LOS ANGELES -- He may have taken just 45 total plate appearances at the big league level, but Josue De Paula already looks like someone who could be a difference maker for the Dodgers in 2027 and beyond.
The Dodgers' top prospect (No. 4 overall, per MLB Pipeline) hardly missed a beat when he was promoted directly to the Majors from Double-A Tulsa in September. He stuck to his advanced approach at the plate under the brightest lights, looking right at home as a bat off the bench in the postseason.
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As a hitter, De Paula seems more than ready to be a regular for the Dodgers next season. The biggest question is how far his glove can come -- and whether L.A. can commit to having him go through defensive growing pains at the big league level.
Per MLB Pipeline, De Paula's field tool is graded at a 40 -- the weakest of his tools. But the Dodgers' front office is encouraged by the strides he has already made on defense, believing that with more hard work, he is capable of becoming an above-average corner outfielder.
"I think his mindset, and [that of] our coaching staff and all of us, is to make him as good of a defensive outfielder as he can to be a full player," general manager Brandon Gomes said at the Dodgers' end-of-season press conference on Wednesday. "Because that's what we expect of all of our guys that step on the field."
De Paula reached base in half of his 42 plate appearances in his 11-game stint in the Majors in September, batting 10-for-31 (.323) with 11 walks and only five strikeouts. That small but productive sample was enough for the Dodgers to carry him on the roster for the postseason, when he walked twice in three pinch-hit plate appearances.
"He's just a special hitter," manager Dave Roberts remarked.
The Dodgers saw enough from De Paula to confirm what they had long believed: He has the talent to hit Major League pitching. But they saw him only as a hitter at the big league level this year. President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said as much when L.A. optioned De Paula upon Shohei Ohtani's return from the injured list in the final week of September.
"We view him as a DH," Friedman said at the time. "And Shohei's back; he's going to take the DH at-bats. … But to see what [De Paula] did at the plate, the calmness in the batter's box. It's what you expect, but you never really know until you see it."
De Paula did not get much of a chance to show the progress he made defensively. In total, he logged six innings in left field, making a putout in the lone defensive chance he had on Sept. 13 in Miami. But he worked on his defense every day he was with the big league club, going out for early work with third-base and outfield coach Dino Ebel.
It wasn't so much about getting De Paula ready to man left field in the present as it was planting a seed for the future.
"It's one thing for us to say to the guy, 'Hey, here's your daily routine. Here's what you have to do,'" Friedman said. "We were all 21 at one point and thought we had all the answers, and it's just hard to connect those dots in your brain.
"I think him coming up, the way our guys welcomed him in the clubhouse, him being around our players and seeing how they prepare and what they do before a game … really landed with him in a way that words from us or our Minor League staff couldn't have accomplished in the same way."
If De Paula can turn himself into a viable everyday left fielder, it could bring about some of the greatest change in what could be a transitional offseason for a Dodgers roster looking to get younger. De Paula's rise would at the very least reduce Teoscar Hernández to a more limited role, and at most prompt the team to find a trade partner for the veteran outfielder.
But the Dodgers need to feel good about De Paula's glove being playable to commit to him in left field. They already loved the growth they saw from him from 2025-26, and they believe there is even more in there.
"Now we're looking for real growth from '26 to '27," Friedman said. "And then the sky's the limit."