Josue De Paula was expected to be a useful late-season addition for the Dodgers. Instead, he has forced the team into a lineup squeeze they can’t just wave away.
The 21-year-old has been far too productive to sit. Through his first 10 major league games, De Paula has reached base at a .474 clip, giving Los Angeles another dangerous left-handed bat as the postseason approaches.
That kind of start changes the math, especially with Shohei Ohtani on the way back. The Dodgers already have a crowded outfield mix, but De Paula’s performance is making it harder to figure out where everyone fits.
His emergence isn’t some random September heater, either. De Paula tore through Double-A pitching all season before getting the call to Los Angeles.
Minor League Baseball named him the 2026 Texas League MVP on Monday. In 124 games for Tulsa, he hit .303/.401/.547 with 27 home runs, 31 stolen bases, 152 hits and 104 RBIs.
That production earned him the jump straight from Double-A to the Dodgers, and he has carried the same offensive feel with him to the majors. In his first 10 games, De Paula has gone 8-for-28 with 10 walks, one home run and seven RBIs.
He has also already logged two games in left field, a reminder that the Dodgers can move him around if they need to. But flexibility only goes so far when the roster is this packed.
Manager Dave Roberts said there is a good chance Ohtani will be activated Wednesday against the San Diego Padres. Ohtani would return as a hitter, not a pitcher, which sends him back to DH and closes off the simplest path for keeping De Paula in the lineup.
Los Angeles already has Kyle Tucker in right field, Teoscar Hernández in left and Andy Pages in center. Tucker signed a four-year, $240 million deal before the season, while Hernández and Pages have remained central pieces in the Dodgers’ outfield plans.
De Paula can play the outfield, but using him there would mean pushing another established player aside. And that means changing a group that has helped get the Dodgers to this point.
The Dodgers do not need to settle it all right now. Still, De Paula’s bat has made the issue unavoidable: once Ohtani returns, finding enough at-bats for everybody is going to be one of Dave Roberts’ toughest lineup calls heading into October.
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The wrinkle is less about talent than eligibility, which can make these late-season roster calls feel like their own separate game. Because De Paula was not on the 40-man roster by Sept. 1, the Dodgers would need to go through the Commissioner's Office to have him included on the postseason roster, and that path depends on replacing an injured player who has already met the minimum injured-list requirement. For a team with championship expectations, it leaves one more October decision hanging in the balance. [Read more 🡒]