Chicago Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner revealed his side of the story regarding an incident which caught Dalton Rushing on camera calling Cubs catcher Miguel Amaya a "fat f—."
Rushing has made headlines throughout the couple of weeks, with several incidents finding him at the center of the Dodgers hate train perpetuated on social media. He loosely accused the Colorado Rockies of cheating to kick off the controversy, followed an incident against the San Francisco Giants in the subsequent series.
After a play at the plate with Giants centerfielder Jung Hoo Lee —after which Lee went down with an apparent injury—Rushing gave a look back to the plate on his walk back to the dugout and appeared to say "f— 'em" with a shrug. He got plunked the following day , and went into second base with a hard slide an a ground ball afterwards.
Apr 26, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; Chicago Cubs second baseman Nico Hoerner (2) hits a single against the Los Angeles Dodgers in the first inning at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jonathan Hui-Imagn Images
Rushing failed to corral a Roki Sasaki forkball in Saturday's win against the Cubs, prompting Amaya—who stood on first after Sasaki hit him—to break for second.
The Dodgers' catcher threw down but didn't get there in time, giving Amaya the base. After the late tag the camera panned back to Rushing, who appeared to call Amaya a "fat f—." Hoerner's reaction at the moment didn't help Rushing's case, as the All-Star clearly gave him a look.
"Yeah," Hoerner said when asked if Rushing said what many think he did. "I wish that I had confronted him a little more directly, to be honest. I was pretty taken aback. It was just kind of a strange thing to experience, so yeah, I felt a little weird about that. …I'm not saying I should've tackled the guy or anything, but still. At the end of the day, you just wanna have your teammates' backs."
Former Dodger Jerry Hairston Jr. backed up Rushing's response to being hit following his controversy against the Giants when speaking with Dodgers Nation's Doug McKain.
"First of all, Dalton did everything right," Hairston said . "I don't know why the Giants reacted in such a way when — allegedly — Dalton said something while he was heading towards the Dodgers dugout after the slide or the tag. Who cares? But they took offense to it, alright."
As for his response to being plunked, Hairston took no issue with Rushing's slide.
"Dalton Rushing, rightfully so, goes to second base as hard as possible," he said. "That's baseball, man. I love it. I love that it was a hard slide. It was clean, it was hard and that;s just the nature of the beast. I don't agree that they hit Dalton, but the way Dalton responded was class."
While Rushing certainly isn't making any friends across MLB as of late, he certainly has backed up his talk with the bat. He has seven homers through 13 games played, and leads the Dodgers in wRC+ with a 244 mark.
What do you think of Rushing's recent presence in the headlines?
