Ben Rortvedt

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Benjamin Thomas Rortvedt

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Biographical Information[edit]

Catcher Ben Rortvedt made his major league debut with the Minnesota Twins early in the 2021 seson and went on to play 38 games, hitting .169 with 3 homers and 7 RBIs. He served as the back-up to Ryan Jeffers and Mitch Garver, who got the bulk of the playing time for the big league team that season. He had been originally drafted by the Twins in the 2nd round of the 2016 amateur draft, out of a high school in Wisconsin.

On March 13, 2022, he was traded to the New York Yankees as part of a blockbuster five-player trade, which came one day after Garver, one of the men he had backed up in his rookie season, had been traded to the Texas Rangers in return for SS Isiah Kiner-Falefa. This turned to actually set the stage for the next day's deal, as Rortvedt, Kiner-Falefa and former MVP Josh Donaldson were sent to the Bronx Bombers in return for C Gary Sanchez and 3B Gio Urshela. However, he was injured by the end of spring training, forcing the Yankees to make another deal to acquire a catcher, in this case Jose Trevino, while Rortvedt never got to play with the Yankees that season, spending time in AAA with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders and on rehabilitation assignments with the Class A Tampa Tarpons and Hudson Valley Renegades. In 48 games, he hit .218 with 7 homers and 21 RBIs.

In 2023, he again missed time at the start of the season, then went to Tampa and to the AA Somerset Patriots before making it back to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. He finally made it to the big league team on May 20th, going 2 for 4 with a double against the Cincinnati Reds in his first game. He stayed with New York for another week, but barely played, going 0 for 3 in 4 games before heading back to AAA. He was called back on July 21st when Trevino went on the injured list for the remainder of the season, with a wrist injury. He played 32 games as a back-up to Kyle Higashioka, but largely sat in the final month of the season as the Yankees gave an extended look to prospect Austin Wells. He hit just .118 with 2 homers and 4 RBIs.

Higashioka was traded by the Yankees to the San Diego Padres after the 2023 season, leaving Rortvedt to contend for the spot of Jose Trevino's back-up with Wells, if the youngster was not ready to step up. However, Wells reassured the Yankees about his capacities, making Ben expendable, On March 27, 2024, on the eve of Opening Day, he was traded to the Miami Marlins along with prospect John Cruz in return for infielder Jon Berti, then was immediately flipped to the Tampa Bay Rays for another prospect, Shane Sasaki.

Further Reading[edit]

  • Matt Monagan: "Yankees' new catcher is absolutely jacked: There may not be a jersey big enough", mlb.com, March 14, 2022. [1]

Related Sites[edit]

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