The Rockies’ first deal of the 2026 trade deadline season changed the look of the Colorado bullpen.

On Monday, the Rockies sent reliever Seth Halvorsen to the Los Angeles Dodgers in exchange for right-hander Nick Frasso, in his second season at Triple-A, and outfielder Landyn Vidourek, who was promoted to Low-A Ontario, California, earlier in the season.

Frasso was added to Colorado’s 40-man roster, taking Halvorsen’s place, and will report to Triple-A Albuquerque. Meanwhile, Vidourek will head to Low-A Fresno.

“We’ve had a lot of interest in our young hard-throwing relievers, going back to last winter and certainly through the course of spring training,” said Rockies President of Baseball Operations Paul DePodesta. “We’ve been in touch with a lot of teams about some of our different guys. We’re not anxious to move any of those guys. We feel like they can be really good contributors for us for a long time.

“What we told all those teams in the winter and during the spring was that if we were going to do anything, it had to make a lot of baseball sense for us.”

Apparently, this move made sense for the Rockies. It also comes with some in-depth knowledge of the return from current Colorado general manager Josh Byrnes and his 11 seasons as the Dodgers’ senior vice president of baseball operations.

“I know these two guys very well,” Byrnes said. “I know the longer history of both of these players and where they are now and hopefully what their future holds.”

Is it strange to trade with the division rival and kingpin Dodgers?

“It’s unusual just because it’s two players I know very well,” Byrnes said.

Frasso was a fourth-round pick by the Toronto Blue Jays in 2020 and came to the Dodgers in a 2022 trade deadline deal, reaching as high as No. 80 on MLB’s Top 100 prospect list. However, he missed the entire 2024 season after undergoing surgery to fix a torn labrum. He returned in 2025 to pitch in 43 games (making seven starts) for Triple-A Oklahoma City, posting a career-high 5.49 ERA over 77 innings.

“We’ve been asking about him for quite a while,” Byrnes said. “The catch is that he is out of options at the end of this year, so I think to us that was more palatable than the Dodgers as they think through their depth.”

Ranked on Monday as the Dodgers’ No. 25 prospect per MLB.com, Vidourek was selected in the third round of the 2025 MLB draft out of the University of Cincinnati.

“He was probably the most tooled athletic player in the draft,” Byrnes said. “Top of the scale exit velocity. Top of the scale speed and arm. He had a breakout season that year as a junior in Cincinnati.”

This year with Ontario, Vidourek was hitting just .170 and struck out 99 times through his first 206 at-bats.

“His back story is he’s still in the learning phases of baseball development,” Byrnes said. “It’s clear we have to solve the strikeout issue, but the tool package and the other things he can do are high-end.”

This is the first trade between the Rockies and Dodgers involving players on both sides since December 2014, when Juan Nicasio was sent to Los Angeles in exchange for a player to be named later. That player, Noel Cuevas, had 155 plate appearances in Colorado, posting a career OPS+ of 45.

In 2023, the Rockies acquired left-hander Justin Bruihl from Los Angeles for cash considerations. He appeared in seven games that season and had a 14.73 ERA.

“Any time you make a trade and you’re wrong, it hurts. If it’s in your division, it’s in your face a little bit more. Hopefully we’re not wrong,” Byrnes said. “As corny as it is, I hope it turns out to be a good trade for us and a good trade for them.”

Halvorsen has appeared in 75 games for Colorado over the past three seasons, posting a combined 4.31 ERA and 13 saves. This season, the 26-year-old right-hander logged a 4.74 ERA in 19 innings over 21 games, striking out 17 and walking 15.

On the injured list retroactive to July 1 with right shoulder inflammation, Halvorsen had just started a rehab assignment at Triple-A Albuquerque before the trade.