Recently traded former Mets player lost his job, NL Wild Card contenders can swarm

In case you needed a breather from baseball after the New York Mets were annihilated over the weekend by the Seattle Mariners, let’s catch up on one of the bigger transactions that took place. Amed Rosario, who was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers for the second straight year, found himself going from the Tampa Bay Rays with a .305 batting average.

Rosario would enter 5 games for the Dodgers since the July 29 trade, driving in a pair of runs. He goes onto the waiver wire batting .273/.333/.364 with them overall only two weeks after joining them. In what has been a productive albeit short of power season for Rosario, he now finds himself up for grabs because Mookie Betts is back.

Owed less than a million and on an expiring contract, he’s the kind of guy any team in the hunt for a playoff spot and a need should look to acquire. A versatile yet weak defender, the Mets may soon find him competing on a rival vying for a Wild Card spot.

Former Mets infielder Amed Rosario seems bound to enter the NL Wild Card hunt

There are no August trades available any longer which means Rosario will go to the weakest team that puts in the claim. Waivers go in reverse order by record. As Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors laid out in reporting this news, many of the likeliest culprits are clubs in the NL Wild Card picture. Among those within six games of a playoff spot, the only one worse than the Mets are the Rays who’d be unlikely to add him back unless they—wait for it—want to make a transaction to be “i-ray-nic.”

That’s the kind of dad joke kids divorce their parents over.

Rosario is much more than a shortstop these days. In addition to where we saw him play for the Mets most often, Rosario has taken over at second base, third base, and right field this season on a regular basis.

Pinning down exactly where he fits best is dependent on where clubs view they could use more depth. Off the bench, of course, he is pretty much a match anywhere in theory. Not the Mets, though. They don’t have the need or the space on the roster.

We do know how this ends, right? The Mets will pass on him and he’ll end up with the Atlanta Braves. He’ll hit around .215 with them except when they play the Mets. Mark it down now or hope he ends up with a team that’s kidding themselves that they can compete, like the Pittsburgh Pirates.

If not Atlanta, a team like the suddenly hot San Francisco Giants could make sense. No harm, right? And to get a player for free from the Dodgers has got to feel good.