Will Smith getting a night off on Thursday

The Dodgers expect that it’ll be about nine months before Rushing is ready to return as a catcher, putting him in play for the second half of next season. He’ll be able to hit well before that, but unless something goes wrong for Shohei Ohtani, it seems unlikely that the Dodgers will bring him back as a bench bat before he’s ready to catch.

Klein is expected to be ready for spring training after having a bone chip removed and a spur shaved down. The 26-year-old righty had a 3.67 ERA in 41 2/3 innings before missing the final two months of the season.

So, the new GM will get his own choice of manager following the dismissal of Kurt Suzuki. Mozeliak will apparently be stepping aside when a new GM is in place. The former Cardinals GM was hired in June after Perry Minasian was let go, signing a contract for the remainder of the 2026 season.

Avoiding the full Tommy John would likely allow Rushing to resume hitting in spring training and catching during the first half of the season. The Dodgers can plug in Hunter Feduccia as Will Smith’s backup while Rushing rehabs, but they might want to try to do better.

He’ll be pitching on 11 days’ rest after throwing 4 1/3 innings of one-run ball in Game 1 of the NLCS. The Brewers have won each of Misiorowski’s last 11 starts, including the final nine of the regular season and his Game 1 outings against the Padres and Dodgers.

Ohtani is slated to resume pitching next year, though Friedman acknowledged that the Dodgers might try something a little different in an effort to get him through the year as a two-way player. Ohtani had a 1.79 ERA in 85 2/3 innings over 14 starts in the first half of this year before knee and biceps injuries limited him to DHing the rest of the way.

Also on the list is Jason Kanzler, who is currently the Cubs’ farm director after previously serving as a hitting coach for the Astros. It doesn’t sound like the Mariners have finished bringing in new candidates quite yet.

Epperson was serving as the manager at Double-A when the Red Sox fired Alex Cora and six other members of the MLB coaching staff back in April. The team wanted to fill roles from within, so Epperson was called up and given the job as third base coach. He will now reportedly be asked to manage Triple-A Worcester, Chad Tracy’s old job. It’s been reported that Cabrera will return to his previous role as the organization’s minor league defensive coordinator. At 29 years old, he was one of the youngest coaches on the Red Sox’s staff this season and will likely get another opportunity in years to come. The Red Sox will likely look outside the organization to fill their roles on the MLB staff.

Suzuki was given one season at the helm for the Angels, a season in which they fired essentially their entire pitching department midway through the year, and he will not be given another chance. The former catcher went 62-100 while leading a team that likely never had much of a chance to be competitive. He has apparently been offered a position with the organization as a special assistant, and the Angels will now look for another person to captain a ship that has been lost at sea for over a decade.

Bloss had a difficult 2026 season. He had Tommy John surgery at the end of the 2025 season and then suffered a shoulder strain this past summer while working his way back. He’s been good so far in the Arizona Fall League, with a 2.70 ERA in 6 2/3 innings. In this outing, he touched 96 mph with his fastball and showed off a solid sweeper. He could be an option for Toronto in 2027 if he puts together a strong spring training.