De Paula's Soto-like approach goes a step (or shuffle) further

Josue De Paula earned comparisons throughout his Minor League career to some of MLB’s best players, whether for his overall offensive profile to Yordan Alvarez or his plate approach to Juan Soto. That’s why he’s been ranked as one of the sport’s best hitting prospects, making his big league debut last week as MLB Pipeline’s No. 6 prospect overall.

During Monday’s 4-1 Dodgers win over the Reds, De Paula put that Soto-like plate approach on full display. He drew a fifth-inning walk against Cincinnati starter Nick Lodolo after battling back from a 1-2 count.

The fifth pitch of the plate appearance fell just below the zone for ball three, prompting a challenge from Reds catcher Tyler Stephenson, who has been a top-10 challenging catcher this season based on Statcast’s Overturns vs. Expected metric. But Stephenson was wrong this time. Lodolo’s offering missed by 0.9 inches, according to the ABS Challenge System powered by T-Mobile.

De Paula seemed to know all along.

The 21-year-old rookie squatted in his stance, shaking his head in a display of confidence that was reminiscent of the famous “Soto Shuffle.” De Paula then watched a sinker finish well outside to earn the walk -- already his fifth in just four Major League games.

Even if you have to squint a bit to see the Soto Shuffle in De Paula’s reaction Monday night, it doesn’t take much effort to see why there are such widespread comparisons between De Paula and the Mets superstar.

Soto remains one of MLB’s best eyes at the plate at age 27, with a 98th-percentile walk rate (16.5%) and a 95th-percentile chase rate (20.7%) this season. As a 19-year-old rookie in 2018, Soto posted similarly elite numbers in walk rate (16%) and chase rate (18.4%).

De Paula, in his extremely limited Major League sample, has walked 35.7% of the time and chased just 13.5% of the time. Those numbers will balance out over time, but it’s still quite a start for the youngster.

De Paula’s connection with Soto goes back even further. A native of Brooklyn before he moved to the Dominican Republic in high school, De Paula trained at El Niche Baseball Academy, the same facility that worked with the likes of Soto, Elly De La Cruz and Otto Lopez. De Paula has also trained alongside Soto in the past.

In a playful moment between mentor and mentee, Soto shared De Paula’s charismatic take from Monday on his Instagram story, referring to De Paula as "el loco mio" ("my crazy guy" in Spanish).