Dalton Rushing is going to start at catcher for the Dodgers on Thursday night’s series finale against the A’s, one day after getting called up. It’ll be his major league debut.
He’ll be the fourth Dodger to make their major league debut in 2025, but the first to do so at home. Roki Sasaki and Jack Dreyer each played their first game on March 19 at the Tokyo Dome, while Hyeseong Kim debuted in Atlanta on May 3.
Rushing will have several family members in the stands at Dodger Stadium for his debut, which is always one of the cool parts of these moments, getting to see loved ones celebrating the culmination of several years of hard work to get to this point.
Off the top of my head, I can remember a few Dodgers major league debuts that stood out, for different reasons.
In 1999 the Dodgers called up a 23-year-old Canadian pitcher to start against the Marlins, and Eric Gagné struck out eight batters in six scoreless innings in a no-decision. I was a relatively new Microsoft Excel user at this time — I was only two years into having my own computer — and I decided I was going to track the stats of this young Dodgers player from the ground floor, game by game.
Baseball Reference did not exist yet, and I thought this would be a fun project. I abandoned it fairly quickly, but at least was right about the instinct to keep an eye on Gagné, only not in the way I or anyone could have perceived at the time.
Fourteen years later, I was at Dodger Stadium to see the much-heralded debut of Yasiel Puig, the Cuban outfielder who signed a $42 million contract a year before. Puig hit over .500 that spring training, when our own Phil Gurnee in the comments offhandedly and correctly predicted that Puig would debut on June 3.
Puig was a whirlwind during his first month, and in his debut had two hits. But most notably, he ended a 2-1 win over the Padres by making a catch and uncorking a throw to double up Chris Denorfia at first base. As I was going down the Dodger Stadium escalator to get postgame quotes, I passed our own David Young and Catherine the Blue and I believe my first words to Catherine was, “Holy fucking shit, what a throw.”
It’s fun to look back at the throw now, and notice the Padres first base coach giving a safe call, trying to influence first base umpire Laz Diaz. That first base coach? Dave Roberts.
Nine years later, James Outman had his own whirlwind debut, only packed into a few days. Batting ninth for the Dodgers at Coors Field, Outman had three hits including a double, scored twice and drove in three runs.
Famously, he homered in his first major league at-bat, just the fourth Los Angeles Dodger to do so, along with Jose Offerman (1990), Garey Ingram (1994), and Keibert Ruiz (2020). We’ll see if Dalton Rushing can join them Thursday night.
Today’s question is what Dodgers major league debuts stand out to you?