In Dalton Rushing, The Dodgers Have MLB’s Newest Heel

On Episode 2473 of the Effectively Wild podcast, host Ben Lindbergh determined that MLB has a new “red ass.” Said differently, the league now has – according to The Dickson Baseball Dictionary – “a tough, angry, intense player; a player who plays hard; a raging competitor who hates to lose.” SABR adds that it is someone who is high-strung, snaps easily, and breaks equipment.” Lindbergh, and his co-host, Meg Rowley, pinned that moniker on Dodger catcher/first baseman/designated hitter Dalton Rushing. And they pointed to three incidents in the recent past that have given the rookie his bona fides.

Cheating in Colorado?

After a mid-April loss to the Rockies, Rushing, who was catching to give Will Smith a day off, claimed: “I think it’s odd that some of those hitters that do what they do, they go up there and they’re on the first pitch that was thrown. It’s a little fishy, but I’ll wear it.”

Dodgers’ manager Dave Roberts quickly dispensed with the notion that Colorado was cheating, saying: “I saw some bad breaking balls, so I don’t think there was anything fishy behind it.” And the Rockies were quick to capitalize on the idea, incorporating a new celebration where they mimic reeling in a fish whenever a player gets an extra base hit.

Dalton Doesn’t Care

From Colorado, Los Angeles headed to the Bay Area. In the bottom of the sixth inning of the first game of the series against the Giants, with two outs, Heliot Ramos singled to center field, and Jung Hoo Lee tried to score. The relay from Alex Call beat Lee, and Rushing tagged him hard to record the final out. While Rushing walked towards the Dodgers’ dugout, Lee stayed on the ground, apparently injured. The dugout camera caught Rushing, when informed that Lee may be hurt, saying: “F*@k ’em!”

Two day later, again in the sixth inning, Giants pitcher Logan Webb sought some revenge for his fallen teammate. As such, he plunked Rushing in the ribs with a 93-mph fastball. Webb, of course, claimed it was unintentional. Rushing, and the majority of the Dodgers’ present, didn’t believe him. Three pitches later, Hyesong Kim grounded to second base, and Rushing, not yet properly chastened, slid hard into shortstop Willy Adams, who nonetheless completed the inning-ending double play. Many were excited that the Giants-Dodgers rivalry was being rekindled after years of dormancy, but Giants second baseman Luis Arraez may have said it best: “It’s not good baseball, it’s not clean baseball there.”

Between the two teams, there are $600 million in salaries, $600 million worth of knees and hands and ankles and fingers and ribs that can easily be broken when a player making less than $900,000 decides he wants to play a different type of game, and opponents feel they need to retaliate to even the score. It would stand to reason that both front offices are hoping there is another way to get this rivalry going again.

Dalton Doesn’t Mince Words

On April 26^th, in a home game against the Cubs, Rushing threw out Miguel Amaya trying to steal second base. After picking up his mask (which fell off with the throw), even the most not-so-skilled lip reader could discern that Rushing referred to the would-be base stealer as a “fat f*@k.”

According to Yahoo Sports, a few days later, Nico Hoerner, who was at the plate at the time, confirmed what was said. And then he expressed regret that he didn’t say something to the Dodgers catcher when he heard the words. “I wish that I had confronted him a little more directly, to be honest. I was pretty taken aback,” Hoerner said to reporters a couple of days later.

Putting aside the body shaming aspect of Rushing’s verbal shot, it just seemed so unnecessary. He did his job; he cut down the baserunner; he won the battle. There was no need to rub it in, or to make a player’s teammate feel badly, or to show yourself to be wholly uncouth in the heat of the battle.

Rushing has many years and will need many more incidents to join the ignominious ranks of John Rocker, A.J. Pierzynski, Kirk Gibson, Hunter Strickland, Paul Lo Duca, Madison Bumgarner, Paul O’Neill, Larry Bowa, Chris Sale, just to name a few. But, with less than 75 MLB games under his (apparently very tight) belt, he is well on his way.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com