What can James Tibbs III make of his tumultuous first full season in professional ball?
After all, it was only last June when the 22-year-old was drafted 13th overall. Since then, he's been part of two blockbuster trades and had to acclimate to three organizations.
On June 15, Tibbs went from the Giants to the Red Sox in a five-player deal that sent three-time All-Star Rafael Devers to the Bay Area. A month and a half later, he was on the move again to the Dodgers as part of the package for Dustin May at the Trade Deadline.
"I will say it's been very stressful," Tibbs admitted. "It's been probably the hardest year of my life from a baseball perspective. And, you know, I think most people look at a hitter and they say, 'Oh man, they’re struggling,' and whatever. It's like, well, there's typically a lot more going on than people seem to realize."
The Giants’ 2024 first-rounder had gotten off to a strong start this year in his first full professional season, hitting .246 with an .857 OPS, 12 homers, 23 extra-base hits and an impressive 42-to-45 walk-to-strikeout ratio for High-A Eugene. At the time, Tibbs was San Francisco’s No. 4 prospect.
But his subsequent stint in the Red Sox organization was short and challenging. The fifth-ranked Red Sox prospect batted .207 with one homer in 116 at-bats over 30 games for Double-A Portland. And then the left-handed hitter was on the move again to the Dodgers, packaged with fellow outfield prospect Zach Ehrhard for May, who will be a free agent after this season.
“When I got traded the first time, you know, it was bittersweet because I was leaving a bunch of guys that I’d been really close with, an organization that I felt comfortable with,” Tibbs said. “And then getting traded again, it was kind of the same way. I loved being there.”
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If that shuffling and reshuffling rattled Tibbs, it didn’t show his first week in the Dodgers system. The club’s track record of developing impact outfielders -- from Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp to Joc Pederson and Cody Bellinger and now Andy Pages -- gave Tibbs confidence he’d finally landed in the right place.
“I knew what the Dodgers were and what they were capable of,” he said. “I’ve seen it day in and day out for the last couple of years. I felt like if anybody was going to be able to help me figure out what was going on, it was the Dodgers. ... Literally, I’m four games in and I feel like I’m myself again.”
That transformation was apparent Wednesday night at Corpus Christi's Whataburger Field -- a memorable stage for a breakout game. In his fourth appearance for Double-A Tulsa, Tibbs launched homers in the third and fifth innings, reached base in all six of his plate appearances and drove in four runs as the Drillers rolled to a 14-3 win over the Hooks.
The turnaround came the night after a conversation with Tulsa hitting coach Blake Gailen in which the pair broke down his swing and reconnected him with the mechanics that had made him one of the most feared hitters in college baseball. Tibbs slugged 28 homers, posted a 1.264 OPS and earned 2024 ACC Player of the Year honors in his final year at Florida State.
“I just worked really hard on trying to figure out what was going on and trying to get back to the college swing because it got me this far,” he said. “We broke down what was going on from college and the differences that were there, and kind of ran with it. By the end of the talk, I was like, ‘Alright, I feel good to go.”
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Tibbs’ fresh start comes in a Los Angeles system loaded with outfield talent -- four of the club’s top five prospects (Josue De Paula, Zyhir Hope, Eduardo Quintero and Mike Sirota) play the position. Now ranked No. 7 on the Dodgers' Top 30 prospects list, Tibbs will spend the final stretch of the season building momentum for 2026.
"This feels good," he said. "Obviously, getting traded is kind of a two-part story. On one hand, I'm excited because somebody wants me. But on the other hand, I’m like, what am I doing wrong? You know, there's a human element to that that fans and people don't necessarily understand. It's definitely been a wild year."
For Tibbs, the goal isn’t to prove his old organizations wrong or chase short-term results -- it’s about sustaining the version of himself he rediscovered this week.
“I’ve never lost confidence in my ability to play the game,” he said. “It was just a matter of figuring out the kinks and getting back to me. The Dodgers told me, ‘We love what you do, and we just want you to get back to that.’ That was a breath of fresh air for me. I just want to finish strong and be the best baseball player I can be.”