{"id":126219,"date":"2025-09-07T08:58:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T08:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/126219\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T08:58:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T08:58:07","slug":"dodgers-place-dalton-rushing-on-10-day-injured-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/126219\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers Place Dalton Rushing On 10-Day Injured List"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dodgers placed catcher Dalton Rushing<\/a> on the 10-day injured list this evening due to a right shin contusion this afternoon, per a team announcement. Rushing\u2019s spot on the active roster will go to catcher Chuckie Robinson<\/a>, who the Dodgers have selected from Triple-A Oklahoma City. Robinson will take the 40-man roster spot of right-hander Matt Sauer<\/a>, who was designated for assignment.<\/p>\n

Rushing, 24, appeared likely to get some runway behind the plate with L.A. while Will Smith<\/a> is out of commission due to a bone bruise<\/a> in his throwing hand. After Rushing fouled a ball of his leg earlier this week, he too found himself sidelined. Rushing told reporters (including Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times<\/a>) earlier today that a CT scan revealed that he had avoided a fracture in his shin, but is still suffering from a deep bone bruise. While Smith\u2019s bone bruise is something the club has felt they could avoid placing him on the IL over, that did not end up being the case for Rushing, who will now head to the IL for at least the next ten days. Depending on the severity of the bruise, he could of course be sidelined for much longer than that.<\/p>\n

While losing Rushing from the roster would be unfortunate, it\u2019s not the massive blow that losing a top prospect might normally be expected to be. The 2022 second-rounder hasn\u2019t hit much in his first taste of the majors this year, with a lackluster .190\/.254\/.298 (54 wRC+) slash line across 45 games. That poor performance has come with a massive 38.8% strikeout rate, though it of course must be acknowledged that taking to the majors is easier said than done for any rookie, much less one stepping into a backup catcher role that has afforded Rushing only 134 plate appearances across his first three-and-a-half months in the majors.<\/p>\n

Regardless of Rushing\u2019s results, however, the injury only serves to compound the issues L.A. is facing behind the plate with Smith not presently available. Ben Rortvedt<\/a> was called up to serve as a third catcher on the roster while Smith is unavailable, and he\u2019ll now step into regular catching duties for the short-term, with Robinson now poised to be his backup. Rortvedt\u2019s .092\/181\/.108 slash line in the majors between the Rays and Dodgers this year is nothing to write home about, but he was a passable (87 wRC+) hitter while working behind the plate for the Rays last year thanks to a solid 10.7% walk rate. That\u2019s more success than Robinson has had in the majors, offensively speaking. Robinson has 51 games in the big leagues to his name and in that time has hit just .132\/.170\/.194 with a career wRC+ of -3, meaning he\u2019s 103% worse than a league average hitter.<\/p>\n

Now in his age-30 season, Robinson\u2019s value comes entirely from his ability as a quality defender behind the plate, and with Rortvedt\u2019s own strong resume in that regard the Dodgers should have a solid defensive tandem at catcher even if the duo won\u2019t offer much of anything in terms of offense. L.A.\u2019s bats have been slumping, and their 193 runs scored is a bottom-ten figure since the All-Star break. Smith\u2019s 154 wRC+ exiting the lineup for the time being is the most significant loss, of course, but downgrading from Rushing\u2019s below-average numbers to the pitcher-level offensive production offered by Rortvedt and Robinson surely won\u2019t help matters either. It\u2019s hard to say for sure which of Robinson and Rortvedt will stick around on the roster once Smith is fully healthy and can resume primary catching duties, and perhaps if one or the other shows signs offensively over the next few days that could be a deciding factor.<\/p>\n

As for Sauer, the right-hander made his big league debut with the Royals last year but struggled to a 7.71 ERA in 14 appearances. Now with the Dodgers, he\u2019s pitched 29 2\/3 innings of work in ten games at the big league level but has struggled to a 6.32 ERA in that time despite solid enough peripheral numbers, including a 4.24 xFIP and a 4.02 SIERA. He\u2019ll now be available on waivers to be claimed by another club, and if he goes unclaimed the Dodgers will have the opportunity to outright him to Triple-A as non-roster depth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dodgers placed catcher Dalton Rushing on the 10-day injured list this evening due to a right shin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":31341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,69463,11768,69464,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-126219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-chuckie-robinson","11":"tag-dalton-rushing","12":"tag-matt-sauer","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}