There’s no sugarcoating Shohei Ohtani landing on the injured list for the first time as a Dodger. But that disappointing development did come with the consolation of an exciting corresponding transaction: The team has called up 21-year-old outfielder Josue De Paula, one of the top hitting prospects in the minors, to make his MLB debut this weekend in Miami.
Before the Dodgers started collecting premium free agents and top trade targets like Pokemon cards, they built a reputation for developing high-end, homegrown talent. Matt Kemp blossomed into a star center fielder as the Dodgers started dominating the NL West. Clayton Kershaw and Kenley Jansen joined the organization as teenagers and went on to anchor the pitching staff for more than a decade. Later came Joc Pederson, then Corey Seager, then Cody Bellinger, then Will Smith, then Gavin Lux. When the Dodgers ended their 32-year World Series drought in 2020, the bulk of the pitching staff had been developed internally: Walker Buehler, Julio Urias, Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May all played key roles.
More recently, as the Dodgers have achieved and repeatedly reinforced their superteam status, a smaller percentage of their roster has charted that path. Staples such as Smith remain entrenched, and another wave of homegrown players, including Andy Pages, Dalton Rushing, Justin Wrobleski and Emmet Sheehan, have matriculated to the majors to become crucial contributors.
But the majority of the headliners on the 2026 roster built their careers elsewhere before they started chasing championships in Dodger blue. The Dodgers’ farm system has continued to rate favorably, but it has become increasingly rare for their heralded prospects to break through into regular roles, often relegated instead to bench or platoon duty or included in trades. Such is life when the front office is constantly supercharging the roster with more proven external additions (and it’s hard to argue with the results).
Enter Josue (ho-SWAY) De Paula. The 21-year-old was born and raised in Brooklyn but moved to his father’s native Dominican Republic in 2020 at age 15 to keep honing his baseball skills after the pandemic made it difficult for him to develop at home in New York City. De Paula eventually signed with the Dodgers as an international free agent in January 2022 for a $400,000 signing bonus — a solid chunk of change but nothing close to the seven figures the top players fetched. Because of his unique path to join the international class — and the timing, with travel limited by the pandemic — De Paula was not as well known among scouts at the time.
But once his pro career began, it became clear the Dodgers had a special hitter in the making.
In the Dominican Summer League, De Paula posted a 158 wRC+ with more walks than strikeouts across 58 games. He spent the next two seasons standing out as a teenager in A-ball, maintaining his rare blend of power and plate discipline. Last season, he mashed his way to Double-A, shining on a major prospect stage by earning All-Star Futures Game MVP.
In Double-A to begin 2026, De Paula kept on raking, slashing .303/.401/.547 with 27 homers and a 14.8% strikeout rate more reflective of a compact contact hitter than the hulking, 6-foot-3 slugger he has become. Along the way, his cross-cultural background made him a popular teammate among both English- and Spanish-speaking ballplayers throughout the organization, with his bilinguality and outgoing personality enabling him to connect with virtually everyone with whom he shares a clubhouse.Subscribe to Yahoo! Sports MLB on YouTube for videos, podcasts and more
Not since Seager have the Dodgers had such a polished hitter brewing in the minors, rocketing up league-wide prospect lists. Perhaps what best underscores De Paula’s special offensive ability is the names that surround him in the upper echelon of top-100 prospect lists: shortstops (Jesus Made, Franklin Arias, Leo De Vries, Eli Willits, George Lombard Jr., Roch Cholowsky), center fielders (Walker Jenkins, Max Clark, Theo Gillen) and catchers (Ethan Salas, Vahn Lackey, Rainiel Rodriguez, Alfredo Duno) — all up-the-middle athletes at premium defensive positions.
De Paula is not that. He played center field sparingly early in his career but has been limited to the corners more recently, spending the bulk of his reps in left. Scouts remain skeptical about his viability as an every-day outfielder in the majors, though he has worked hard — with some help from Dodgers special assistant Jason Heyward — to improve his glovework. Still, it is an undeniable weakness in De Paula’s game at present. And yet, an elite prospect he remains. The bat is that good.
That said, had Ohtani not gone on the IL, it’s unlikely the Dodgers would’ve summoned De Paula straight from Double-A, something the organization hasn’t done with a position-player prospect since Yasiel Puig in 2013. But with at-bats available at DH and perhaps in the corner outfield on occasion — and the oldest lineup in baseball in need of a youthful boost — the window cracked open for De Paula to leapfrog Triple-A (and a handful of more seasoned candidates for promotion, such as Ryan Ward, James Tibbs and Zach Ehrhard) and make his major-league debut in 2026.
At 21 years, 110 days old as of Friday, De Paula will become the youngest Dodger to debut since Alex Verdugo in 2017 and just the ninth Dodgers position player this century to debut at age 21, joining an accomplished cohort that includes Kemp, Seager and Bellinger. Whether De Paula makes a meaningful impact in the Dodgers’ push for a third straight World Series title remains to be seen. Could he impress enough to be included on the postseason roster, even if Ohtani returns? Maybe.
But it’s not an accident that the Dodgers identified De Paula as the best candidate to fill Ohtani’s absence. And whether or not his impact is felt over the next few weeks, De Paula is tracking like the next great Dodgers homegrown star. Nowadays, that’s no small feat.
