Dodgers cut bait on trade deadline addition in corresponding move for Mookie Betts

The Dodgers are welcoming Mookie Betts to the lineup today, the first of three exciting position players to return from injury. Tommy Edman and Max Muncy are still on their way, currently rehabbing down in Triple-A, but Betts has been perhaps the most sorely missed Dodger who's hit the IL in the last few months.

Cuts will have to be made when each of these players come back, and we took a stab at guessing a few of them. Nick Ahmed? Kiké Hernández? Chris Taylor or Andy Pages, even? The Dodgers surely wouldn't get rid of one of their trade deadline acquisitions not two weeks after the fact, right?

LA officially activated Betts from the IL a few hours ahead of their first game against the Brewers, and they designated Amed Rosario, acquired by the Dodgers for the second time in two years in a one-to-one trade with the Rays on deadline day, for assignment.

Dodgers DFA Amed Rosario in light of Mookie Betts' return to the lineup

This is surprising, to say the least, but it might explain why the Dodgers seemed unwilling to play Rosario much, despite the fact that he was having a great season over in Tampa Bay. He's only played five games with the Dodgers in this short stint and has continued to bat pretty well, with a .273 average and .697 OPS in that span.

However, Betts' move back to the outfield does make the motives behind this move a little clearer. In the five games Rosario has played in LA, he's been a shortstop, filling in on some of Ahmed's off days, who was in turn filling in for Miguel Rojas (who also recently returned from the IL),, who was in turn filling in for Betts. It seems that the strategy here is that Edman will go to shortstop upon his arrival to the Dodgers and Rojas will provide backup. Betts will move to the outfield, bumping Jason Heyward into a backup role, which leaves little need for Rosario from a defensive standpoint.

It's more likely than not that Rosario will get scooped up off of waivers or traded again before he can head back to the Dodgers' farm system. It was fun while it lasted, we guess...?