NEWS
Rushing’s Catching Breakout Has No Place in October
Dalton Rushing is back on the 10-day IL five days after returning, with Smith and Ohtani closing the only jobs his 12-homer breakout seemed to earn.
The Dodgers placed catcher Dalton Rushing on the 10-day injured list on September 6, five days after activating him as a hitter.
The move is retroactive to September 5 and is listed as right elbow discomfort, the same arm that showed a partial UCL tear in early August. Los Angeles recalled catcher Eliezer Alfonzo from Triple-A Oklahoma City in the same move.
Five Days on the Roster Were Enough
Rushing had been activated on September 1, when rosters expanded, and the club asked him to hit while he kept building the throwing program on the side. He appeared as a pinch-hitter in four games and went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts and a hit-by-pitch in five plate appearances.
The club posted the transaction Sunday night.
The Dodgers recalled catcher Eliezer Alfonzo and placed catcher Dalton Rushing on the injured list with right elbow discomfort, retroactive to September 5.
— Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) September 6, 2026
He was originally in Saturday’s lineup as the designated hitter against the Washington Nationals, filling the seat while Shohei Ohtani sat with left knee, right biceps, and neck trouble. Hours before first pitch he was scratched. Teoscar Hernández shifted to DH, and Alex Call started in left field.
THE MONTH THAT CLOSED THE GLOVE
- August 2: Scratched against Boston with arm irritation and held out of the road trip.
- August 3: Lands on the 10-day list with a right arm injury, the same day Los Angeles starts restocking catchers at the trade deadline.
- August 4-5: An MRI shows a slight tear in the right UCL. Manager Dave Roberts says Rushing will keep hitting and will be shut down from throwing for 4 to 6 weeks.
- August 11: Rushing tells reporters he does not believe he needs surgery and that the club will treat the muscle around the ligament.
- September 1: Activated with Will Smith as rosters expand. Ben Rortvedt is designated for assignment. Rushing is ticketed as a left-handed bench bat.
- September 5: Elbow flares during a pre-game throwing session. He is scratched as DH.
- September 6: Back on the 10-day list, retroactive to September 5. Alfonzo is recalled.
He is eligible to come off on September 15. That is a calendar date, not a medical clearance.
A Pre-Game Throw Ends the Catching Year
On September 1, Rushing said the bat had barely stopped. He had been hitting off a machine for about three weeks, mixed in a little live batting practice on the road, and faced closer Edwin Díaz before that night’s game against St. Louis. He had been playing catch for about a week at 90 to 100 feet and tracking velocity. “Very confident in returning behind the plate,” he said then.
Roberts was cooler. He liked the work and the mindset, and he still would not get bullish on a snap throw to second. The controlled rehab, he said, is a different thing from a game throw.
Saturday’s session tried to close that gap. Rushing threw in the 90-to-100-foot range, and the elbow flared. Club imaging did not show further damage to the ligament. Catching for the rest of 2026 is closed anyway.
I think it was just more of, just pissed it off, to be quite honest. He’s not going to swing for a few days, and then get him back up building up to the swinging progression. At that point in time, he can take some at-bats, get on a rehab assignment and then we’ll see where we’re at in 11 days.
Dave Roberts, Dodgers manager
Hitting, Roberts said Saturday, was still on the table. Sunday’s list is how they buy him the days off the bat. Surgery remains possible in the offseason. The club wants to see the hitter buildup first.
Smith Returned, and Feduccia Kept the Glove
The catching job Rushing held for two months was already gone before Saturday’s throw. Smith came off the 60-day list on September 1 after a neck injury that had kept him out since June 6, later described as an annular tear. Before the IL, the three-time All-Star had played 52 games and hit.249 with 6 home runs and 23 RBI. He made five rehab starts at Oklahoma City and hit.250 with two doubles and one homer.
Smith started behind the plate on the night he returned and is being eased in. He is 2-for-18 in his last seven games. Hunter Feduccia, reacquired from Tampa Bay when both Smith and Rushing were down, is the backup. When the Dodgers activated both catchers, they designated Rortvedt, who had played 16 games in his second Dodgers stint and hit.185.
That last move is the one that looks costly in hindsight. Los Angeles opened a roster spot for a hitter who could not throw, then lost him in five days and had to call a third catcher. Feduccia now does the thing Rushing was activated to do. He is a left-handed bat who can still catch Smith’s off days.
THE CATCHING DESK ON SEPT. 6
| Player | Roster job | 2026 hitting | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Will Smith | Starting catcher | .249, 6 HR in 52 games before the neck IL | Active |
| Hunter Feduccia | Backup catcher | Left-handed bat; August fill-in starter | Active |
| Dalton Rushing | Hitter only | .249/.332/.466, 12 HR, 250 PA | 10-day IL |
| Eliezer Alfonzo | Third catcher | .185 in 27 PA;.300 at Triple-A | Recalled Sept. 6 |
Rushing, 25, was a second-round pick out of Louisville in 2022, the same school as Smith. Before the first elbow shutdown he had a career-high 74 games this season and had already hit 12 home runs with 36 RBI. The full line sits at .249/.332/.466 with those 12 home runs in 250 plate appearances over 78 games. In 184 plate appearances against right-handers he has hit.259/.342/.506. Against left-handers, in 66 plate appearances, he is at.220/.303/.356.
The DH Seat Belongs to Ohtani Again
The only everyday job that still fit Rushing was designated hitter, and that job is Ohtani’s. Ohtani was out of the lineup for a fourth straight game on September 6 with the left knee, right biceps, and neck issues. Roberts said Saturday’s cage work went well and that he hoped to write Ohtani into the lineup Monday against Cincinnati.
The club has refused to put Ohtani on the injured list. Because he is a two-way player, that stay would run 15 days, not 10, and Roberts called that length a deterrent. He is hitting.279 with 30 home runs and 80 RBI in 133 games. He has not pitched since July 3, when he was 8-2 with a 1.79 ERA in 14 starts, and Roberts said anyone looking at the calendar can do the math on a return to the mound.
Saturday was the overlap. Ohtani was out, Rushing was in as DH, and the throwing program still ran before the game. The elbow ended the at-bats that were supposed to be the safe half of the rehab. If Ohtani is back in the order, Rushing’s remaining use is a pinch-hit look against right-handed pitching. Feduccia can take some of those plate appearances without surrendering a catcher’s roster spot.
Why Alfonzo Is the Third Catcher
Alfonzo, 26, a switch-hitter from Barcelona, Venezuela, is on his second tour. The Dodgers selected his contract on July 4 after he had spent nine seasons in the minors, most of them in the Detroit system, and signed with Los Angeles as a minor-league free agent on November 17, 2025. He debuted the next night against San Diego.
ALFONZO’S TWO LINES
- Majors: He went 5-for-27 in 12 games, slashing.185/.185/.259 with 4 RBI, no walks, and no home runs.
- Oklahoma City: In 65 Triple-A games he is hitting.300 with 2 home runs, 24 RBI, and 220 at-bats.
- First call: When Los Angeles first brought him up in July, the club listed him at.313 with 1 homer and 17 RBI at Oklahoma City.
He was optioned in early August when Feduccia and Rortvedt arrived. He is back because the roster needs a live catcher, not because the bat forced the issue. Carrying three catchers lets Feduccia sit in the DH/PH mix on days he does not start, which is the left-handed bench role Rushing was supposed to hold.
October Has Little Room for His Bat
The breakout was real, and it happened because Smith was gone. Rushing caught a starter’s share of games, hit 12 homers, and put himself in the club’s plans as more than a placeholder. The same health that gets Smith and Ohtani ready for October takes back both jobs that breakout was built on.
August already sketched this ending. After the MRI, Rushing was to be shut down from throwing for 4 to 6 weeks, with catching for the rest of the year in doubt and the bench bat as the fallback. The Dodgers still activated him at the short end of that window, without a rehab assignment, because the swing had been live and Ohtani’s DH seat was open on some nights. Then they let him throw before a game he was only supposed to hit in.
THE OCTOBER CONSTRAINTS
- The glove: Smith is the starter, Feduccia is the backup, and Rushing is not throwing again this season.
- The DH: Ohtani reclaims it once he is in the lineup, which Roberts expected as soon as September 7 against Cincinnati.
- The lefty PH: The platoon split is the case for Rushing (.259/.342/.506 vs right-handers), and Feduccia can take some of those at-bats while remaining a catcher.
- The clock: He can come off the 10-day list on September 15, then needs days of swinging, then a rehab assignment, then a roster spot that is no longer a position.
A postseason roster can still make room for a left-handed pinch-hitter who has 12 home runs. It will not make room for a third catcher who cannot catch and cannot DH. If Rushing comes back, it will be as a specialist bat behind a club that already spent a deadline to make sure someone else can wear the gear.
Roberts set the next checkpoint at 11 days, after a pause from swinging and a rehab assignment. The ligament is not worse on the new images. The catching year is over anyway, and the hitter still has to prove he can take an at-bat before Los Angeles decides whether that bat is worth a October roster line.
