Dodgers call up top prospect Dalton Rushing and cut loose veteran catcher Austin Barnes

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dalton Rushing’s phone rang at 1 a.m. Wednesday, startling the Los Angeles Dodgers’ top prospect and worrying him that it wasn’t anything good.

“I was almost asleep,” he said. “You get a call in the middle of the night, you freak out at first. It ended up being some of the best news I’ve ever heard.”

It was his Triple-A manager telling the 24-year-old catcher to pack his bags. He was being called up to the big leagues.

“I called every family member,” Rushing said in the dugout at Dodger Stadium. “My mother just so happened to be the one that didn’t answer after 55 calls. She’s a deep sleeper.”

The Dodgers haven’t been sleeping on Rushing’s talent. He was hitting .308 with five home runs and 17 RBI at Oklahoma City. He caught Clayton Kershaw during the three-time Cy Young Award winner’s recent rehab assignment.

“Obviously he’s seen 17 more years of Major League Baseball than I have, so I got to learn plenty from those four or five innings,” Rushing said.

At the same time as Rushing’s new beginning, the end came for Austin Barnes. The longest-tenured position player on the team was designated for assignment after 11 seasons and two World Series championships. Barnes, the backup catcher to Will Smith, was hitting .214 with three doubles and two RBI.

“Austin’s been a mainstay for our club, so it’s certainly not easy,” manager Dave Roberts said, “but I think that the performance from Dalton kind of really sped this up.”

Rushing will start Thursday against the Athletics in what is expected to be a bullpen game for the Dodgers.

Roberts plans to have Rushing catch twice a week and pinch-hit while catching bullpen sessions.

Rushing said not playing every day will be different, but he accepts his new role.

“I’m the young guy and essentially if I show up here every day and I play three days a week, if I can help the team win those other three or four days, it’s pretty special and you’re pretty valuable,” he said.

Rushing has been in the Dodgers’ organization for four years and was their minor league player of the year in 2024, when he hit 26 home runs and drove in 85 runs between stints in Double-A and Triple-A. Like starting catcher Will Smith, he attended the University of Louisville.

“It’s my job to show up here and one, help the team win, but two, just make his job as easy as possible,” Rushing said. “He’s going to make my job easy, but also there’s a helping hand that I can give to make his job easy as well.”

Barnes was with the Dodgers for 11 seasons, with 35 homers and 162 RBI in 612 games. Roberts said he took the news “like a pro.”

“I expect him to hook up with somebody else and impact another ballclub,” the manager said. “There’s still more baseball in there from him.”

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