Zyhir Hope is making July feel like a personal hitting clinic.
The Dodgers’ No. 3 prospect for 2026 on MLB Pipeline kept rolling Thursday for the Double-A Tulsa Drillers, going 2-for-5 with a solo home run in a 12-6 loss to the Springfield Cardinals, the Double-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals. The shot was Hope’s 19th homer of the season, and it came on a towering drive to right field.
That blast was only the latest in a blistering stretch. Hope has now gone deep three times over the past two days and has six home runs in eight July games.
The 21-year-old left-handed hitter is batting .486 this month, with 17 hits in 35 at-bats, and owns a 1.599 OPS in July. He’s not just hot - he’s flattening Double-A pitching.
Hope’s season line backs up the surge. In 79 Double-A games, he’s hitting .291 with a .364 on-base percentage and an .891 OPS, along with 78 RBIs and 13 stolen bases. His 19 home runs lead Tulsa.
The Dodgers got Hope in the January 2024 trade that sent first baseman Michael Busch to the Chicago Cubs. Hope, originally drafted by the Cubs in the 11th round in 2023, has climbed steadily through Los Angeles’ system since then.
He did make his Double-A debut last year, though it was a brief look - just six games. That’s why a move to Triple-A later this year is at least on the table. For now, though, he’s forcing the issue with the kind of run that gets everyone’s attention.
Hope isn’t the only Dodgers prospect making noise in Double-A, either. Los Angeles’ No. 1 prospect, outfielder Josue De Paula, is hitting .318 with 15 homers, 65 RBIs and 25 stolen bases.
No. 2 prospect Mike Sirota has reached base safely in 71 straight games. Right-hander Christian Zazueta, another top pitching prospect, has posted a 1.93 ERA with 24 strikeouts in his first three Double-A starts.
For the moment, though, the spotlight belongs to Hope. And he’s doing plenty to keep it.
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For Los Angeles, the question is less about whether Rogers can help and more about how much prospect capital it should be willing to part with to get him. Jackson Ferris remains one of the organizations more intriguing young arms, while Ryan Ward has also put himself on the radar as a depth bat, so any deal built around those two would force the Dodgers to decide how aggressively they want to chase immediate rotation help. [Read more 🡒]
Dodgers Still Have One Lineup Problem That Could Haunt October
The Dodgers have spent much of the season trying to solve a lineup question that sits just behind Shohei Ohtani, where production has been uneven enough to keep drawing manager Dave Roberts back to the topic. The No. 2 spot is supposed to be a bridge between Ohtani and the rest of the order, but the team has rotated several accomplished hitters through it without finding much consistency, leaving a small but persistent hole in a lineup built to overwhelm opponents.
Roberts has acknowledged there may be a mental side to the job, with hitters feeling the weight of batting directly behind Ohtani, though he stopped short of saying he knows that for certain. The Dodgers are still weighing options for later in the season, including a possible look at Will Smith when he returns from injury, and the answer could matter more in October than it has in the regular season if this one spot continues to lag. [Read more 🡒]