The Los Angeles Dodgers shocked the baseball world by designating longtime catcher Austin Barnes for assignment earlier this week.
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Barnes, one of the Dodgers’ longest-tenured position players, was DFA’d in order to make room on the roster for top prospect Dalton Rushing.
President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman explained why the Dodgers chose to part ways with Barnes as L.A. continues to battle for first place in baseball’s best division, the National League West.
“Rush has obviously been on our radar for a long time in terms of when and how to introduce him to the major league team,” Friedman said to Jack Harris of The Los Angeles Times. “I think with the improvements we’ve seen year over year, coupled with being in a tight division race … I think it falls in line with our consistent message of doing anything and everything we can to win.”
The Dodgers have made it increasingly clear that the priority in 2025 is to win another championship. With that goal in mind, there is simply no room for sentimentality.
This season, Barnes was slashing .214/.233/.286 with two RBIs and an OPS of .518 across 44 plate appearances.
“Obviously, Austin has been a huge part of this organization for a long time, he’s been in the middle of a lot of really big moments for us,” Friedman said. “His impact has been significant. So it was one of the harder decisions.”
The Dodgers have arguably one of the best rosters in baseball, but that comes at a cost. With so much star talent on the big league team and within the farm system, the Dodgers have little room to promote prospects.
The departure of Barnes essentially cleared the way for the Dodgers to give Rushing experience at the Major League level. The top prospect made his MLB debut Thursday against the Athletics, going 2-for-4 with a single and a walk.
“The last mile of his development is helping lead a major league staff,” Friedman said. “We felt like now is the right time to give him that opportunity, and for us to learn some things about him that you can’t know until they’re at the major-league level, and for him to experience the speed of game here, which will be insightful for all of us in terms of the next set of things to work on.”
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