Roberts confirms the worst
The Los Angeles Dodgers feared it, and now they know. Manager Dave Roberts said Tuesday that catcher Dalton Rushing has a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. The team had been calling it inflammation. It turned out to be more.
Rushing will keep hitting through his rehab. He will not throw for four to six weeks. Roberts refused to put a timeline on a return. “Don’t know what that looks like for the rest of the season and throughout the postseason,” he told AM 570 KLAC.
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A catching room in pieces
The timing at least broke the Dodgers’ way. Rushing went down the day before the trade deadline. Los Angeles reacted at once, landing Hunter Feduccia from the Tampa Bay Rays and Ben Rortvedt from the New York Mets on Monday.
They needed the bodies. Will Smith, the everyday catcher, has been out since early June with a neck problem and is not expected back before late August. That left the deadline as the only window to patch the position.
Rortvedt drew the first call. He started Tuesday against the Cubs, went 0-for-2, and watched Los Angeles fall 5-1 in Chicago for a fifth straight defeat. Feduccia caught the last two innings.
What the Dodgers lose
Rushing had grown into a genuine bat. The 25-year-old was slashing .253/.335/.475 with 12 home runs and 36 RBIs across 74 games, miles clear of the .204 he scraped together as a rookie last year. Asking Rortvedt and Feduccia, both career sub-.240 hitters, to cover that gap is a different job entirely.
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