In my last post, we discussed the infield options the Dodgers have, and there were many. The catching position itself has three players on the active roster.
The starter, and main man as we all know is Will Smith. Smith just signed a 10-year deal, so he is going to be around for a while. Will he spend that entire contract behind the plate? That remains to be seen. Will is considered to be one of the better offensive catchers in baseball. His defense is adequate, but where he really improved last season was throwing out opposing runners. His bat slumped in the second half, but his defense did not.
Austin Barnes is his backup and has been since Will broke into the lineup in 2019. Barnes had one of his better offensive seasons BA wise. He only had one homer, and 11 driven in. But the pitchers love pitching to the guy, and he is solid defensively. Also, one of the better game callers in the game.
The third man on the 40-man roster is Hunter Feduccia. Feduccia turns 28 in June. A little old to be considered a prospect. Feduccia has actually hit better at AAA than he did at the lower levels. In his three seasons at AAA he slashed, .273/.383/.447. He hit 24 homers and drove in 132 runs. He is not a power threat but will occasionally give you a home run ball. His OPS was .830 over those 3 seasons. His K rate is about 22%. His most likely path to the majors would be a trade to a team in need of catching.
Right behind him, but not on the roster is Dalton Rushing. Rushing, who turns 24 this month, will most likely start the season at AAA OKC. He will also likely get the bulk of the catching starts. Feduccia and Okey will be his backups. At this point, Rushing is not polished as a receiver and has been given starts in LF to get his bat into the lineup. He hit 26 homers and drove in 85 in 114 games split between AA and AAA.
The outfield has numerous options. Teo and Conforto are both corner outfielders and will get the bulk of the playing time at those positions. Pages is more suited as a corner outfielder and could be the backup for Conforto since he crushes left-handed pitching. Taylor can play any of the three outfield spots. He has made some spectacular plays while playing left, one in the 2016 playoffs and another when he threw out the tying run at the plate to end a game against the Padres a couple years ago. Kike is in the mix if he is resigned. 
Center Field for now belongs to Tommy Edman, although I think he is better served as a super-sub. But he is the current listed starter. Depending on his spring training performance, James Outman, could be tossed into the mix. Outman is an excellent defender. Kike and Taylor play this position as well.
Offensively the group has a lot of power. Conforto should be good for at least 20 plus homers. Teo close to 30, and Outman, who hit 23 his rookie year could come close to the same if he shows he has improved from last year’s dismal performance.
Edman is in there for his defense and speed. He is a decent hitter, but no power threat. Most he has hit in his career was 11. Many would love to see the Dodgers trade for someone like Luis Robert, but it seems at this point, that ship was never even in port. No discussions I have seen on any outlet even suggesting the Dodgers want to deal for Robert. I also think the Sox want to see if he can have a resurgent start to 25 to make him more valuable on the trade market.
As always, injuries could shake up the whole thing. I would like to see Ryan Ward, a decent power guy, get some looks in spring, if for no other reason than to showcase him for a trade. Zahir Hope, and Kendall George, still a few years from consideration.
Getting out of here this afternoon. I have been here four weeks and 2 days, plus 6 days in the main hospital. Something I never wish to repeat. Had a visit yesterday from two musician friends of mine, Barbara and Max McGuire. They live in Indiana, but are out here visiting her mom, who is 92 years young and lives in San Pedro. They had a band called Sierra back in the day. I used to sit in with them all the time. Great people.
Glad your time on the IL is coming to an end Bear.
If Pages or Outman crushes it in ST there could be a spot in CF for them and moving Edman to 2nd base. Can Pages play a decent enough CF? Does Kim make the roster? Does Kiké return? Would Dodgers trade Rojas? Does CT3 bounce back? What about injuries? A lot of what ifs for Dodger bench in 25.
I don’t understand not wanting Edman to be the everyday CF. He’s deserving of being in the lineup every day and it’s probably best for the team to have him consistently in one position. We just signed him to a big contract and if we didn’t have three HOFers atop the lineup he’d probably be the leadoff hitter or #2 guy.
Twins are signing Harrison Bader.
Somebody was looking for a complete list of non roster invitees.
https://www.mlb.com/dodgers/roster/nri
Interesting pitching article in The Athletic by Eno Sarris called “The Baseball Stat that’s Changing MLB”. It talks about the “Stuff+” stat and how the elements of certain pitch shapes and velocities max out a pitches effectiveness.
And looks to me like another step in turning pitchers into robots.
Bear, you bring up one of my favorite points on Austin Barnes. In your last two sentences, you have accurately described what a backup catcher is. Manage the pitching game. Yes, give the starting catcher a break, but make sure you have a catcher the pitcher can relate to and trust. That is Austin Barnes.
Hunter Feduccia is quickly becoming a favorite of mine. He has never been a poor hitter, but Bear has described his offensive upside well. He is the perfect backup catcher type with excellent defensive tools. For 2024, in 668 total chances, 3 errors, and 4 passed balls. Career wise, in 3811 total chances, he has a .994 fielding percentage and 33 passed balls.
Dalton Rushing is an intriguing option at catcher because of his bat. But he is not going to replace a 2X All Star catcher in Will Smith, who is under contract through 2033 at a more than respectable rate. So Rushing started to play some LF to keep his bat in the lineup. All the reports I have read said he did okay out there, and is athletic enough to improve. The question for me is can he get to the gap quickly enough? Will he have to play deeper in LF to cut down on the XBH over his head thus letting balls fall for singles in front of him? If his bat is potent enough, the Dodgers can look past some of those shortcomings. BTW, another tidbit I learned about Clayton is that he gets pissed at moving the OF back and then having balls drop in for singles. He is not a fan of shifts, and really hates moving OF back. I have no idea how the other pitchers feel about this.
The Dodgers have already said that Rushing is going back to OKC to CATCH. He is athletic enough to block, but he needs to call a game better. He did not get that training at Louisville. He was a backup catcher at Louisville for two years. I hope he joins Austin Barnes at the hip this ST and garners as much knowledge as possible for calling a game and working with pitchers. He is not ready to become an everyday catcher for a contending team, and I would have zero desire to have my top prospect, and consensus top 30 prospect overall, sitting on the bench 5-6 games a week when he could be working on his receiving and game calling tools and hitting every day at AAA.
BTW, Will Smith was a catcher almost exclusively at Louisville, and has been horrible in his limited time at 3B in MiLB. 14 errors in 129 total chances with a range factor of 1.98 per game (not good at all). Smith is an All Star catcher, and that is where he should stay. Maybe more 1B after Freddie departs.
Conforto given # 23, Kim is # 6, Yates gets # 38.
Michael Elizondo has an interesting piece on TrueBlueLA about the crazy, Swiftian prices for the Dodgers-Cubs openers in Tokyo:
The Cubs, of course, had Imanaga and Suzuki. Very good chance the season opens with Imanaga pitching to Shohei.
As we might expect, the tickets for the exhibitions against Japanese teams are pricey as well–and much more so for the Dodgers than the Cubs.
Just occurred to me that the Dodgers could face Ryan Brasier, who might have a little extra adrenaline against his old teammates. I suspect that Brasier would like to show AF and BG than they DFA’d the wrong guy.
Josue De Paula might be in the OF mix too someday, even though he profiles best as a DH. He’s not that fast, doesn’t have a great arm. Zyhir Hope and Mike Sirota are legit outfielders–but De Paula is a project. Shouldn’t the Dodgers get the tall, rangy guy a first baseman’s glove?
De Paula’s bat gets a lot of hype. But of all the top prospects, he’s the one most blocked by Shohei. If he could handle 1B, he’d have a chance to someday succeed Freddie.
More likely, it would just enhance his trade value.
Got out of the hospital yesterday afternoon. At my sister’s house until we head for Colorado next week. Nice relaxing day. Feeling great. Using a walker to get around but not pain in the ankle.
Pitchers and Catchers report in 5 days.
I saw an article on Yahoo Sports (although I didn’t read it all) about which trio is more dangerous or powerful between Ohtani-Betts-Freeman and Lindor-Soto-Alonso, but they didn’t come up with any results. I think that obviously the Mets trio is more powerful, but definitely the Dodgers trio is more dangerous!
The Angels signed Yoan Moncada, probably as an insurance policy if big ticket bust, Anthony Rendon is once again unable to play regularly. They also lost their arbitration hearing with Luis Rengifo, making them 0-2 since they lost to Moniak too.
MLB.com’s John Denton reports that the Cardinals have reengaged with the Red Sox, Yankees and Dodgers about possible restructured deals for Arenado.
Arenado is signed through 2027, but his annual salary goes down over the next three seasons. He is set to make $32 million this season, $27 million in 2026, and $15 million in the final year of his deal. Of the $74 million he’s still owed, the Rockies will pay $5 million in each of the next two seasons.
I see the Cards are still trying hard to unload Arenado. Are the Dodgers really interested???
I would consider trading for him if the Cards took Taylor. Taylor is owed $17M and Arenado is owed $74M with the Rockies paying $10M of that. So $64M.
The Dodgers aren’t paying Edman 74 million to be another CT3 or Kike, although he could obviously do that job well if he had to.
No, Edman was brought over to start and play most of the time….somewhere. It looks like CF is it to start with, and I’m happy with that. But even if somehow he is needed to play the infield due to an injury, I’m sure that will be fine too.
Bottom line….the guy is too valuable to just insert part-time or even half the time. I think the Dodgers rightfully know this too. I hope guys here can warmly embrace this and stop looking for what they believe could be an upgrade. If you want an upgrade, look to 3B or possibly 2B depending on who will be the starter at that position. -TM