Dodgers News: Roberts & Friedman Explain Decision to Add Casparius to NLCS Roster

MILWAUKEE, WI—Leading up to the 2025 National League Division Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Milwaukee Brewers, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts hinted that the 26-man roster would go through a few changes.

Those changes were primarily to add another pitcher to the team’s bullpen, which is logical considering the number of possible games in a best-of-seven and the 2-3-2 format with just two off days.

The next question was whether adding an extra pitcher to the Dodgers would mean the odd man out on the position player side.

Well, that domino ended up being the third extra catcher in rookie Dalton Rushing, who was removed from the 26-man roster in favor of fellow young right-hander Ben Casparius.

Now that the team is clear on Will Smith‘s recovery status from a hairline fracture in his right hand, there’s no reason to keep both Ben Rortvedt and Rushing on the Dodgers roster.

“With the Rushing piece, we felt that Will is in a good spot to feel that we don’t need to protect him to have a third catcher,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said.

“With Ben, we just felt that having another right-hander to sort of be able to take down a certain part of their lineup, if needed. And Ben pitched in the World Series last year, so he’s got some experience as well.”

At the start of the regular season, Casparius was one of Roberts’ most trusted arms out of the bullpen, eventually working his way into the starting rotation. At the same time, the Dodgers were decimated by pitching injuries.

That did not work out for either side and could be attributed to Ben’s steep decline during the second half of the regular season, which eventually led to his demotion back to Triple-A Oklahoma City in September.

Regardless of his struggles, the Dodgers opted to go with Casparius over other options such as flamethrowers Will Klein and Edgardo Henriquez.

“Ben obviously was big for us this year,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said. “Had gotten off track a little bit, so we sent him down and challenged him with what to work on. And he did.

“You can go one of two ways when those moments happen, and he chose the path of attacking exactly what we’d kind of laid out for him and put himself in a really good spot.

“So going through this lineup and we felt like were a lot of good choices, but felt like Ben was the right one for us.”

Casparius was not in Game One of the NLCS yesterday, but he was seen stretching and might have been considered to pitch. However, Blake Snell ensured that didn’t happen, as he pitched eight shutout innings before passing the ball to Roki Sasaki and Blake Treinen in the ninth.

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