The Future is Now: Diego Cartaya’s Impressive 2024 Campaign
How we look at Diego Cartaya’s 2024 season is a matter of expectations. But the catcher once regarded as one of the best prospects in baseball has struggled at the plate for two straight years.
The shine of top prospectdom has eroded for Cartaya, who was a consensus top-60 prospect in the sport in 2022 and a consensus top-30 prospect in 2023. But after a pair of underwhelming seasons this year he found himself on the fringes of top-100 lists. Entering 2024, Cartaya was ranked the 68th-best prospect in the sport by FanGraphs and 85th at The Athletic, and in the range of 101-110 at both The Athletic and MLB Pipeline.
His start with Double-A Tulsa — 8-for-60, .512 OPS in 18 games — and his finish with Triple-A Oklahoma City — 8-for-65, .378 OPS in 18 games — were terrible. But in between he hit 10 of his 11 home runs on the season in a 59-game stretch during which he hit .274/.359/.466 with a 118 wRC+ and 44 RBI from May 12 to August 16.
Caraya split time behind the plate, first in Double-A with Dalton Rushing then in Triple-A with Hunter Feduccia, with Rushing shifting mostly to left field after getting promoted to Oklahoma City. In total, Cartaya started 69 games behind the plate and made 26 starts as designated hitter this season.
The Dodgers promoted Cartaya to Triple-A on June 25, but ended up with just a 60 wRC+, hitting .208/.293/.350 in 49 games for Oklahoma City, compared to a 111 wRC+ in 46 games for Double-A Tulsa. A path for potential success might be seen in Cartaya one year ago, when he had just a 71 wRC+ in 93 games for Tulsa before performing better in his second time around with the league.
Cartaya is still quite young, having just turned 23 in September, and he’s on the 40-man roster and in Triple-A, just one step away from reaching the majors even if his performance to date might not suggest it. Promise has been the calling card for years with Cartaya, who was very good at a very young age, while playing against older players. There is still time left to deliver on that promise, but as someone with only one option year remaining, 2025 will likely be his last opportunity to get his foot in the door in Los Angeles.
2024 particulars
Age: 22
Stats: .221/.323/.363, 11 HR, 16 doubles, 85 wRC+, 95 G in Triple-A & Double-A
Salary: unknown; but as a non-first-year player on the 40-man roster, the minimum salary while in the minors was $120,600.
Game of the year
On August 7, Cartaya was the designated hitter for Oklahoma City and delivered on the job description, hitting two home runs against Round Rock with a season-high five RBI, and also walked twice.
Cartaya reached base four or more times four times in 2024, topping out with four hits and a walk on July 2 in just his sixth game in Triple-A. The two home runs on August 7 tied a career high for Cartaya, who also homered twice on June 6, 2021 and April 30, 2022 for Low-A Rancho Cucamonga, and on July 28, 2022 with High-A Great Lakes.
Roster status
Cartaya is on the 40-man roster, and could make his major league debut at some point in 2025. He has one option year remaining, having used them in both 2023 and 2024.
