Austin Barnes injured: Dodgers catcher placed on IL list due to broken toe

The Dodgers placed catcher Austin Barnes on the 10-day injured list on Monday with a broken left big toe and called up Hunter Feduccia from Triple-A Oklahoma City to serve as Will Smith's backup in the interim.

David Vassegh of Dodger Talk said Monday that Barnes took a foul ball off his left big toe on Sunday against the Cardinals. A cursory search of the video footage of the game suggests that it was fought in the sixth inning by Pedro Páges.

Barnes was also hit in the head by a backswing from Willson Contreras in the fourth inning on Sunday, making for a painful series finale in St. Louis.

Barnes has a batting average of .241/.318/.284 with one home run, two doubles and a wRC+ of 77. He had a career-high 12-hit streak from June 21 to July 28, but has just one hit in 20 at-bats and three walks since then.

So far this season, Barnes has started 34 games behind the plate, while Smith begins his 92nd game as catcher on Monday against Seattle. These two have been stalwarts at the position over the past five seasons. Since the start of the 2020 season, Smith and Barnes have made 665 of 672 starts (99 percent) behind the plate, with the Dodgers resorting to temporary replacements only a handful of times – Keibert Ruiz started twice in 2020, Tony Wolters started once in 2022 in Kansas City, and Austin Wynns started four times while Smith was on the concussion injured list in 2023.

Feduccia was active once this season, his first year on the 40-man roster. He was called up when Freddie Freeman was placed on the family emergency list in July. Feduccia was not active as a catcher during those four games, but he was active once as a hitter, fetching a pinch hitter in his major league debut on July 31 at San Diego.

This season with Triple-A Oklahoma City, Feduccia hit .282/.415/.433 with 14 doubles, six home runs, three triples and a 120 wRC+ in 73 games, with almost as many walks (56) as strikeouts (64).

Feduccia bats left-handed, and once he's behind the plate in a game, he'll be the first left-handed Dodger catcher since Tony Wolters on Aug. 14, 2022. The last hit by a left-handed Dodger backstop was a single by Keibert Ruiz in Seattle on Aug. 19, 2020.