{"id":140320,"date":"2025-06-29T20:49:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T20:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/140320\/"},"modified":"2025-06-29T20:49:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T20:49:13","slug":"dodgers-predicted-to-quickly-replace-dalton-rushing-with-luke-stevenson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/140320\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers Predicted to Quickly Replace Dalton Rushing With Luke Stevenson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/athlonsports.com\/mlb\/los-angeles-dodgers\/predicted-to-quickly-replace-dalton-rushing-with-33-home-run-catcher\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Dodgers Predicted to Quickly Replace Dalton Rushing With Luke Stevenson;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Dodgers Predicted to Quickly Replace Dalton Rushing With Luke Stevenson<\/a> originally appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/athlonsports.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Athlon Sports;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Athlon Sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Los Angeles Dodgers have the 40th and 41st picks in the 2025 MLB draft. The Dodgers only have two supplemental first-round pick, with none in the first 27 picks because they exceeded the competitive balance tax threshold.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>When looking at who they could select, MLB.com recently predicted that they\u2019d land on a catcher, which would be a somewhat questionable decision with Will Smith and Dalton Rushing now up.<\/p>\n<p>MLB.com predicted them to draft Luke Stevenson, the 33rd-ranked prospect in the 2025 MLB draft. Stevenson, a catcher out of North Carolina, has shown off some big-time power in his bat.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing (68) hits a three-run home run in the eighth inning against the New York Yankees at Dodger Stadium. Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"standard-img\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/382288fa3b753014760707255336648c.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Los Angeles Dodgers catcher Dalton Rushing (68) hits a three-run home run in the eighth inning against the New York Yankees at Dodger Stadium. Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStevenson could have signed for top-five-rounds money as a North Carolina high schooler in 2023. He opted instead to stay local and play for the Tar Heels, claimed North Carolina&#8217;s starting job as a freshman and slammed 14 homers before playing with the U.S. collegiate national team during the summer. He went deep 19 times this spring as a sophomore and is one of the best catching prospects available, though he comes with some questions about his hitting ability after posting a .251 batting average and 24 percent strikeout rate,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/milb\/prospects\/draft\/luke-stevenson-806233\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:they wrote;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">they wrote<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>A Team USA alum, Stevenson did nothing but swing the bat at a very high level throughout his time at North Carolina. He&#8217;s regarded as one of the top power hitters in the draft, and arguably the best catcher. If the Dodgers want to take the best player available at pick 40, there&#8217;s reason to believe he could be the option.<\/p>\n<p>He only played in two seasons at North Carolina and hit 33 home runs, posting a .960 OPS.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/article\/dodgers-dave-roberts-gives-tyler-130000922.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Related: Dodgers\u2019 Dave Roberts Gives Update on Tyler Glasnow\u2019s Return;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Related: Dodgers\u2019 Dave Roberts Gives Update on Tyler Glasnow\u2019s Return<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This story was originally reported by <a href=\"https:\/\/athlonsports.com\/mlb\/los-angeles-dodgers\/predicted-to-quickly-replace-dalton-rushing-with-33-home-run-catcher\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Athlon Sports;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Athlon Sports<\/a> on Jun 29, 2025, where it first appeared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dodgers Predicted to Quickly Replace Dalton Rushing With Luke Stevenson originally appeared on Athlon Sports. The Los Angeles&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2276],"tags":[2526,5,10900,2196,57,5642,2291,4,1586,62,2358,1535],"class_list":{"0":"post-140320","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-draft","8":"tag-2025-mlb-draft","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-dalton-rushing","11":"tag-dodger-stadium","12":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","13":"tag-luke-stevenson","14":"tag-major-league-baseball-draft","15":"tag-mlb","16":"tag-mlb-draft","17":"tag-new-york-yankees","18":"tag-north-carolina","19":"tag-will-smith"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114768626584614396","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}