{"id":33634,"date":"2025-05-17T10:47:16","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T10:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/33634\/"},"modified":"2025-05-17T10:47:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-17T10:47:16","slug":"dodgers-andrew-friedman-reveals-rationale-behind-austin-barnes-dfa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/33634\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers’ Andrew Friedman Reveals Rationale Behind Austin Barnes DFA"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Los Angeles Dodgers shockingly designated longtime catcher Austin Barnes for assignment<\/a> Wednesday, and president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman<\/a> explained why.<\/p>\n

More news: Dodgers Pitcher Elects to Leave Organization, Sign in KBO<\/a><\/p>\n

The Dodgers called up top prospect Dalton Rushing <\/a>to make his Major League debut, and in a corresponding move, DFA\u2019d Barnes. In many ways, the transaction was a surprise given Barnes had spent 11 seasons with the Dodgers and was considered a leader in the clubhouse.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously Austin has been a huge part of this organization for a long time, he\u2019s been in the middle of a lot of really big moments for us,\u201d Friedman said to The Los Angeles Times\u2019 Jack Harris<\/a>. \u201cHis impact has been significant. So it was one of the harder decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the case of Rushing, the 24-year-old catcher had waited several years to join the big league team, but with Will Smith<\/a> and Barnes on the roster, playing time likely would have been a long shot. <\/p>\n

\u201cRush has obviously been on our radar for a long time in terms of when and how to introduce him to the major league team,\u201d Friedman said. \u201cI think with the improvements we\u2019ve seen year over year, coupled with being in a tight division race \u2026 I think it falls in line with our consistent message of doing anything and everything we can to win.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Dodgers ultimately felt it was best to give Rushing an opportunity now as he continues to develop into the franchise\u2019s next catcher. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe last mile of his development is helping lead a major league staff,\u201d Friedman said. \u201cWe felt like now is the right time to give him that opportunity, and for us to learn some things about him that you can\u2019t know until they\u2019re 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.\u201d <\/p>\n

The harsh reality of baseball is the sport is also a business, and the departure of Barnes highlighted the organization\u2019s intentions to win another ring in 2025. <\/p>\n

Read more: Dodgers\u2019 Max Muncy Opens Up on \u2018Tough\u2019 Austin Barnes DFA<\/a><\/p>\n

Photo Credit: Matt Marton-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Have you joined our\u00a0Discord Channel<\/a>\u00a0yet? Be a part of the ultimate Dodgers Nation community and get VIP Nation Access! Don\u2019t miss out on real-time Dodgers talk, call-in access to Dodgers Dougout, behind-the-scenes content, exclusive interviews, giveaways, and more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Dodgers shockingly designated longtime catcher Austin Barnes for assignment Wednesday, and president of baseball operations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2406],"tags":[1146,5,10900,39,1165,4332,4333,774,57,3224,4331,4,1535],"class_list":{"0":"post-33634","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-dodgers","8":"tag-austin-barnes","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-dalton-rushing","11":"tag-dodgers","12":"tag-la","13":"tag-la-dodgers","14":"tag-ladodgers","15":"tag-los-angeles","16":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","17":"tag-losangeles","18":"tag-losangelesdodgers","19":"tag-mlb","20":"tag-will-smith"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114522780653428549","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33634","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=33634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}