Dodgers Star Hopeful He'll Avoid Major Offseason Surgery

Dalton Rushing’s breakout season has not exactly gone to plan for himself or the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The upstart catcher got his first taste of extended play in the wake of Will Smith spending much of the first half of the season on the injured list.

Rushing impressively has clubbed 12 homers in only 250 plate appearances. As his confidence grew, the Dodgers faced the reality that Rushing needed to play multiple times a week — even if that meant mixing in starts at first base along with his duties behind the plate.

Unfortunately for Rushing, his season became derailed on Aug. 3. Reports initially focused around a partially torn UCL in his elbow. However, as Rushing recently told Maddie Lee of the Los Angeles Times, that had been a preexisting injury he had been playing through since 2022.

Instead, it’s actually a flexor strain which has sidelined the catcher. Rushing is hoping that he can still be an impact player for the ballclub with the postseason right around the corner.

He's also hoping to avoid offseason surgery.

“I’m pretty confident I can still avoid surgery after the shot,” Rushing said. “Obviously, when I re-injured it the second time, I was almost 70-30, thinking that I was for sure going to need surgery. But after I got the shot and it ran its course, I feel as close to healthy in my arm as I have in a pretty long time.”

Rushing is projected to be activated at some point this week. With only a few games remaining on the schedule, the Dodgers will determine whether he can be a threat off the bench solely as a hitter.

With Miguel Rojas and Kiké Hernandez occupying two of the team’s bench spots on a hypothetical roster, the need for a left-handed bat is there.

At this point, Rushing is likely battling with phenom Josue De Paula for a spot on the roster for the first round. De Paula was fantastic in his brief stint in the big leagues — before being sent down on Wednesday — hitting .323 with a whopping 11 walks to just five strikeouts.

Where Rushing has the obvious edge is in collective experience. He likely won’t be able to catch even in an emergency role, though.

Having said that, as someone that can provide pop from the left side, the Dodgers will have to weigh whether experience wins out over a very young yet gifted rookie with less than 50 at-bats at the major league level.

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