David Bote was probably hoping for a Jason Heyward-esque comeback when he signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers and left the Cubs for the first time in his professional career. Heyward and Bote both signed multi-year deals in Chicago (eight years and $184 million for Heyward out of free agency, a five-year and $15 million extension for Bote), but neither panned out. In fact, Heyward’s deal looked like one of the worst in baseball for some time. Both were forced to take minor-league deals with the Dodgers after their departures from Chicago.
Heyward broke Dodgers camp in 2023 and had a great comeback season, which earned him a major league deal with LA for 2024. Although that second year didn’t exactly work out well for him (he was released in August in order to make room on the roster for Chris Taylor, who was coming off of the IL), he still managed to pull off a relatively uncommon feat as an NRI who actually made it out of camp to become a regular player.
Bote had an outstanding spring training in Glendale, but he also came into the organization under much different circumstances than Heyward, with little-to-no room for NRIs or even top prospects to break into the big league club.
The Dodgers optioned Bote to Triple-A before they opened their season in Tokyo and, on Tuesday, he exercised the “upward mobility” clause in his deal, which will allow him to join any other team willing to put him on their 40-man roster.
David Bote has exercised his upward mobility clause in his NRI deal with the Dodgers, as expected, per source.
NRI David Bote exercises upward mobility clause to potentially leave Dodgers organization after great spring training
The Dodgers could also change course and add Bote to the 40-man to guarantee they keep him, but that seems unlikely. If there aren’t any takers, he’ll return to the organization and go to Triple-A.
In 14 spring games, he batted .400 with a 1.171 OPS, two homers, nine RBI, and almost as many walks as strikeouts, but it doesn’t take a deep dive into the Dodgers’ projected 26-man roster to tell that he wasn’t going to find a place on it. He’s spent some time in the outfield, but has spent most of his major league time in the infield. The Dodgers are still a little wishy-washy on what they’ll do with second base, given Hyeseong Kim’s demotion, but they have more than enough options for cover there, including Tommy Edman, Taylor, Kiké Hernández, and Miguel Rojas — all of whom are promised a lot more money than Bote.
At least he made a very solid case for himself as a potential addition to a different 40-man roster this spring. If he does return to Triple-A with the Dodgers, then he’d be an easy call-up for the Dodgers in the event of injury to any of their infielders.
