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The Dodgers are not counting on Dalton Rushing to return as a catcher this season following the slight UCL tear in his right elbow, per DodgerBlue.com. While Rushing could potentially come back in a DH or first base role later in the year, the team is operating under the assumption that his time behind the plate is done for 2026. That’s a significant distinction from the initial MRI news — we’re no longer just talking about a stint on the injured list. We’re talking about losing our catching depth for the remainder of the season.

Rushing was a late scratch from Sunday’s lineup with what the team initially described as minor arm irritation, but things escalated quickly from there. He didn’t travel with the team and the subsequent MRI revealed the partial UCL tear. For a 24-year-old catcher who the Dodgers have been counting on as a core piece of their future behind the plate, this is a tough break. Rushing had been thrust into an expanded role after Will Smith went down with an inflamed disc in his neck two months ago, and he’d shown flashes of the bat-first catching profile that made him the 15th overall pick in the 2023 draft. Now the question shifts from “when does he come back” to “in what capacity.”

Smith’s absence has already been one of the defining storylines of the Dodgers’ 2026 season. Losing him forced the front office to get creative with the catching position, and Rushing stepped into a larger role than anyone anticipated this early in his career. The fact that the Dodgers are now exploring whether Rushing could return strictly as a DH or first baseman tells you two things: they value his bat enough to find a way to get it in the lineup, and they’re genuinely concerned about the long-term health of his throwing arm. A partial UCL tear in a catcher’s elbow is the kind of thing you don’t mess around with.

The catching situation is now firmly a problem that needs solving. Ben Rortvedt was just activated, and Dalton Feduccia is also on the roster, but neither was projected to be an everyday option behind the plate for a team with World Series aspirations. I’d expect the Dodgers to monitor the waiver wire and explore any available catching depth over the coming weeks (and this one bears watching as rosters expand in September).

For the Dodgers, this is about managing risk. Rushing’s long-term ceiling as a switch-hitting catcher is too valuable to jeopardize by rushing him — no pun intended — back behind the plate on a compromised elbow. If he can contribute with his bat as a DH down the stretch, great. But the priority has to be making sure he’s fully healthy for 2027 and beyond. In the meantime, the rest of the roster needs to pick up the slack. We’ve already been doing it without Smith. Now we have to do it without Rushing catching, too.

Source(s): Staff (DodgerBlue.com) | First reported: August 6, 2026 3:29 PM UTC

God Bless and Go Dodgers