diff --git a/crates/astria-auctioneer/src/auction/mod.rs b/crates/astria-auctioneer/src/auction/mod.rs
index 01a51a0d0b..d6ff31c193 100644
--- a/crates/astria-auctioneer/src/auction/mod.rs
+++ b/crates/astria-auctioneer/src/auction/mod.rs
@@ -234,7 +234,7 @@ impl Auction {
         let submission_result = select! {
             biased;
 
-            // TODO: should this be Ok(())?
+            // TODO: should this be Ok(())? or Ok("received shutdown signal")?
             () = self.shutdown_token.cancelled() => Err(eyre!("received shutdown signal")),
 
             // submit the transaction to the sequencer
diff --git a/crates/astria-auctioneer/src/block/executed_stream.rs b/crates/astria-auctioneer/src/block/executed_stream.rs
index 9bcee7cddb..297f3a4a6d 100644
--- a/crates/astria-auctioneer/src/block/executed_stream.rs
+++ b/crates/astria-auctioneer/src/block/executed_stream.rs
@@ -95,14 +95,8 @@ pub(crate) fn make_execution_requests_stream(
     let (blocks_to_execute_tx, blocks_to_execute_rx) = mpsc::channel(16);
     let blocks_to_execute_stream_rx = ReceiverStream::new(blocks_to_execute_rx);
 
-    // TODO: dont skip empty blocks
     let requests = blocks_to_execute_stream_rx.filter_map(move |block: Optimistic| async move {
-        let base_block = block
-            .try_into_base_block(rollup_id)
-            .wrap_err("failed to create BaseBlock from FilteredSequencerBlock");
-
-        // skip blocks which fail to produce a BaseBlock for the given rollup_id
-        match base_block {
+        match block.try_into_base_block(rollup_id) {
             Ok(base_block) => Some(ExecuteOptimisticBlockStreamRequest {
                 base_block: Some(base_block),
             }),
diff --git a/crates/astria-auctioneer/src/block/mod.rs b/crates/astria-auctioneer/src/block/mod.rs
index 8b9b50cd88..9fe12cf848 100644
--- a/crates/astria-auctioneer/src/block/mod.rs
+++ b/crates/astria-auctioneer/src/block/mod.rs
@@ -59,6 +59,9 @@ impl Optimistic {
         self.filtered_sequencer_block.into_raw()
     }
 
+    /// Converts this [`Optimistic`] into a [`BaseBlock`] for the given `rollup_id`.
+    /// If there are no transactions for the given `rollup_id`, this will return a `BaseBlock`.
+    // TODO: add typed errors here?
     pub(crate) fn try_into_base_block(
         self,
         rollup_id: RollupId,
@@ -70,19 +73,19 @@ impl Optimistic {
             ..
         } = self.filtered_sequencer_block.into_parts();
 
-        let serialized_transactions = rollup_transactions
+        let maybe_serialized_transactions = rollup_transactions
             .swap_remove(&rollup_id)
-            .ok_or_eyre(
-                "FilteredSequencerBlock does not contain transactions for the given rollup",
-            )?
-            .into_parts();
-
-        let transactions = serialized_transactions
-            .transactions
-            .into_iter()
-            .map(raw_sequencer_block::RollupData::decode)
-            .collect::<Result<_, _>>()
-            .wrap_err("failed to decode RollupData")?;
+            .map(|transactions| transactions.into_parts());
+
+        let transactions =
+            maybe_serialized_transactions.map_or(Ok(vec![]), |serialized_transactions| {
+                serialized_transactions
+                    .transactions
+                    .into_iter()
+                    .map(raw_sequencer_block::RollupData::decode)
+                    .collect::<Result<_, _>>()
+                    .wrap_err("failed to decode RollupData")
+            })?;
 
         let timestamp = Some(convert_tendermint_time_to_protobuf_timestamp(header.time()));