The Los Angeles Dodgers are calling up their top minor league prospect, and in the process waiving longtime catcher Austin Barnes in a corresponding move.
The Dodgers will bring up catcher Dalton Rushing, the No. 1 prospect in the team’s farm system and the No. 15 prospect in all of baseball.
The decision to bring Rushing into the fold left the Dodgers with three catchers on the roster, including two-time MLB All Star Will Smith, who anchors the position for the majority of the team’s high-stakes games.
Barnes, 35, was the most likely casualty of Rushing’s call-up. The 11-year vet is hitting .214 on the season, as the depleted Dodgers scramble to find any consistent hitting in the back-half of the rotation as Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman recover from injuries.
A two-time World Series champion and the longest tenured position player on the Dodgers, the Riverside-born Barnes has never played for another MLB team. He was the preferred catching option for team legend Clayton Kershaw, and was viewed as a reliable, calming presence behind home plate for young pitchers early in their careers, including last season’s prized pitching free agent Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Where Barnes plays next is unclear, but it is likely a team in need of veteran game caller and plate manager will make a call.
The 24-year-old Rushing will assume backup duties for Smith. He’s also dabbled in the outfield during his runs in Triple-A. He’s hit .308 this season with the Oklahoma City Comets, with 33 hits and 5 home runs.
“Rushing is a well-rounded hitter with a short, quick left-handed stroke and a patient approach. He makes consistent hard contact and naturally launches balls in the air to his pull side without swinging for the fences. He can drive the ball out of the park to the opposite field as well and pairs his solid power with on-base ability to match, showing a knack for drawing walks and getting hit by pitches,” his prospect page on MLB.com reads.
Rushing was selected in the second round of the 2022 MLB Draft out of Louisville, and was named the Dodgers’ 2024 Minor League Player of the Year.
He will attempt to follow in the footsteps of Andy Pages as the latest highly touted positional player prospect to become a mainstay in Dave Roberts’ lineups. Utility man and former South Korean league superstar Hyeseong Kim was called up from Oklahoma City earlier this month.
It’s yet to be seen if Rushing will remain a full-time catcher in the majors. Smith inked a ten-year contract extension last month, and with shaky batting in the outfield outside of Pages and the injured Hernandez, it’s not unlikely he could earn meaningful minutes in the field.
In a farewell message on social media, the Dodgers thanked Barnes for “all the contributions you made in Dodger blue and helping to bring two championships to Los Angeles.”
The Dodgers host the Athletics Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium.