11:07pm: ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports the full terms. The Dodgers are the third team and will receive Serwinowski, as well as minor leaguers Paul Gervase and Ben Rortvedt. They’re sending catcher Hunter Feduccia to Tampa Bay, who’ll keep Van Belle.
10:31pm: C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic reports that Serwinowski is actually headed to the mystery third team.
10:24pm: It appears to be a two-team trade after all. Wittenmyer reports that pitching prospect Adam Serwinowski is the other player headed to Tampa Bay.
10:17pm: Righty Brian Van Belle is the player from Cincinnati’s 40-man roster who is headed to Tampa Bay, Wittenmyer reports.
10:16pm: There’s an unidentified third team involved, reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today.
10:05pm: Gordon Wittenmyer of The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that at least of the two players headed back to the Rays is a big leaguer.
9:38pm: The Reds are finalizing a deal to acquire starter Zack Littell from Tampa Bay, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN. There’s an agreement in place pending medical reviews, Passan adds. The Rays will receive two players in return, reports MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand.
Littell tossed five scoreless innings tonight against the Yankees in what’ll be his final appearance with the Rays. That lowered his earned run average to an impressive 3.58 mark across 22 starts. Littell turned in a very similar 3.63 ERA in 29 appearances a season ago. He has led the Rays in innings in each of the past two seasons while turning in steady mid-rotation results.
It’s excellent work for a player whom the Rays snagged off waivers from the Red Sox a little over two years ago. Littell had bounced around the league mostly as a middle reliever before Tampa Bay built him up as a starter. His fantastic control played well in a rotation role. Throwing strikes is the 29-year-old’s standout trait. Littell has walked fewer than 5% of opposing hitters in consecutive seasons. He issued four free passes tonight in the Bronx, but that’s only the second time he has done so in the past two years.
Littell doesn’t have eye-popping stuff. He sits in the 91-92 MPH with both his four-seam fastball and sinker. Neither his slider nor splitter are huge swing-and-miss offerings. Littell had roughly average strikeout and whiff rates a season ago. This year’s 16.6% strikeout rate and 9.1% swinging strike percentage are each subpar. Littell surrenders a lot of hard contact and has had issues with the home run ball throughout his career. That includes an MLB-high 26 longballs allowed this season.
That profile seems a suboptimal fit for a pitcher who’ll now call the extremely hitter-friendly Great American Ball Park home. Littell’s consistency was clearly a plus for Cincinnati. He has worked at least five innings in all but one start this year. He has allowed three or fewer runs in 18 of 22 appearances. Littell has had a better season than Nick Martinez and Brady Singer have managed. Rookie Chase Burns has also been up and down over his first six starts.
Adding Littell could push Martinez to the bullpen. Ace Hunter Greene is on a rehab assignment as he works back from a groin strain. That’ll presumably push Burns back to Triple-A. Cincinnati would have a starting five of Greene, Nick Lodolo, Andrew Abbott, Littell and Singer at that point.
Littell is playing on a $5.72MM salary for his final year of arbitration. The Reds are taking on a little more than $1.8MM for the final two months. He’ll be a free agent at season’s end. Tampa Bay wasn’t going to make him a qualifying offer. They’ve played terribly this month and dropped below .500 with tonight’s loss. Their 3.5 game deficit in the Wild Card race isn’t insurmountable, but the team’s performance coming out of the All-Star Break discouraged the front office enough that they’re at least soft sellers.
Trading Littell, their only true impending free agent, is the obvious starting point. Closer Pete Fairbanks and second baseman Brandon Lowe are controllable for next season via club options. Shortstop Ha-Seong Kim has a $16MM player option. Yandy Díaz and Drew Rasmussen are each signed through 2026 with team options covering the ’27 campaign. Lefty reliever Garrett Cleavinger is arbitration controlled through 2027. It remains to be see how aggressively they’ll shop players whom they control beyond this season, but the Rays have the potential to make a significant impact on the deadline.
Van Belle, 28, has yet to make his MLB debut. The Red Sox called him up in June but designated him for assignment a few days later without getting him into a game. Cincinnati added him on a cash deal and has kept him on optional assignment to Triple-A Louisville. A former undrafted free agent out of the University of Miami, Van Belle has combined for 81 1/3 innings of 3.21 ERA ball at the top minor league level this year. That comes with a below-average 20.2% strikeout rate but a sterling 3.2% walk percentage. His fastball barely scrapes 90 MPH, but he’s a fantastic strike-thrower who relies mostly on a mid-80s changeup to stay off barrels. He’ll serve as a depth starter or long relief type who is in his first of three minor league option seasons.
Serwinowski, a 6’5″ left-hander, is the more significant loss for Cincinnati. The Reds drafted him out of high school in 2022. He has developed into one of their more intriguing low minors pitchers. Serinowski ranked 10th in the Cincinnati system at MLB Pipeline and 12th at Baseball America. Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs had him as high as sixth in the organization when he wrote up the organization in May. Scouting reports praise his plus fastball-slider combination, crediting him with a mid-90s heater that can touch 97. Like many tall young pitchers, he has below-average command. Serwinowski also doesn’t have a great third pitch, raising questions about his ability to turn a lineup over multiple times.
There’s a decent chance the 21-year-old will end up as a reliever, but it’s easy to see the appeal of a pitcher with this kind of stuff and physical projection. Serinowski has spent the season in High-A, allowing a 4.84 ERA across 74 1/3 innings. He has punched out an above-average 27.7% of batters faced while walking nearly 12% of opponents.
More to come.
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