The Los Angeles Dodgers made a series of promotions this week at the Minor League level, which included promoting Diego Cartaya from Double-A Tulsa to Triple-A Oklahoma City.
Cartaya is coming off a down season in 2023 that was riddled by injuries, but prior to that, he was one of the organization’s top prospects.
The numbers have still been down across the board for Cartaya in 2024, but they were trending up before his promotion. He now joins an OKC club that already has Hunter Feduccia on the roster.
Both catchers are on the Dodgers’ 40-man roster, so they will both need to get some consistent playing time. As for now, OKC manager Travis Barbary plans to have each of them catch three games per week, according to OKC broadcaster and communications director Alex Freedman:
Diego Cartaya is in Reno and will make his Triple-A debut tonight with OKC. Batting sixth and will DH.
Per manager Travis Barbary, Cartaya and Hunter Feduccia will each catch three days per week. #Dodgers
— Alex Freedman (@azfreedman) June 25, 2024
In 2022, Cartaya was awarded the Branch Rickey Minor League Player of the Year and he was ranked as a Top 100 prospect by MLB Pipeline.
After struggling last year, Cartaya began to have a bounce-back year in Double-A, despite a slow start. The numbers still weren’t great overall as he was hitting .236/.354/.379 with five home runs, 27 RBI and 27 runs scored in 46 games, but they were trending up.
The Dodgers perhaps believe a change of scenery can help Cartaya, and getting into an incredibly hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League should also help him out.
The move to promote him at this moment could be somewhat of a showcase with the MLB trade deadline approaching in roughly one month.
Diego Cartaya wants to prove 2023 was an outlier
2023 saw Cartaya’s average and walks plummet, while he continued to strikeout at a very high rate.
To add insult to literal injury, he spent the end of the season on the injured list, and no one more more disappointed in his down season than himself.
Cartaya is now determined to get back on track and show off his potential and ability that made him an exciting prospect.
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