The Dodgers made a roster move on Wednesday, making a trade with the Tampa Bay Rays for pitcher Casey Sadler. The Rays acquired pitching prospect Nathan Witt in return.
Nathan Witt was a 17th-round draft pick for the Dodgers in the 2017 draft. A right-handed reliever, he was most recently with the High-A Great Lake Loons where he had a 5.32 ERA over 23.2 innings pitched. He was recently elected to the Midwest League All-Star team.
Casey Sadler is also a right handed reliever, and was just recently designated for assignment by the Rays to their Triple-A team. He was added to the Dodgers’ 40-man roster, and was optioned to Oklahoma City.
Drafted in the 25th round in 2010 by the Pittsburgh Pirates, he made his major league debut in 2014. He appeared in only 9 games throughout 2014, 2015, and 2018 combined for the Pirates, where he had a 6.86 ERA. He had that many games this year alone with the Tampa Bay Rays, pitching to a 1.86 ERA, with 11 strikeouts and five walks over 19.1 innings.
He had this to say on Twitter on June 29th, after being sent to the Durham Bulls.
In the corresponding move to free up roster space, starting pitcher Rich Hill was moved from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL. Hill was removed from his start on June 19th against the San Francisco Giants after just one inning of work. He had retired the side, but was noticeably strained. He is suffering a left forearm flexor strain, and is expected to be back sometime later in the season. The earliest he can return is August 19th.
In other injury news, both Corey Seager and A.J. Pollack took at-bats in a sim game on Tuesday, facing minor league lefty Antonio Hernandez. Pollock was working on taking fly balls in the outfield, and could possibly go on a rehab assignment on Friday.
Seager was taking grounders at shortstop. Both he and Pollock were running the bases, with Seager telling reporter JP Hoornstra that he estimated he was running at about 75 percent. He most likely will not go on a rehab assignment before returning to the team after the All-Star break.
David Freese was also running the bases aggressively, testing his left hamstring strain. He is expected to not go on a rehab assignment, and be activated on Friday or Saturday.
The Dodgers have just five games left in the first half of the 2019 season, one with the Arizona Diamonbacks, and finishing with a four game set with the San Diego Padres.
Think Blue Planning Committee 
My bad,,,,,I read the story on MLBrumors this morning early. I also saw his name on the 40 man roster, but I did not know he was optioned to OKC……so you beat me to the punch on that.
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Haha all good, was just busting you
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Let the dumpster dive begin!
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Begin? It started last winter: McCreery, Schultz, Quackenbush, etc.
Just you wait till we trade for Greg Holland. Oh, wait a minute………………………
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I want a shutdown guy like Felipe Vazquez or Brad Habd but I’d also like AF to go trade for Jake Diekman. We need 2 strong lefties in the playoffs and right now we have none at all. Urias could very well be in the rotation by that time so you can’t count on him, although I believe he should be the 8th inning guy right now because he’s been untouchable. Diekman is way better than his 4.89 ERA suggests this year. He has struck out double his number of innings pitched and we need strikeout guys going against the ridiculous Houston lineup. I mean, does anyone else here really think we will play any other team but the Astros if we make it to the World Series this year?
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Yankees look pretty good.
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Their bullpen is the best there is and their lineup is ferocious but the Yankees rotation is in shambles. I look for them to try to trade Clint Frazier for another solid starter with Severino our all year.
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Look out. Joe Kelly may be back! Maybe Jansen should now be setting up,for Kelly!
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LAD SVO – tied for 4th
LAD SV% – 17th
Kenly at times looks fine.
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Exactly what you want in a closer, a guy who sometimes looks fine. 🙂
It’s been a bad year for good relievers. Kimbrel not getting off to a very good start for the Cubs. Diaz not doing well for the Mets, etc. If you take that information and couple it with the fact that AF’s two biggest trade deadline acquisitions over the past couple of years (Darvish, Machado) have not performed to expectations, it’s no wonder he’s having a hard time giving up his prospects. Think about it, he could have given up Seager, Bellinger, Buehler, Verdugo and others in deadline trades to get highly regarded players. If he had, where would we be now? The GM’s job ain’t easy.
Happy 4th everyone!
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Well Jeff that’s an impressive group and very unlikely to happen again. In the last 10 years we havent had 4 like that and the jury is still out somewhat on buehler and verdugo. No sure things left on the farm.
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We have a few coming up from the lower levels that I might have to add to my list in the next year or so Gordon, but you’re correct, bringing in four guys like that within a short period, all home grown, is something to be proud of and not terribly likely to be repeated anytime soon.
I’m hoping we can put Miguel Vargas on that list over the next couple of years. He’s only 19 and just promoted to RC. And then there’s Andy Pages, only 18, with 6 homers in 60 at bats at Ogden. Time will tell.
And, of course, we don’t know yet how successful Lux, May, Ruiz or Smith will be.
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