Road to The Show™: Dodgers’ De Paula

Each week, MiLB.com profiles an elite prospect by chronicling the steps he's taken toward achieving his Major League dream. Here's a look at second-ranked Dodgers prospect Josue De Paula. For more stories about players on The Road to The Show, click here.

Born in New York but signed out of the Dominican Republic, Josue De Paula had an interesting path to the Dodgers. And he seems to be in an excellent spot for his development.

The Dodgers graduated all four prospects that were on MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 at the end of last year. But still their seemingly endingless talent pool, which was fifth in the latest MLB Pipeline re-rank, has produced at least four fresh names – potentially five if No. 61 overall prospect River Ryan doesn’t graduate – for the Top 100 this offseason.

De Paula is the youngest and the fastest riser among that group. The 19-year-old was Los Angeles’ No. 12 prospect at the end of last year but has catapulted himself to No. 2 on that list after his first full season with Single-A Rancho Cucamonga and High-A Great Lakes.

Over 107 total games this year, De Paula batted .268/.404/.405 with 20 extra-base hits, including a personal-best 10 homers, 62 RBIs, 69 runs, 84 walks and 27 stolen bases. Only five other players in the Minors this season had as many runs, walks and stolen bases at the same time.

Defensively, the No. 46 overall prospect moved to the corner outfield spots full time, mostly staying in right, after getting some looks in center last year. He doesn’t have tremendous speed, but he does have a strong arm and should fit well in right field.

The 6-foot-3, 185-pound lefty hasn’t been able to translate his raw power into games quite yet. He has a good eye and advanced approach at the plate, as evidenced by his high walk total. But he’s able to regularly produce high exit velocities with a very quick, visually pleasing swing.

He’s already climbed the ladder pretty quickly, reaching High-A ball as a teenager. But as the power comes, he should start getting looks at the higher levels.

“It’s an elite hit tool, an elite swing. The power is going to come as a function of just how good of a natural hitter he is,” Dodgers farm director Will Rhymes told MLB.com in March. “The physical gains, his zone control, contact skills at his age are so far beyond [his years]. Mostly, we try to get out of his way.”

De Paula was born in Brooklyn, New York, and is a second cousin of former NBA guard Stephon Marbury. Although he might have had the size for it, he did not play organized basketball in high school. And because of the pandemic, he didn’t play much high school baseball either.

In fact, the pandemic shutdown came after his first game at Benjamin Cardozo High School in Bayside, New York.

In an interview with Dodgers prospect blog “Blue Madness,” De Paula said that his father approached him during the pandemic shutdown with the idea of moving to the Dominican Republic to pursue a professional baseball career. The family moved abroad in 2021 and De Paula had a deal with the Dodgers the following January.

Big-ticket free agent signings thinned Los Angeles’ bonus pool to $4,644,000 during the 2021-22 International signing period. They were able to spread the money around to a class of 30 players, including De Paula and Dominican outfielder Samuel Munoz, MLB Pipeline’s No. 7 International prospect.

De Paula signed a $397,500 deal during what would have been his junior year of high school in January of 2022. He didn’t come stateside for his Minor League debut and instead spent the entire season in the Dominican Summer League.

He had an All-Star year on the Rookie-level circuit, batting .349 with a .970 OPS, five homers and 30 RBIs. De Paula also swiped 16 bases and scored 42 runs in 53 games.

De Paula came back to the States for the start of the 2023 season. He stayed in extended Spring Training until late May before making his California League debut. Over 74 games with the Quakes, he batted .284/.396/.372 but couldn’t quite tap into his power. Only two of his 19 extra-base hits left the yard and he plated just 40 runs.

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He spent the offseason training in Miami alongside All-Stars Juan Soto and Elly De La Cruz. Working with two of the better power hitters in the game seemed to pay off right away as he cranked a two-run homer in his first career Cactus League at-bat in March. He finished 2-for-6 in Spring Training games and contributed a pair of run-scoring singles in the Dodgers’ Spring Breakout victory against the Angels.

De Paula returned to Rancho Cucamonga for the start of the 2024 season and got off to a slow start, batting .232 with a .765 OPS and 15 extra-base hits through his first 33 games. He got hot at the end of May, batting .345 with a .931 OPS in the 23 games before his promotion to Great Lakes.

De Paula, who was more than three years younger than the Midwest League average, again struggled to adjust to the new level at first. And again, he eventually figured things out, batting .330 with a .907 OPS over the final 27 games of the season.

Considering he only turned 19 years old in May, De Paula is likely headed back to Great Lakes for the start of next season. He’ll need to keep working to tap into his full power potential. His slugging percentage in the Midwest League was just .356, and his struggles are probably best illustrated by his near 50 percent ground ball rate at the level.

But given his size, strength and advanced approach at the plate, he seems capable of figuring things out. Especially while he works in a system with a great track record for producing tremendous power hitters.