{"id":93267,"date":"2025-01-03T19:24:41","date_gmt":"2025-01-04T00:24:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=93267"},"modified":"2025-01-03T19:25:52","modified_gmt":"2025-01-04T00:25:52","slug":"dodgers-dfa-prospect-diego-cartaya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/01\/03\/dodgers-dfa-prospect-diego-cartaya\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Top Catching Prospect DFA&#8217;d By Dodgers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Los Angeles Dodgers have designated minor-league catcher <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=cartay000die&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-01-03_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Diego Cartaya<\/a> for assignment, according to Fabian Ardaya of the Athletic. This move opens a 40-man roster spot for Korean infielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=kim---016hye&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-01-03_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hyeseong Kim<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/01\/03\/hyeseong-kim-dodgers\/\" target=\"_self\">who was signed<\/a> today.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The Dodgers made the Hyeseong Kim signing official.<\/p>\n<p>Diego Cartaya was designated for assignment.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FabianArdaya\/status\/1875294595464229120?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">January 3, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Dodgers DFA Diego Cartaya<\/h2>\n<h4>Cream of the Crop?<\/h4>\n<p>Diego Cartaya was once considered one of the brightest prospects in the Dodgers organization. A few years ago, he may have been high on other teams&#8217; wish list, but was deemed untouchable. As a result, this development is jarring to some who follow the current World Series champions closely. Cartaya was one of the top signees in the 2018 amateur draft. The native of Venezuela rose quickly in the minor leagues, and was seen as a &#8220;can&#8217;t miss&#8221; talent as little as two years ago. Baseball America rated him the eighth-best prospect at the beginning of 2o24.<\/p>\n<h4>Below the Mendoza Line<\/h4>\n<p>Cartaya had a .189 batting average in 93 at-bats at Double-A Tulsa in 2023. Just as concerning is the nearly 30% strikeout rate that same year. The defensively adept catcher then improved somewhat in 2024 and was promoted to Triple-A Oklahoma City, only to struggle again with a sub-.200 batting average and a high strikeout rate. A back injury last year didn&#8217;t help Cartaya either.<\/p>\n<h4>A Different Direction<\/h4>\n<p>The Dodgers now have five days to trade Cartaya or place him on waivers. It would be no surprise if another team is interested, given that the 23-year-old still has undeniable talent and he&#8217;s still young. However, if he isn&#8217;t traded and clears waivers, the catcher could still remain in the Los Angeles organization, but off the 40-man roster.<\/p>\n<h4>Down the Depth Chart<\/h4>\n<p>Cartaya is now behind <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=smithwi05,smithwi04,smith-091wil,smith-090wil,smith-088wil&amp;search=Will+Smith&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-01-03_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Will Smith<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/barneau01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-01-03_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Austin Barnes<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/f\/feduchu01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-01-03_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Hunter Feduccia<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/register\/player.fcgi?id=rushin000dal&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-01-03_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dalton Rushing<\/a> on the depth chart. A new start with a different team may be the best thing for the young backstop.<\/p>\n<p>As for the Dodgers, they&#8217;ve made it clear that they are retooling to run it back in 2025. This is probably the first of a few moves before spring training opens in February,<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo Credit: \u00a9 BRYAN TERRY\/THE OKLAHOMAN \/ USA TODAY NETWORK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Los Angeles Dodgers have designated minor-league catcher Diego Cartaya for assignment, according to Fabian Ardaya of the Athletic. This move opens a 40-man roster spot for Korean infielder Hyeseong Kim, who was signed today. The Dodgers made the Hyeseong Kim signing official. Diego Cartaya was designated for assignment. \u2014 Fabian Ardaya (@FabianArdaya) January 3, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5226,"featured_media":93277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33,1071,35],"tags":[2914,28402,28847,28711,28818,305],"class_list":["post-93267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dodgers","category-mlb","category-news","tag-austin-barnes","tag-dalton-rushing","tag-diego-cartaya","tag-hunter-feduccia","tag-hyeseong-kim","tag-will-smith"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93267"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93279,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93267\/revisions\/93279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}