{"id":842721,"date":"2026-09-10T08:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T08:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/842721\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T08:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T08:36:10","slug":"dodgers-to-promote-josue-de-paula","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/842721\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers To Promote Josue De Paula"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dodgers are bringing up top outfield prospect\u00a0Josue De Paula<\/a>, reports Alden Gonz\u00e1lez of ESPN<\/a>. L.A. is off tomorrow, so the move won\u2019t be made official until Friday\u2019s series opener in Miami.<\/p>\n

The corresponding moves aren\u2019t clear, though it\u2019s notable that De Paula\u2019s injury comes as Shohei Ohtani<\/a> was again out of tonight\u2019s lineup. Ohtani has already been ruled out<\/a> from pitching again in 2026 and has only made one appearance at designated hitter within the past week. Manager Dave Roberts told reporters before tonight\u2019s game that it was possible Ohtani could require a stint on the 15-day injured list (link via Jack Harris of The California Post<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Roberts could provide additional information postgame, as the Dodgers are wrapping up a blowout victory over Cincinnati. Ohtani has battled left knee discomfort for a couple months and has had right arm soreness over the past week-plus. Freddie Freeman<\/a> was also out of the lineup today due to right knee soreness, though Roberts said that\u2019s not expected to be an IL situation (related by Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Whatever the corresponding move, the Dodgers feel it\u2019s the right time to take a look at one of the best hitters in the minor leagues. De Paula has spent his entire age-21 campaign at the Double-A level, mashing at a .302\/.400\/.539 clip across 583 plate appearances. He has connected on 26 home runs, 36 doubles, and a pair of triples. De Paula has also stolen 31 bases, though he\u2019s been caught 10 times.<\/p>\n

The baserunning is unlikely to be a huge part of De Paula\u2019s game, as scouting reports peg him as a below-average runner. His hit\/power combination is among the best of any player in the minor leagues, though, as his dominance of generally older Double-A pitching demonstrates. De Paula ranks seventh among Texas League hitters (min. 200 plate appearances) with a .939 OPS. He\u2019s the second-youngest player among the league\u2019s top 10 hitters, older only than Cardinals top prospect\u00a0Rainiel Rodriguez<\/a>. De Paula has walked at an excellent 13.7% clip while striking out less than 15% of the time and consistently getting to plus power.<\/p>\n

The production was strong enough that the Dodgers will jump De Paula past Triple-A. That\u2019s a rare move for this front office, as Katie Woo of The Athletic<\/a> observes it\u2019s the first time in 12 years under president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman that the Dodgers are calling up a position player prospect directly from Double-A.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

De Paula ranks among the sport\u2019s top 10 prospects in the estimation of Baseball America<\/a> (fourth), MLB Pipeline<\/a> (sixth), and ESPN\u2019s Kiley McDaniel<\/a> (10th). He landed in the back of the top 20 on pre-deadline lists from Keith Law of The Athletic<\/a> and Eric Longenhagen\/Brendan Gawlowski of FanGraphs<\/a>. De Paula isn\u2019t going to provide much defensive value; he\u2019s a below-average corner outfielder whom some evaluators project as a pure DH. The profile is driven almost entirely by what he\u2019ll do in the left-handed batter\u2019s box.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a chance De Paula can hit his way onto the playoff roster. It\u2019s a fairly common misconception that players need to be on the 40-man roster by September 1 to be postseason eligible, but they only need to be in the organization by that date. The Dodgers would technically need to petition MLB to allow De Paula to make the playoff roster, but teams are granted that permission every year. The Guardians added<\/a>\u00a0Chase DeLauter<\/a> to their 40-man roster the day of their first-round series last year, for example.<\/p>\n

Depending on the injuries, there could be room for another lefty bat in October. Ohtani would presumably be activated by the start of the postseason even if he requires an injured list stint.\u00a0Dalton Rushing<\/a> seems more questionable after he went back on the shelf<\/a> with recurring elbow pain related to his partial UCL tear.<\/p>\n

Teoscar Hern\u00e1ndez<\/a> has also had a middling season against right-handed pitching that has led Roberts to flirt with scaling back his playing time (though he\u2019s been the team\u2019s hottest hitter over the last two weeks). It\u2019s difficult to imagine them benching\u00a0Kyle Tucker<\/a>, but he\u2019s amidst a replacement level season. De Paula could at least provide an alternative in right field if Tucker struggles through the first series or two in October.<\/p>\n

De Paula would\u2019ve been eligible for the Rule 5 draft this offseason, so he was going to command a 40-man roster spot by November at the latest. The Dodgers have a full 40-man and don\u2019t have any obvious candidates for a move to the 60-day injured list unless Rushing needs to be shut down for the season. They\u2019ll likely need to designate someone for assignment on Friday.<\/p>\n

The late-season call won\u2019t have huge ramifications from a service time perspective. De Paula will collect 17 days of service through season\u2019s end. He\u2019ll remain a rookie and eligible for the Prospect Promotion Incentive next year. The Dodgers will have him under club control for at least six full seasons if the service time structure is unchanged in the next collective bargaining agreement. De Paula won\u2019t be eligible for arbitration until at least the 2029-30 offseason.<\/p>\n

Image courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dodgers are bringing up top outfield prospect\u00a0Josue De Paula, reports Alden Gonz\u00e1lez of ESPN. L.A. is off…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":842722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[8965,17435,3956,99],"class_list":["post-842721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-freddie-freeman","tag-josue-de-paula","tag-shohei-ohtani","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=842721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}