Lou Trivino Elects Free Agency

Veteran reliever Lou Trivino elected free agency after being designated for assignment by the Phillies, according to the MLB.com transaction log. The Phils announced that catcher Payton Henry cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. He also has the right to elect free agency, though it’s not clear if he’ll do so.

Trivino and Henry were two of the three players whom Philadelphia designated for assignment on Monday. The third, Nolan Hoffman, was traded to the Royals for cash an hour before the deadline. The Phils needed to open 40-man roster space for Luis Arraez, Caleb Kilian and Brooks Raley.

The 34-year-old Trivino had been on the injured list for the past month with a thoracic muscle spasm. He had spent a week on a rehab assignment and was technically activated from the IL just before the DFA. That suggests he’s healthy but the Phillies didn’t want to plug him back into a bullpen that had added Raley and Kilian.

Trivino has made five MLB appearances this year between the Phillies and Orioles. He pitched six innings and gave up 10 runs on as many hits and seven walks. Trivino has had a much better season in Triple-A, working to a 1.19 ERA with a 30% strikeout rate against an 8.1% walk percentage.

Henry joined the MLB roster at the end of July when Rafael Marchán went on the injured list with patellar tendinitis. He spent four days on the active roster backing up J.T. Realmuto. Henry didn’t make it into a game and was optioned when Garrett Stubbs returned from his own minimal IL stay.

The 29-year-old Henry is hitting .211/.289/.305 in Triple-A this year and last got into a big league contest in 2022. Marchán is still injured, leaving Realmuto and Stubbs as the only healthy catchers on the 40-man roster. Henry would be third on the organizational depth chart, so it’d make sense for him to report back to Lehigh Valley.