Josue De Paula has already done enough to make the Dodgers pay attention.
When injuries piled up late in the regular season, Los Angeles brought up the 21-year-old, and he wasted no time showing why there’s so much internal belief in his bat. In 11 games, De Paula hit .323 with a 1.081 OPS, while drawing 11 walks against just five strikeouts. That kind of strike-zone feel doesn’t usually show up in a brief call-up, but it did here.
The Dodgers liked what they saw enough to keep him on the postseason roster ahead of Dalton Rushing. In three plate appearances, De Paula walked twice. He handled at-bats with the kind of calm and control that stood out, working counts like a 10-year veteran and looking every bit like a hitter with uncommon patience.
That’s why the larger question around De Paula is starting to feel unavoidable as 2027 comes into view: when does he get a real runway?
The fit in Los Angeles is complicated. Freddie Freeman is locked in at first base, Shohei Ohtani is set at designated hitter, Andy Pages is not going anywhere, and Kyle Tucker is in place as well. That leaves left field as the only obvious lane for De Paula, and even that spot is crowded because Teoscar Hernandez still has another year left on his deal.
If the Dodgers want to get younger and open the door for De Paula to play regularly, Hernandez would need to be moved.
De Paula’s glove is still developing, and nobody is pretending he’s on a Gold Glove track. But the bat has carried him everywhere he’s gone, and that hasn’t changed.
He was excellent in Double-A this season, and the advanced metrics backed it up in a big way. He doesn’t swing and miss often, and he squares up the ball as well as anyone in his age range.
The bigger point is simple: the Dodgers are good enough and deep enough to give him a chance to grow through mistakes. There’s a real case that he’s the most gifted bat in the minors from this past season, and that kind of talent shouldn’t sit in limbo forever.
At some point, Los Angeles has to find out exactly what it has in De Paula. The organization has seen this movie before, holding onto top prospects so long that it hurts both the player’s development and his value on the trade market.
Making him a part-time reserve wouldn’t make much sense. If the upside is as real as it appears, De Paula has earned enough trust to see whether he can handle major league pitching every day.
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Dodgers May Not Be Done Adding To Their Japanese Core
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Teruaki Sato of the Hanshin Tigers is among the names expected to draw MLB attention this offseason, and the Dodgers figure to remain in the conversation whenever top Japanese talent becomes available. With Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Roki Sasaki already part of the organizations recent track record, the next move could come from the same market that has helped shape so much of the clubs roster-building success. [Read more 🡒]
Dodgers Could Be Chasing Another Japanese Arm Fans Will Want
The Dodgers interest in Japanese talent has become a familiar part of their roster-building, and Shoki Oda is the latest name to surface in that conversation. The 18-year-old pitching prospect has already made a reputation for himself with eye-catching velocity and a record-setting high school career, the kind of background that naturally puts him on the radar of a club that has leaned into scouting and developing talent from Japan.
Andrew Friedman has acknowledged the organizations attention to that market, and Oda has made it clear he wants a shot at the top level of baseball. For now, though, there is no official signing or decision in place, which leaves the Dodgers in the same position they often seem to prefer with international targets: closely watching, waiting, and seeing whether another big arm becomes part of the pipeline. [Read more 🡒]