In a surprising move on Sunday afternoon, the Dodgers signed catcher Travis d’Arnaud to a one-year contract and immediately moved him to the big league squad’s active roster.
To make room on the 25-man roster, the Dodgers optioned infielder Matt Beaty to Triple-A Oklahoma City.
With no apparent injuries to either Austin Barnes or Russell Martin, the move has left many fans wondering about the logic behind the signing. In the least, d’Arnaud gives the Dodgers another right-handed bat off the bench.
The 30-year-old d’Arnaud was released by the New York Mets on Friday after appearing in 10 games this season. In 2017, the catcher played in a career-high 112 games, hitting .244 (85-for-348) with a career-best 16 homers and 57 RBI. He began the 2018 season as the Mets Opening Day starter but missed the majority of the 2018 season recovering from ulnar collateral ligament surgery in his right elbow.
In his seven-year Major League career, d’Arnaud is a .242 (329-for-1360) hitter with 47 homers and 164 RBI in 407 games. d’arnaud was originally selected by the Philadelphia Phillies in the supplemental first round (37th overall) of the 2007 MLB draft out of Lakewood High School in California.
In addition to the UCL surgery, d’Arnaud has sustained a lengthy string of other injuries, spending time on the DL with a bone bruise in his right wrist, a strain in his right rotator cuff, a hyperextended left elbow, a broken finger and a concussion since his debut in 2013.
Beaty, 26, was recalled on Tuesday and recorded his first career hit in his Major League debut later that evening. The infielder played in three games since being recalled, batting .667 (2-for-3) with an RBI. Prior to joining Los Angeles, Beaty was hitting .277 (23-for-83) with two homers and 10 RBI in 22 games for Oklahoma City.
With the move, the 40-man roster of the Dodgers currently stands at 39.
(Juan Dorado furnished some information provided in this report)
Think Blue Planning Committee 
I think he was signed to give Verdugo 5 or 6 days a week rest and play right field.
Happy to see we still have Seager (who has looked horrendous, especially against southpaws) batting third and Verdugo (who is doing everything right) batting seventh.
LikeLike
Apparently, Friedman and Roberts didn’t like the lineup ideas I proposed yesterday.
LikeLike
I think those suggestions are just now reaching San Diego. The internet connection between you and SD is very slow.
LikeLike
I think this signals Martin’s back injury isn’t completely healed yet and they wanted a replacement besides Rocky Gale.
LikeLike
More rubbish for the DL list. Dodgers are like an old lady who holds on to her millions and eats pork & beans for supper before she goes to church. Dump Kelly!
LikeLike
Steve, you do understand do you not that they cannot just dump him? He has a 3 year deal for 25 million dollars. Unless they could find a team willing to take on the contract, highly unlikely by the way, they are stuck with him until 2021.
LikeLike
Enough already with Maeda as a starter! His stuff plays better out of the pen and Stripling has been much better starter! Make the move Doc!
LikeLike
Again you are assuming that Roberts has that kind of autonomy. All things baseball go through Andrew. It is not just Roberts.
LikeLike
So Taylor was just waiting for an injury to,Pollock to step up and rake when they really needed him. What a great teammate!
LikeLike
Wow! That one hurts! That one could have piut Pads in their place. Now it gives them tremendous momentum. Kenley really u can’t throw a cutter on the corners only down the middle! Jansen and Kelley have to be better or no WS this year!
LikeLike
Ok this is getting borderline ridiculous. This is a championship team with a fatal flaw that management seemingly refuses to fix. The simple fact is this; Kenley is not and has not been closing pitcher quality for two years. He has one pitch and that used to be enough as his cutter was the best baseball has ever seen except for Mariano Rivera. Not anymore. He now throws it 91-93 compared to 95-97 of old. He also can’t locate the pitch anymore at times and it doesn’t have its old bite. Joe Kelly is a dumpster fire who may still hold value as a middle reliever once he figures things out but he’s not a setup man for a contender. It just so happens you have a great closer still on the market who could change the entire perception of the bullpen from a weakness to a strength and only money is holding them up. If the Dodgers brass truly wants to do all it can to bring a title back to LA then they need give Kimbrel his $50 million and put him at closer while demoting Kenley to the 8th inning. This may hurt Kenley’s fragile little feelings but I honestly don’t give a damn. Closers don’t have 4.50 ERAs. If I could option Kelly to the minors I would do it just to prove a point but since we can’t they should put Floro in his 8th inning spot.
LikeLike
I think however they’d structure a Kimbrel deal, it would put them over the tax threshold. I could be wrong, though.
LikeLike
Yes it will absolutely put them over but when does that no longer matter when you have such a glaring need on a team with these expectations?
LikeLike
Don’t forget that Friedman is the one making all the decisions. He probably thinks there’s an unknown arm out there that’ll save the day.
LikeLike
There’s no one coming to save the day. They will end up having to trade a top 10 prospect at the deadline for a bullpen arm or AF will go after a complete nobody.
LikeLike
His ERA means nothing at this point. It was under 3 before that grand slam. The Dodgers have 22 wins. Kenley has 12 saves and 2 wins which means he has been involved in more that half their wins. Jansen has a second pitch. He has been using his change up and his slider more. They lost because he gave up 3 hits leading up to the homer and he still almost made it out of the inning. The problem was trying to get a high fastball past a high ball hitter with power. That ball is 2 inches higher and he pops it up. The took the series, are still in first place, lead the majors in wins and everyone is panicking about Jansen blowing this game? Ridiculous. It is a long way to the finish line gang. They have plenty of time to fix this. As for signing the former Mets catcher to a contract, it will have little effect.
LikeLike
It seems to me that more good relievers are having a bad year than at any time I can remember. Kenley is far from the only one, although I agree with those who think he will never again be the same pitcher he was in years gone by. For those who didn’t see/hear it, and to make your Sunday evening even more disgusting, when Renfroe came to the plate he was 0-6 against Kenley lifetime, with 5 k’s.
LikeLike
With Pollock gone for a couple months and we being short on righty bats what does everyone think about bringing Kemp back?
LikeLike
No chance. I think that’s why they signed d’Arnaud, to be honest.
LikeLike
Bear, I love that you’re the positive voice of reason!
LikeLiked by 1 person
How’s he been doing in cincy?
LikeLike
Kemp was hitting .200 in Cincy with 1 homer. Puig not much better. But Kyle Farmer hit his 5th dinger today… How would he have been as a hitter off the bench. Kemp was also on the IL with a broken rib.
LikeLike
Hey guys I know this game was disappointing, but we did take two out of three from a division opponent, on their home field. Normally winning two out of three on the road is pretty impressive, let’s not get to crazy. Help me out Andy the natives are getting restless.
LikeLike
Of course you’re right Keith. Big picture. But…. a walk off Grand Slam is a real thumb in the eye. Our bullpen gives me indigestion. I certainly hope they get it together… but if they don’t we are vulnerable.
LikeLike
We have to be more realistic with Jansen. Only 3 out saves and he has to be limited to 2 save days in a row. He certainly shouldn’t be pitching tonight! Let Floro close when Jansen cant
LikeLike
There for a second, I thought you were gonna say that Joe Kelly should be next in line to close.
LikeLike
I love your enthusiasm, but it is way too early to be talking World Series. Lots of things can happen over the next 5 months and some already have. People are over looking how good the D-Backs have been so far. They are right on the Dodgers tail. Padres have some good young starters, who kept the Dodgers at bay for most of this series. The Dodgers beat their bullpen, not their starters. Seems that this year not many closers are doing great. The bullpen will be addressed. We know they are bad and so does Friedman.
LikeLike
Rich S. That is a scary thought. Me being reasonable. Jeff thought that someone ghost wrote my little article about Friedman. I think that what has happened is that I am trying to think like Friedman is and understand the moves from his point of view and not mine…another scary thought.
LikeLike
I wonder if Alex Anthropologist has any tricks up his sleeve tonight. 😀
LikeLike
As an add on to my comment above about good relievers having bad years, I saw a stat today which showed that bullpens are performing worse than usual this year, but the reason may be that starters are going (on average) a full inning less than they did last year and most previous years. The number has been in the 6+ inning range and this year it’s 5+ innings for starters. So does that mean the way to fix our bullpen is to encourage/force our starters to go deeper into games?
LikeLike
One extra inning is a huge burden on the BP, just as we saw with Jansen this weekend, he probably needed a day off after Friday, and Saturday. Good stat Jeff.
LikeLike
In case I didn’t make it clear, that was an MLB stat not a Dodger stat, so it applied to all of MLB. They didn’t break it down by team.
LikeLike
The numbers are clear – 3rd time through the lineup is deadly. First time through – .314 wOBA. Third time through – .340 wOBA. Keep them under 100 pitches and that means 5+, 6 if you’re lucky. As Rotographs put it, TTT is when pitchers get clubbed.
LikeLike