Thursday, June 19

Welcome back to the Dodgers Beat newsletter! 

After closing out the 2024 campaign with Triple-A Oklahoma City, top catching prospect Dalton Rushing has continued to prove that he can hit at the highest level of the Minors. But the Dodgers are facing a familiar puzzle when it comes to his eventual ascension to the Majors.

For Rushing, MLB Pipeline's No. 28 overall prospect, the question remains: Where would he play on a big league roster where he's blocked at his natural position by Will Smith?

"I've bounced around. I've been at many different positions. It's been a grind," Rushing said during Spring Training. "It's because, essentially, no one knows. And the reality is, there might be two or three guys who really know the odds of what position I'll play when that time comes. I think the biggest thing is make sure the bat's ready and I'm prepared, from a defensive standpoint, to go do my job."

Many in the Dodgers' organization believe that Rushing's bat is Major League-ready. The 24-year-old is hitting .316 with a .932 OPS through his first 22 games with the Comets.

There's no easy answer as to where Rushing would play in the field in the next couple of years, though. Smith is under contract through 2033. First baseman Freddie Freeman is signed through 2027. And no team wants its top position player prospect to get the bulk of his starts at designated hitter, but that's not an option either, because the Dodgers pencil in a guy named Shohei Ohtani at DH every day.

Last season, the Dodgers experimented with playing Rushing in left field. He made 31 appearances there and impressed with his athleticism, but the organization doesn't want him to focus on learning a new position. The aim is for him to hone in on his development as a catcher, with starts at first base mixed in to get him more at-bats.

"Obviously, we've had our catchers [at the Major League level] for a long time and been very successful. There's a lot of positives with our group here," general manager Brandon Gomes said recently. "So Dalton and [Hunter Feduccia] need to keep playing well and developing as things play out like they normally do. You don't know how it's going to go, but those opportunities arise in different ways."

Gomes acknowledged that the organization has to get the timeline right, in the sense of development. It's important for Rushing to get everyday reps, so the Dodgers would ideally not call him up without a plan to get him the playing time he needs in order to continue his growth both at the plate and behind it. When the time comes, Rushing should have some runway and a real opportunity to stick with the big league club.

As for how Rushing has looked behind the plate, reliever Evan Phillips spent the first half of April on a rehab assignment with Oklahoma City and came away impressed by the young backstop. 

"The most important thing is that he took some initiative and was curious about what he can do to help me, target-wise, pitch calling, things like that," Phillips said. "So having that conversation alone is impressive to see from a young catching prospect that we're going to be relying on at some point here in the next months, year, couple years, whatever that is.

"Then the talent at the plate too, as a hitter, is very impressive. So watching that combined with the effort behind the plate, I think was really important to see as a pitcher, from our perspective."

It's right in line with what the organization wants to see from him. There's still the question of how Rushing will get those opportunities behind the plate at the big league level. He would be high on the depth chart in the case of a long-term injury to Smith, but that is decidedly not a best-case scenario. The Dodgers might just have to get creative to find a way to get Rushing into their lineup once the organization decides he's ready.

Until that day comes, the message remains the same.

"We've expressed to him, 'Make sure you're pouring into the game calling and receiving part of it and really developing the relationships with the pitchers,'" Gomes said. "We're fortunate that both he and Feddy look great down there. They're both hitting very well, and adding real value on both sides of the ball."

The Comets announced that 13 of their games will air on SportsNet LA this season, beginning with Saturday's matchup against the El Paso Chihuahuas, the Triple-A affiliate of the Padres. Click here for details and the whole broadcast schedule.

The Dodgers made some moves on Thursday that shed some light on how they view their bullpen, adding right-handers J.P. Feyereisen and Ryan Loutos to the 40-man roster and transferring righties Michael Kopech and Blake Treinen to the 60-day IL.

Given where Kopech is in his buildup after opening the season on the IL with right shoulder impingement, his move seems more procedural than anything else. But for Treinen, the shift to the 60-day is an acknowledgement of what had seemed likely from when he was first sidelined with a right forearm sprain: he will miss months, not weeks.

The additions of Feyereisen (claimed off waivers from D-backs) and Loutos (acquired from Cardinals for cash considerations) shore up the Dodgers' options for a bullpen that leads the Majors with 136 innings pitched. The team is heading into a stretch of 19 games in the next 20 days, including 10 in a row on the upcoming three-city road trip through Atlanta, Miami and Phoenix.

To subscribe to Dodgers Beat, visit this page and mark "Dodgers Beat" from our newsletter list. Make sure you're following the Dodgers or that they're checked as your favorite team.

View Online

© 2025 MLB Advanced Media, L.P. MLB trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of Major League Baseball. Visit MLB.com. Any other marks used herein are trademarks of their respective owners.

Please review our Privacy Policy.

You (mlb-newsletters@mlb.com) received this message because you registered to receive commercial email messages or purchased a ticket from MLB. 

Please add info@marketing.mlbemail.com to your address book to ensure our messages reach your inbox. If you no longer wish to receive commercial email messages from MLB.com, please unsubscribe or log in and manage your email subscriptions.

Postal Address: MLB.com, c/o MLB Advanced Media, L.P., 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.