would have been an overpay back then. This deal is the dodgers just dumping him.
The dude LAD sent them in 2021 was about the same caliber of prospect.
BOOM GOES THE DYNAMITE
Ok this was funny the first hundred times on the first fifty or so articles
Now it’s HILARIOUS.
Well there goes the Dodgers WS hopes!!!!
J/K, good luck Garrett. Wish you all the best.
Los Karens making some moves!
Weird flex but ok
Please don’t feed the trolls.
Huh?
Dude is a troll. Don’t feed him
The Nationals must love German Tapia. He’s a clone of German Marquez and Raimel Tapia and that stuff is legal in Colorado.
Har har, those silly foreign guys with similar names
Rays can fix whatever is wrong with him. They almost always do!
Flip him as part of a trade package for soto?
Huh? Who? They’re going to include an 18yo who’s only played in Dominican summer league? If they’re trying to get soto they better be concentrating on gathering better pieces than that
Hence the work trade PACKAGE. Read.
I mean he’s not highly regarded. If he’s in the package it’s probably 4 top prospects + Tapia, vs 4 top prospects and no Tapia.
What lucas said. That kid would make zero difference in any sort of package. So in that regard it would have been a pointless move
He will stay with dodgers as minor league talent, the one on the block is Outman who went 3 for 4 a triple shy of the cycle his first game in mlb.
Clears a 40 man roster spot for LA and gives TB a depth bullpen piece from the left side.
I like the move for both teams
Anyone else having a problem with new post not showing up with a greenish backround?
Yeah comments has had some bugs lately. That’s why you see so many people repeating themselves the last few days.
OK thanks was wondering if it was on my side or MLBTR’s….that answers it.
I’ll say. For a short while there, I was seeing double posts whenever I posted, and it confuzzed me.
Plethora of trades
Thank God. He was horrible in 2020, good in 2021, and awful again this year. It’ll be nice for Davey to have one less option to blow late inning playoff games with
Good stuff. Always clobbered. Frustrating to watch him pitch.
Typical profile of a pitching prospect that will likely never amount to anything. Big arm but no command. Very high walk rates and when he leaves it in the zone he gets hammered. Constantly pitching with traffic on the bases.
If anyone other than LA can fix the walks it’s Tampa.
Bat dodgers don’t need. That smell like a bigger deal happing
18yo bat who’s only experience is Dominican summer league. He’s not a part of any larger deal lol. Just dumping cleavingers worthless arm
Yes, just clearing roster space…
2023 AL Cy Young Garrett Cleavinger to you, sir!
He will pitch at least 8 innings of 1 run ball in the postseason.
But that one run will be the one that eliminates the club
“He will pitch at least 8 innings of 1 run ball in the postseason.” Probably more like 1 inning of 8 run ball.
Cleavinger and a bag of bats for anyone is a good trade.
Who knows, this lottery ticket could always payoff.
It already did, Cleavinger is gone.
Why designate Bard
why dump bard
The Rays will need a lot more than that to take care of their reliever issues. I’d even take Alex Colome back. We will see in the next 24 hours if the rays are packing it in for the season even though they’re in playoff contention
Was I the only one who glanced at the headline and thought Mike Clevinger had been traded?
Yes.
Hope that isn’t the dodgers big trade I know we don’t need much but would like to get better , could use a right handed bat and a pitcher
Nothing to see here. Dodgers needed a roster spot and got a guy 3 years from potentially being called up instead of nothing for the guy. The Rays get a guy with more upside than Luke Bard and see if they can harness his stuff. This trade isn’t a prelude to anything except it guarantees the dodgers are adding somebody by tomorrow and the Rays probably aren’t. I’m a Rays fan and live near Tampa. Stu the owner doesn’t care if we win or lose personally. He would love for us to win so he can make more money but he is conning the entire fan base. To him this is about as important as a McDonald’s franchise that’s value continues to rise. We have no payroll and cry poor when Stu is making money either way just by the value of the franchise going up. We have a top 15 market but a bottom 5 payroll. We should be able to spend $100 million on payroll. The fact that we somehow win with smoke and mirrors only covers up Stu’s greed. But heck if I was a Mets fan who owned some other franchise I would do the same. It’s just sad for the area that we don’t have a local owner who wants to own a winner. The Lighting do and they sell out every game and win. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Rays aren’t in Nashville,Las Vegas or Charlotte by 2028 when the lease on the Trop runs out.
Be careful when the Rays want to trade for your “average” pitcher