July 21st, 2019 at 7:00 pm 
by Ron Cervenka When ThinkBlueLA broke the news on Saturday afternoon that Dodgers top-ranked catching prospect Keibert Ruiz had been promoted from the Double-A Tulsa Drillers to the Triple-A Oklahoma City Dodgers, the corresponding lower level roster moves were not yet known.
They now are.
Late Sunday morning, ThinkBlueLA learned from a reliable source that 24-year-old catcher Stevie Berman had been promoted to Double-A Tulsa to replace Ruiz on the Drillers roster. That move actually comes as little surprise, given the fact that Berman had already played nine games as the Drillers catcher this season before twice being returned to the Advanced Single-A Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. In fact, the Mountain View, CA native and Dodgers 31st round draft pick out of Santa Clara University in Santa Clara, CA also played with both Arizona Rookie League (AZL) teams this season as well.
But what does come as a surprise is that 22-year-old catcher Chase Barbary, son of current Triple-A Oklahoma City Dodgers manager Travis Barbary, who was signed as an undrafted free agent on June 10, 2019, was promoted from the AZL (Lasorda) Rookie League Dodgers to the Dodgers Advanced Single-A affiliate Quakes on Sunday morning, completely bypassing the Pioneer Rookie League Ogden Raptors and the Low Single-A Great Lake Loons. What’s even more surprising is that Barbary appeared in only three games with the AZL Dodgers prior to Sunday’s promotion, having gone a collective 0-for-4 at the plate with two strikeouts. He did, however, have a 1.000 percent fielding percentage, having committed no errors in 12 total chances.
Although this move in and of itself is indeed surprising (not to mention quite rare), it could also be a temporary one.
As you might expect, Ruiz’s promotion to Triple-A OKC only ten days prior to MLB’s July 31 (and only) trade deadline suggests that either he – or extremely popular and highly regarded catching prospect Will Smith – are on the verge of being traded by the Dodgers for a top-tier (and very much needed) current MLB relief pitcher. Obviously, in order to land such a much sought-after (by many teams) reliever, the Dodgers would have to part with at least one – or perhaps several – of their highest-ranked prospects; say… like… Ruiz (currently ranked as the Dodgers third overall prospect by Baseball America, or Smith (currently ranked as their fourth overall prospect) – if you see where this is going.
Although there is certainly the possibility that current Dodgers catchers Russell Martin and/or Austin Barnes might be included in a trade package, this seems highly likely. The 36-year-old Martin is currently in the final year of his 5-year / $82 million contract and is making $20 million this season. It goes beyond all reason that a team would be willing to take on a three-month(-ish) rental for a guy who becomes a free agent when the final out of the 2019 World Series is recorded.
As for the 29-year-old Barnes, even though he still has one option remaining and could conceivably be optioned to Triple-A OKC, this also seems highly unlikely. That being said, the brutally painful truth is how much trade value is there for a guy with a five-year MLB career slash-line of .229 / .344 / .362 / .706 and a current 2019 slash-line of .203 / .293 / .340 / .633?
This, of course, brings us back to the very strong possibility (or probability) that it will be Keibert Ruiz or Will Smith who gets traded for that aforementioned top-tier (and very much needed) current MLB reliever.
Stay tuned…
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I’m not sure what’s going on but the suspense is killing me
Might be a big off day tomorrow
Just goes to show how deep moves have to go to bring about the hopefully desired result. The Dodger m… https://t.co/eobKVUNfgI
Will Smith from SFG for DJ Peters plus ptnl
Vazquez for Ruiz Gray and more.
I’d really like to see decisive upgrades for the bullpen. If they could wrangle a deal or two and still have May, Lux and Smith I would be quite pleased!
Will Smith is very very good… not him…🤞🤞
Dodgers better trade Ruiz while he’s finally heating up offensively again (had a breakout 2-hit/4-RBI game earlier today for AAA OKC, including his first HR at that level in just his second game since being promoted from AA Tulsa) because Smith IS the one they need to hold on to for the long-term and there’s NO gettin’ around it anymore. Lot of folks underestimated Smith’s bat heading into that 2016 draft, but what it really was is that he wasn’t instructed by the Louisville coaching staff to focus on that part of his game while adeptly handling their pitching staff during his college tenure there. Moment he started working on his hit tool during the 2017 season for High-A Rancho, it finally came to fruition last year for AA Tulsa and if not for a hand injury that season he would’ve put up even more eye-popping numbers down there. Defensively, he’s a pitcher’s dream behind the plate with a knack for shutting down the running game especially.
Think the Dodgers’ best chance is to put together a decent package around Ruiz (Lux, May, and Smith are definitely OFF LIMITS) in a deal to land that Matthew Boyd/Shane Greene combo from the Tigers and just have Urias and Greene split closing duties with Jansen for the remainder of this season with Boyd as insurance in case Hill’s not able to make it back in September from his forearm injury. Face it, much as I covet Vazquez of the Pirates there’s no way any team’s gonna give up THREE MLB Top 100-ranked prospects for him UNLESS that team just doesn’t know any better (lol). Reminds me too much of how the Rays wanted the Dodgers to cough up Julio Urias, Corey Seager, AND Joc Pederson in exchange for David Price back during the 2014 season. Saw how that turned out for Tampa Bay in the end, haha…only had Willy Adames to show for that one.
Urias will be moving back to the rotation soon. That’s been the plan since before this season.
Thanks, Captain Obvious.
Should be obvious a pitcher can’t be a starter and closer at the same time.