Dodgers Dalton Rushing will have chance to make

The Dodgers plan to give catcher Dalton Rushing a chance to make his case for a spot on the postseason roster, after taking part in just 4 video games in the last seven weeks because of a proper elbow injury.

He’s set to be activated from the injured record before the end of the season, supervisor Dave Roberts said, and he’ll serve as a left-handed bat off the bench.

“Just showing them that I can swing it, and it’s an option,” Rushing told The Times after taking live batting follow Tuesday for the first time since touchdown on the IL earlier this month. “I know that you kind of tie [the team’s] hands up when you can’t play defense. So, I’m not expecting anything… just continue to take at-bats and see where we go from there.”

The slight tear in Rushing’s ulnar collateral ligament made headlines after he landed on the IL on Aug. 3. But Rushing’s MRI scans recommend the UCL — which is related with Tommy John surgical procedure — is just not the issue.

The pain in his elbow appears to stem from a flexor pressure. The small tear in his UCL has remained the same dimension since 2022, he said.

Rushing obtained platelet-rich plasma injection after aggravating the flexor injury a second time while working through a throwing program at the start of the month.

“I’m pretty confident I can still avoid surgery after the shot,” he said, noting that he’s been getting common scans to monitor his therapeutic. “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.”

This time, Rushing has deserted the throwing program. But he said he doesn’t remorse attempting to return to the sphere the first time around.

“In my eyes, me trying to throw is me showing them that obviously I want to help the team win,” he said. “I want to give us the best available option that we have at that moment, and that was my whole plan all along. So I hope they see there wasn’t any selfishness in that.”

The Dodgers will need a left-handed bat off the bench in October, but Rushing now has competitors.

Rookie Josue De Paula changed Shohei Ohtani on the roster when the famous person landed on the 15-day IL two weeks in the past. His first major-league hit was a three-run home run, and he entered Tuesday with a .974 OPS in 10 video games.

Even if the Dodgers option De Paula on Wednesday when they reinstate Ohtani, 10 days before the NL Division Series, he will be eligible to be added to the NLDS roster via petition to the Commissioner’s Office.

“It’s going to be a good debate,” Roberts said. “Hitting off the bench is very difficult, and so you’re just trying to figure out who gives us the best chance. To be quite frank, it’s going to be tougher for Dalton given the time that he’s missed, and … you have three games to get back in the playoff form, which is tough to do. It’s not a knock on him. He’s been great for us. But it’s still tough given that also you’re talking about the consistency of at-bats recently from Josue. We have to have those conversations and make a decision.”

Rushing performed a large function in the Dodgers’ common season. In his second yr in the majors, he was thrust into the first function behind the plate for two months because of Will Smith’s lingering neck injury. Now, he may not see the sphere in the postseason.

“It sucks,” he said of the injury derailing him down the stretch. “I mean, that’s really the only thing I can say about it, it’s not what I wanted — by no means.”

Looking past the playoffs, Rushing plans to consider his routine, hoping to set himself up to be out there for more of 2027.

“I don’t even want to talk about it right now because we still have obviously a bigger task at hand,” Rushing said. “But my main plan moving into playing every day in the future is, make sure that my body can hold whatever stress or whatever is needed for this team — first base, behind the plate, whatever they need. I want to make sure my body can handle it and do it for 162.”