The Dodgers had their sights set on 21-year-old lefthander Adam Serwinowski well before they actually acquired him from the Reds at this year’s trade deadline.

“We actually spent a lot of time talking to the Reds about him in the Gavin Lux trade,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said of the January trade. “So he’s a guy we’ve had on our radar for awhile.”

The Dodgers did pretty well in that trade. They acquired emerging outfielder Mike Sirota as well as a supplemental first-round pick in the 2025 draft.

They finally landed Serwinowski as part of a three-team trade on July 31 involving the Rays and Reds. The Dodgers added reliever Paul Gervase and catcher Ben Rortvedt from the Rays and Serwinowski from the Reds in the deal.

Serwinowski signed with Cincinnati as a 15th-round pick in 2022 out of high school in Taylors, S.C.

“Big, funky (arm stroke). Really good fastball,” Dodgers GM Brandon Gomes said of the 6-foot-5 Serwinowski.”The pitch package as it is right now is really solid.

“We feel strongly that getting with our (player development) group, we can add a harder slider to round it out, potentially make some adjustments to his changeup.

The 6-foot-5 Serwinowski pitched for High-A Dayton this season, logging a 4.84 ERA and 1.44 WHIP in 74.1 innings, with 92 strikeouts and 39 walks. The Dodgers kept him in the Midwest League, assigning him to Great Lakes.

Gomes said that Serwinowski has the pitches to navigate lineups multiple times.

“So there’s some really strong projection as starting pitcher down the road,” Gomes said.

L.A. CONFIDENTIAL

— The Dodgers shifted 2020 first-round righthander Bobby Miller to the bullpen at Triple-A Oklahoma City. In his first nine relief appearances, he struck out nine, walked two and allowed two runs on five hits in 9.2 innings. “I think that this might be something that unlocks him—going hard for a shorter period of time, to get some confidence for him, which could help us here,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said of the move.

Miller had a successful MLB rookie season for the Dodgers in 2023, but he ran up an 8.85 ERA in 61 big league innings in 2024 and 2025.

— Triple-A Oklahoma City outfielder Ryan Ward drove in his 100th run of the season on Aug. 9, becoming the first player in the majors or minors to reach the 100 RBI mark this season. The 27-year-old has driven in at least 100 runs for OKC in each of the past two seasons and drove in 95 in 2023 for the club as well.