Dodgers drop first lineup of spring training ahead of opener vs Cubs

Dodgers baseball returns on Thursday afternoon with a game at Camelback Ranch against the Cubs, who they'll run it back against for the Tokyo Series less than a month from now. Spring training is mostly for everyone to get their feet wet and settle in after a long offseason, but the long wait is over for fans who have been itching to see live baseball on their TVs again.

The Dodgers dropped their first lineup on Thursday morning. Yoshinobu Yamamoto — who will also open the Tokyo Series for LA — will take the bump against new Cubs trade acquisition Cody Poteet, who came over from the Yankees in the Cody Bellinger trade.

The rest of the lineup is where the Dodgers get to be a little experimental. Although guys are likely to be subbed in and out after just a few innings, we'll see Mookie Betts, Max Muncy, and Teoscar Hernández at the top of the lineup, followed by James Outman, new minor-league signings Eddie Rosario and David Bote, backup-backup catcher Hunter Feduccia, newly minted Dodger Hyeseong Kim, and No. 2 prospect Dalton Rushing.

Dodgers release spring training opener lineup, featuring top prospect Dalton Rushing and some intriguing NRIs

Other than Betts, Muncy, Hernández, and Kim, none of the position players in this lineup have much of a chance of making the Opening Day roster. Instead, Outman, Rosario, and Bote are trying to prove that they could at least be decent call-up options in the event of an injury to any of the guys on the 26-man down the line.

Feduccia feels sort of like the Dodgers' backup-catcher-in-waiting; he spent some time behind the plate last season, when Austin Barnes was on the shelf, and Barnes is in the last year of his contract after the Dodgers exercised their club option to keep him.

Rushing will be a big one to watch, and it's still unclear what the Dodgers plan to do with him. He projects as being too good to get stuck as Will Smith's backup and can't go to first with Freddie Freeman there through 2027. The outfield might be his best option; he could take over there in 2026 when Michael Conforto becomes a free agent again if he can show out in spring training and keep performing in Triple-A, even though the Dodgers have said he'll get most of his playing time at backstop.

That's something for them to figure out on another day, though. The important thing today is that baseball is finally back.