Dave Roberts basically just admitted Dodgers see no path forward for Dalton Rushing

As highly-touted as the Dodgers' farm system is, year in and year out, they don't really develop a ton of players who truly work out at the major league level. For the majority of the 2025 season, there were only two homegrown bats on the roster: Will Smith and Andy Pages.

Others, like Gavin Lux, Michael Busch, Miguel Vargas, Keibert Ruiz, Connor Wong, and so many more have been shipped off and have performed to varying degrees of success for their new teams.

Of course, prospects don't always work out, but one would think that a system as continually hyped as the Dodgers' would have a better success rate than they've had over the last decade or so.

But the thing is — the Dodgers don't actually have to care, because they can just take their pick of the litter every time a new free agent class hits the market, and then use the blocked prospects to get even more stars who they can turn around and extend on multi-year deals (see: Tommy Edman and Tyler Glasnow).

It's a luxury, sure, but it also hasn't made the Dodgers very good at planning around prospects that they actually do believe in. Case in point: Dalton Rushing.

Dave Roberts told reporters that the Dodgers would love to get Rushing 500 at-bats in 2026, but they also want him to "understand" and get comfortable in his role as a backup catcher. You can't really have both, Dave.

Dave Roberts just made the Dodgers' Dalton Rushing conundrum even more confusing

To put this into context: primary catcher Smith didn't even get 500 at-bats last year, and he might not have even if he'd stayed fully healthy. Roberts has ruled out the possibility of Rushing spending time in the outfield, so that leaves the odd appearance behind Smith at the dish, and the even odder appearance behind Freddie Freeman at first base. That's not how you get a guy to 500 at-bats.

The Dodgers occasionally deal in this sort of weird bullishness with their players. They continued to give Michael Conforto regular playing time long after they should've stopped, and they continued to play Teoscar Hernández in right field long after they should've stopped.

They know there's no real path forward for Rushing, but they like him too much to trade him, so they ... relegate him to second-fiddle until he hits free agency in ... 2032?

Maybe this is all just fine for Rushing, who still got a World Series ring last year despite only appearing for one at-bat in a single NLDS game, and will continue to get rings as long as he stays on the roster.

But to fans, it's something of a double-edged sword. It's a disservice to Rushing and his potential, but these are champagne problems. The Dodgers are so good that they can keep their former No. 1 prospect in the shadows indefinitely. Who else can say that?