Red Sox land Jake Rogers from O’s in trade

Apparently, the medicals were approved. The Orioles will get Anthony Eyanson (Boston’s No. 1 pitching prospect), 2025 first-rounder Kyson Witherspoon, Carlos Narváez and more, according to the Baltimore Sun’s Jacob Calvin Meyer. The Red Sox will have Rutschman under control through 2027. He’s still on the IL for now, but he’ll take over from Connor Wong as the starter when healthy. Jake Rogers is also in the deal going to Boston, so he’ll back up Wong for now. For Baltimore, the move clears the way for Samuel Basallo to spend the next several years as a starting catcher.

The 31-year-old backstop had been designated for assignment by the Tigers earlier in the week, so they were content to flip him for anything that they could get at this stage. Rogers will add quality catching depth for the O’s.

Wong entered the game on defense in the bottom of the eighth inning after Masataka Yoshida had pinch-hit for starting catcher Carlos Narváez. He then made things interesting in the top of the ninth, taking Hogan Harris deep for a two-run homer to bring the Red Sox within a run for his second homer of the season. The 30-year-old backstop has taken a larger share of the workload behind the plate and has been hitting the ball well, slashing .271/.359/.383 with 17 RBI across 157 plate appearances.

The Tigers needed a spot on the active roster to activate Javier Baez from the 60-day IL, so Rogers was let go. The Tigers will go forward with Eduardo Valencia as their backup catcher.

It wouldn’t be surprising if the Tigers took it easy on Dingler heading into the All-Star break, so we wouldn’t be stunned if he misses this weekend series. Jake Rogers is taking over at catcher and batting ninth against the Phillies tonight.

Rogers entered Wednesday’s game after Dingler took a foul ball off of his hand and opened the scoring by clubbing a solo home run. He got the Tigers on the board first once again on Thursday, lining a 2-2 fastball from Jack Perkins for a 363-foot (96.6-mph EV) solo shot in the third inning. He also drew a pair of walks in the contest, finishing the game 1-for-1. On the season, he’s still slashing a meager .171/.263/.329 with three homers and nine RBI.

No surprise here with a quick early-afternoon turnaround after Dingler handled the catching duties during Friday night’s series opener. The 27-year-old backstop somehow wasn’t a finalist for the American League in All-Star balloting, but he deserves to be there on the strength of a 19-homer breakthrough campaign. It’ll be Jake Rogers behind the plate on Saturday afternoon at Comerica Park.

It’s far from ideal that the Red Sox are DHing Wong against lefties on occasion, but it worked out today. Wong had gone 99 plate appearances this year and 188 last year without homering after hitting 13 in 487 plate appearances in 2024. He has hit a respectable .270/.356/.393 in his part-time role this season.

The double was originally ruled a homer, which would have been Wong’s first since Sept. 2024, but it was overturned. The ball hit the top padding on the wall, appeared to sink behind the wall, but then bounced back into play. It would have been his sixth career homer against Cleveland, which is kind of nuts. The only other team he has more than two against is Cincinnati (three in eight games), so it must be an Ohio thing. He has eight homers in 22 games against those two clubs and 15 in 359 games against everyone else.

Connor Wong replaced him. The Red Sox also have Mickey Gasper as a catcher option, so they wouldn’t need to make a move for another catcher if Narváez needs a couple of days off. Anything more than that, though, and he’ll probably land on the IL. Matt Thaiss or Jason Delay could get the call in that case.