The smallest move the Mets made at the trade deadline may already be done serving both teams.
Ben Rortvedt went from New York to the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the fit was always narrow. He was never brought in to be part of a postseason catching picture.
His job was simpler than that: handle the staff, help on defense, and keep the Dodgers from bleeding runs because of the catching spot. That mission has now run its course.
The Dodgers designated him for assignment earlier this week after Will Smith and Dalton Rushing were activated from the IL.
Rortvedt’s time in Los Angeles was short and light on offense, which was never the point anyway. He hit .185/.185/.185 in 16 games.
That kind of line fits the profile he’s built across his career, one centered on defense and a bat that has settled into a .189 MLB average. At this stage, he looks like the kind of player who keeps moving on minor league deals, waivers, and whatever else keeps him attached to a roster.
The piece the Mets got back, Chayce McDermott, is trending toward a similar outcome.
McDermott was in DFA limbo when the Dodgers moved him to New York for Rortvedt. The 28-year-old has only 20.1 innings of big league experience, and the results there have been rough: a 10.18 ERA overall.
His brief Mets audition hasn’t changed the picture much. He owns a 5.06 ERA in three games with four walks in 5.1 innings, one home run allowed, and a pretty clear look at his limits.
His first outing was the best version of him, with two shutout innings against the Cleveland Guardians. After that, he looked more like the pitcher the Mets likely expected.
He ate innings in two losses and showed the same basic formula that has defined him for a while: strikeouts, walks, and too little certainty. In the minors, he’s sitting at 5.7 BB/9 and 12.6 K/9, which tells you exactly why teams keep hoping there’s something to unlock and why it’s so hard to actually do it.
That chase has been a familiar one for the current Mets regime. Jefry Yan is one of the relievers getting the longest look in the majors, and his numbers - 7.4 BB/9 and 10.6 K/9 - show how difficult the project is.
McDermott does have minor league options this year, but once that disappears after the season, he becomes an obvious non-tender candidate. The larger issue is that he was always a long shot to be more than a bullpen innings eater for the Mets.
If he had more optionality beyond this year, there might be a real development path to talk about. Instead, it feels like a make-or-break situation wherever he lands.
Rortvedt cleared waivers, and McDermott has been left with the same sort of uncertain future. For a deadline deal that barely registered when it happened, that may be the clearest sign of what it was all along.
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Kevin Mahala, the Mets minor-league hitting director, has pointed to Cliffords ability to adjust as the key reason the club still sees a path forward. The hope is that a cleaner stretch of work can help him rediscover the version of himself that made him such an interesting prospect in the first place. For now, the story is less about a finished evaluation than a player at an important crossroads, with the Mets still betting there is more offense ahead if he can make the necessary corrections. [Read more 🡒]