Dodgers give Diego Cartaya second chance with trade to desperate AL team

Diego Cartaya's swift DFA after the Dodgers' signing of Hye-seong Kim was shocking in the moment, but it makes a lot of sense when you zoom out. The Dodgers have three catching prospects toward the top of their pipeline — Cartaya, Hunter Feduccia, and Dalton Rushing — and Cartaya experienced a tough fall from grace, while Feduccia got some play as Austin Barnes' backup in 2024 and Rushing maintains a spot in LA's top five.

With Will Smith the Dodgers' catcher through 2033 and Feduccia likely their backup catcher of the future (jury's still out on what they'll do with Rushing, who projects as being too good to be stuck at backup forever), there was nowhere for Cartaya, who batted just .208 in Triple-A last year, to go.

It never seemed likely that Cartaya would end up back in the Dodgers system, but rather that he'd be claimed off of waivers or traded. At just 23 years old and with the last vestiges of top prospect hype still attached, some hurting team was bound to take a chance on him.

And that's exactly what happened. On Thursday morning, the Dodgers traded Cartaya to the Twins in exchange for minor league pitcher Jose Vasquez.

Former Dodgers top prospect Diego Cartaya traded to Twins after DFA

Although Cartaya's performance over the last few seasons doesn't leave a lot of optimism that he'll be an effective major leaguer, he'll at least be closer to getting a shot with the Twins, who are likely to give Ryan Jeffers some time at first base. Christian Vázquez is also in the last year of his contract and the Twins don't seem to know what to do with Jair Camargo, who they gave six at-bats in 2024.

Vasquez, the Dodgers' return in the trade, was an international signing for the Twins in 2022. He's pitched 57 innings over two seasons at the Rookie level so far, good for an 8.05 ERA. He could be another attempted Dodgers reclamation project, but it speaks to Cartaya's decline over the past few seasons and how much his stock has dropped accordingly.

It'd be risky for the Twins to bring Cartaya up with the intention of depending on him long-term, but he's a cheap alternative for a Minnesota team that's currently in the process of being sold and crashed out spectacularly in 2024. At least Cartaya now has a clearer runway to the majors, which is more than Rushing can say.