Lou Trivino is back on the open market.
The veteran reliever elected free agency after the Phillies designated him for assignment, according to the MLB.com transaction log. Philadelphia also announced that catcher Payton Henry cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Lehigh Valley, though he still has the right to elect free agency as well. It isn’t clear yet whether he’ll take that route.
Trivino and Henry were two of the three players the Phillies bumped off the roster on Monday. Nolan Hoffman was the other, and he was dealt to the Royals for cash an hour before the deadline. Philadelphia had to create 40-man roster spots for Luis Arraez, Caleb Kilian and Brooks Raley.
Trivino, 34, had been sidelined for the last month with a thoracic muscle spasm. He spent a week on a rehab assignment and was officially activated from the injured list right before the DFA, a sign he was healthy again even if the Phillies didn’t have room for him in a bullpen that had just added Raley and Kilian.
At the big league level this season, Trivino has logged five appearances between the Phillies and Orioles. He worked six innings and allowed 10 runs on 10 hits and seven walks. In Triple-A, though, the numbers were much stronger: a 1.19 ERA with a 30% strikeout rate and an 8.1% walk percentage.
Henry’s stint with the Phillies was brief. He was called up at the end of July when Rafael Marchán landed on the injured list with patellar tendinitis, and he spent four days as J.T.
Realmuto’s backup. He never got into a game and was sent back down when Garrett Stubbs came off his own short IL stay.
The 29-year-old Henry is batting .211/.289/.305 in Triple-A this season, and his last major league appearance came in 2022. Marchán remains injured, which leaves Realmuto and Stubbs as the only healthy catchers on the 40-man roster. Henry would sit third on the organizational depth chart, so a return to Lehigh Valley would make sense.
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