Deadline Day DFAs: Rodriguez, Little

Catching up on a couple of designations from an extremely busy day of roster moves all over baseball…

• The Brewers designated Carlos Rodriguez for assignment to open up room on their 40-man roster, as per the team’s official transactions page.  Rodriguez has a 3.86 ERA over 9 1/3 innings this season, in a notable improvement over the 6.95 ERA he posted in 22 frames for Milwaukee in 2024-25 (his first two big league seasons), though the rest of his metrics aren’t overtly different.  This is the first time Rodriguez has been DFA’ed, so he can’t reject an outright assignment if he clears waivers.  Some extreme control problems cropped up for Rodriguez this year in Triple-A ball, but a waiver claim is possible if a team wants to add some long relief to its depth chart.
• The Cubs announced that Luke Little was designated for assignment to create a 40-man roster spot following the deal that brought Clay Holmes and Tyrone Taylor to Wrigleyville.  Little has a 2.97 ERA in 36 1/3 innings over parts of the last four seasons, though most of that work came in 2024 when the southpaw delivered a 3.46 ERA across 26 innings.  He has made only three MLB appearances since 2024, however, and Little has delivered some pretty good numbers in the minors apart from an inflated walk rate.  As with Rodriguez, a rival team might be willing to look past Little’s control issues or might think that a fix is possible, so a claim wouldn’t be a surprise given how many clubs need left-handed pitching depth.  Little also doesn’t have the ability to reject an outright assignment should he clear waivers.