What the Dodgers are getting in top prospect Josue De Paula: ‘Complete hitter’

The Dodgers didn’t need any more affirmation of Josue De Paula’s talent and potential.

But on Wednesday afternoon, the 21-year-old mega-prospect provided some anyway.

In his latest standout game with double-A Tulsa, De Paula delivered the kind of tour-de-force performance that has become commonplace for him this season, as he has established himself as the best player in the Dodgers’ farm system and a top-10 overall prospect in the sport. 

He hit a solo home run in the first inning, pulling a hanging 0-2 pitch deep to right field for his 27th blast this season. He followed that with an RBI double in the seventh, muscling an opposite-field drive that smacked off the wall in the left-center field gap. Then, in the ninth, he drew a bases-loaded walk on five pitches, matching his earlier display of power with a disciplined approach in the box. 

The two-hit, three-RBI, seven-base showcase felt almost routine.

All year, De Paula has been exhibiting such all-around offensive dominance.

“He’s starting to round out as a complete hitter,” Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes said last week.

Which is why, come Friday night, De Paula will be able to describe himself as a big-league hitter for the first time, too.

Shortly after Wednesday’s game with the team’s double-A affiliate, De Paula learned he was getting promoted –– not to triple-A, but straight to the majors, where he will make his MLB debut with the Dodgers this weekend during their series in Miami.

This wasn’t a predetermined decision by the two-time defending champions, of course.

De Paula is only coming up now because Shohei Ohtani has gone down with right arm and left knee injuries that finally precipitated an injured list stint.

Still, for De Paula to make this big of a jump, becoming the first Dodgers hitter during Andrew Friedman’s tenure as president of baseball operations to be called up directly from double-A, he had to convince the team of his development and maturation.

“I think he’s starting to understand that if you want to play here, you have to do it all,” Gomes said, again speaking prior to De Paula’s promotion last week. “And I think that was a big step forward this year, which is really encouraging.”

De Paula has been a big name in the prospect world for a while now, quickly blossoming as a potential star-in-the-making after a relatively modest signing of less than $400,000 as an amateur in 2022.

A native of New York and nephew of former All-NBA guard Stephon Marbury, the 6-foot-3 slugger has a powerful left-handed swing that has drawn comparisons to Houston Astros MVP frontrunner Yordan Alvarez.

Possessing natural athleticism and precocious hitting instincts, he broke into affiliated minor-league ball by the time he was just 18 in 2023.

His career has been on the ascent ever since, highlighted by MVP honors at MLB’s Futures Game during last season’s All-Star week, and top-50 spots in prospect rankings from both Baseball America and MLB Pipeline at the end of last year.

This spring, however, the Dodgers came to De Paula with a challenge –– seeking improvements in his poorly rated corner outfield defense, and more general growth in his daily process.

“If you want to play for us,” Gomes recalled of the team’s message, “that has to be the bar.”

Thus, De Paula took one stride after another this season, impressing beyond a gaudy double-A stat line featuring a .303 average, 27 home runs, 104 RBIs, 31 stolen bases, a .948 OPS and an 87-to-81 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

His defense underwent the most notable change, thanks in part to hands-on coaching he received with Dodgers special assistant and former MLB All-Star Jason Heyward in Tulsa. Though evaluators are still split on whether his fielding up to big-league standards at this point, Gomes said the Dodgers have nonetheless been pleased with his “focus and effort” in that area this year, easing their long-term concerns that his glove will be a limiting flaw.

Then there are the advances that De Paula has displayed at the plate, progressing from a raw and inconsistent hitter in his previous minor-league seasons to someone the Dodgers are now “very confident” in to “conduct an at-bat” in the majors, as manager Dave Roberts described Wednesday night.

It started with a mechanical change in De Paula’s swing, in which he lowered his hands and straightened out his release.

“He was getting too twisted and kind of fighting himself,” Gomes said of De Paula’s old swing, which had never accounted for more than 12 home runs in a season. “[The change] was nothing too drastic. Just a natural maturation process.”

Even more profound was the evolution of De Paula’s hitting approach, from the way he approached situational at-bats (his .389 average with runners in scoring position leads the Texas League) to his ability to shorten up with two strikes and use the whole field (his .828 OPS in such counts is more than 100 points better than his next closest double-A peer).

“He has always been a really good performer,” Gomes said. “The ability to go the other way and work at-bats, it was just another step.”

That doesn’t mean the step up to the big leagues will be easy, especially as he gets thrown into the fire with regular starts at DH in Ohtani’s absence.

But out of everyone the Dodgers could have called up, De Paula –– who has climbed to No. 4 in Baseball America’s overall prospect rankings and No. 6 in MLB Pipeline’s –– has established the highest ceiling.

Another factor: Unlike fellow outfielder prospects such as James Tibbs III and Mike Sirota, De Paula was going to have to be added to the Dodgers’ 40-man roster this offseason in order to be protected from the Rule 5 draft.

That’s why, when the need for another bat arose in the wake of Ohtani’s IL decision, he was the first name they turned to, disregarding his age and lack of triple-A experience in hopes his potential is ready to translate to the majors.

“We’ve seen him in camp for two or three years. He doesn’t run from velocity. He controls the strike zone,” Roberts said. “I think this is just a good opportunity for him to kind of cut his teeth in the big leagues … We can get him some major league at-bats and see how that looks.”