{"id":844033,"date":"2026-08-05T05:12:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T05:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/844033\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T05:12:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T05:12:16","slug":"dalton-rushing-diagnosed-with-partial-ucl-tear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/844033\/","title":{"rendered":"Dalton Rushing Diagnosed With Partial UCL Tear"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dodgers catcher\u00a0Dalton Rushing<\/a> has a partial tear of the UCL in his right elbow, manager Dave Roberts tells David Vassegh of the Dodger Talk<\/a> podcast. The second-year backstop landed on the 10-day injured list yesterday with what the team initially called elbow inflammation.<\/p>\n

Roberts said postgame that Rushing will continue to hit but is being shut down from throwing (link via Jack Harris of The California Post<\/a>). That could last as long as 4-6 weeks and potentially threaten his ability to throw for the remainder of the season. Catching suddenly looks like a significant question mark for the Dodgers as they prepare for October.\u00a0Will Smith<\/a> is on the 60-day injured list with a lingering neck issue, though he has resumed baseball activities (via the MLB.com injury tracker<\/a>).<\/p>\n

The Dodgers acquired their new catching duo of\u00a0Hunter Feduccia<\/a> and\u00a0Ben Rortvedt<\/a> at the deadline. It\u2019s not a coincidence that both players were previously in the organization and should have a quicker adjustment period in familiarizing themselves with the pitching staff. Feduccia was hitting .234\/.306\/.340 across 160 plate appearances with the Rays. Rortvedt made his first big league appearance of the season tonight after hitting .234\/.319\/.414 in Triple-A with the Mets.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles has the NL West well in hand. However, their ongoing five-game losing skid and a six-game win streak from the Braves have closed the gap at the top of the National League. The Dodgers are now a game and a half behind the Brewers for the NL\u2019s top seed and (more importantly) just a half-game up on Atlanta for the #2 seed and associated first-round bye. All three of those are much better than whoever secures the last Wild Card spot, of course, but any three-game series at the MLB level could go either way. Avoiding the Wild Card round raises a team\u2019s World Series odds significantly.<\/p>\n

Smith should be back well before the postseason to take the starting catching role. If Rushing is still unable to throw by then, the Dodgers would need to carry a third catcher on their playoff rosters. Rushing isn\u2019t going to see any DH time in the playoffs barring an injury to\u00a0Shohei Ohtani<\/a>. He\u2019d essentially be limited to pinch-hit duties, though he\u2019d still provide a potent left-handed bat when Roberts calls upon him. Rushing is hitting .253\/.335\/.475 with 12 homers over 245 plate appearances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dodgers catcher\u00a0Dalton Rushing has a partial tear of the UCL in his right elbow, manager Dave Roberts tells…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":844034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,12423,591,85],"class_list":["post-844033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dalton-rushing","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=844033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/844033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/844034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=844033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=844033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=844033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}