James Tibbs III put together the kind of Triple-A season that usually forces a team’s hand. The Dodgers still didn’t have an obvious opening for him, but the numbers he posted with the Oklahoma City Comets were impossible to ignore.
Over 141 games before Wednesday’s playoff game, Tibbs piled up production across the board. He finished among the Pacific Coast League leaders in runs with 109, hits with 150, doubles with 32, home runs with 30, RBIs with 107, walks with 108, on-base percentage at .409, slugging percentage at .532 and OPS at .941.
That workload also put him in a rare class of his own. Tibbs became the first PCL player since Albuquerque’s Greg Brock in 1982 to reach 100 or more RBIs, 100 or more runs and 100 or more walks in the same season.
The Dodgers’ path to Tibbs has already been unusual. They acquired him from the Boston Red Sox at last year’s trade deadline in the deal that sent pitcher Dustin May to Boston.
Before the move, Tibbs hit .207 in 30 games in the Red Sox system. Once he joined the Dodgers, the bat woke up fast.
He slashed .269/.407/.493 in 36 games last year for Double-A Tulsa.
Tibbs was originally the 13th overall pick in the 2024 draft by the San Francisco Giants, which means he has already worn three organizations in two years. That alone makes his rise worth tracking, and it also underscores how quickly his stock has changed since the trade.
Even with the production he’s put up, the Dodgers’ major league roster makes his next step complicated. Tibbs is a left-handed hitter, and Los Angeles already has a crowded offensive mix with backup catcher Dalton Rushing, right fielder Kyle Tucker and designated hitter Shohei Ohtani all carrying a similar profile. Prospect Josue De Paula, who was promoted from Double-A Tulsa to replace Ohtani on the active roster earlier this month, adds another name to the mix.
That depth is why Tibbs can put up a season like this and still be waiting. As Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes told the California Post earlier this month, “It’s just hard to predict what minor-league performance [will translate to up here],”
Brock offers the cautionary note. He spent parts of 10 major league seasons and reached more than 500 plate appearances only twice, including his rookie year with the Dodgers in 1983. He never hit 100 runs or 100 RBIs in any of those seasons.
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