- Rushing has a partial UCL tear in his right elbow and is shut down from throwing for up to six weeks.
- Will Smith, out since June 5 with an inflamed disk in his neck, needs three to four more weeks.
- Deadline pickups Hunter Feduccia and Ben Rortvedt, both career backups, now split the position.
- Los Angeles has lost six straight and sits third in the National League at 69-46.
LOS ANGELES – Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing has a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow and is unlikely to catch again this season, manager Dave Roberts said Wednesday, leaving Los Angeles without either of the catchers who opened the season on its roster.
Elbow Inflammation Became A Ligament Tear
The club first listed the injury as elbow inflammation and put Rushing on the 10-day injured list. Imaging instead found a partial UCL tear, and Rushing is unlikely to catch again this season, Roberts said Wednesday on the team’s Dodger Talk podcast.
The shutdown from throwing runs four to six weeks, and the club hopes he avoids surgery. Rushing will keep hitting through it, and the stated goal is to get him back as a left-handed bench bat rather than a catcher.
The second-year backstop was hitting .253/.335/.475 with 12 home runs in 245 plate appearances over 74 games. That is a .222 isolated power figure against a league average in the mid-.150s, real thump from a position where most teams settle for contact and framing. He last played Saturday against Boston.
Smith Has Not Caught Since June 5
Will Smith, the three-time All-Star who opened the year as the starter, is on the 60-day injured list with an inflamed disk in his neck and has not appeared in a game since June 5. He has resumed baseball activities. Roberts said Smith still needs three to four weeks of ramp-up before he can come off the list, which points to late August at the earliest.
Two Deadline Pickups Now Split The Position
The Dodgers moved on the position before the diagnosis was public, acquiring Hunter Feduccia from the Tampa Bay Rays and Ben Rortvedt from the New York Mets ahead of the Aug. 3 deadline. Feduccia hit .234/.306/.340 in 160 plate appearances for Tampa Bay, a .106 isolated power mark that is under half of what Rushing was producing. Rortvedt was hitting .234/.319/.414 at Triple-A. Both are career backups, and the defending champions are handing them the position for the stretch run.
The Losing Streak Is The Longest Of The Season
Chicago closed out a three-game sweep at Wrigley Field on Wednesday, 7-6. That was the Dodgers’ sixth consecutive loss, their longest run since they dropped seven straight in July 2025, and their second series sweep in a row.
Tarik Skubal’s Dodgers debut Tuesday went unrewarded, six innings of two-run ball with six strikeouts and two walks in a 5-1 loss. Shohei Ohtani hit two home runs in the finale and Max Muncy’s three-run homer keyed a five-run eighth. Six runs were not enough.
What The Futures Price Is Actually Paying For
At 69-46 the Dodgers lead the NL West by eight games, so the division is close to settled. The seeding is not. Milwaukee is 71-43 and Atlanta 69-45, which drops Los Angeles to third in the National League. Only the top two seeds in each league get a first-round bye, so as things stand Los Angeles has to win a best-of-three wild-card series before the division series even starts.
Los Angeles is still the shortest price across major sportsbooks on the legal World Series betting board, a number that came in when the Skubal trade shortened the Dodgers on Aug. 2. It was set before the elbow imaging came back.
A futures ticket pays on the roster that takes the field in October, never the one that led a division in August. The shorter the price, the more the number already assumes will go right, and the less it pays when it does. That is the read on legal sports betting futures at this stage of a season.
Whether the Dodgers’ true chance of a third straight title still beats what their price implies is now partly a question about who catches Skubal in October.
Rushing is due to be re-evaluated when the throwing shutdown ends. The Dodgers have not set a return date for either catcher.
