Ten games into his MLB career, Josue De Paula already has more walks (10) than strikeouts (4). That’s not a hot streak — that’s a skill. It’s the same strike-zone command that made him an elite prospect at Double-A Tulsa, and it’s exactly why the Dodgers skipped Triple-A entirely and called him straight up. The 21-year-old carries a .929 OPS, and Los Angeles is already talking about him in the context of a postseason run.
A Debut That Didn’t Come Out of Nowhere
De Paula made his MLB debut on September 11, 2026, against the Miami Marlins at loanDepot Park. The Dodgers won 6-2, and he went 0-for-3 with a walk — nothing flashy on paper. Two days later, on September 13, he announced himself properly: a 416-foot, three-run home run off fellow Dominican Eury Pérez for his first big-league hit.
The context makes the call-up even more unusual. De Paula is the first position player the Dodgers organization has promoted directly from Double-A to MLB during Andrew Friedman’s entire tenure as president of baseball operations — a run that stretches back to October 2014. You have to go back to Steve Sax in 1981 to find a comparable move. The last precedent is that old.
The call wasn’t a gamble for the sake of it. Shohei Ohtani (biceps), Freddie Freeman (knee), and Andy Pages (wrist) were all out. The Dodgers needed a bat, and they decided the best one available was in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Why 10 Walks in 10 Games Is a Big Deal
Analyst Wilber Sánchez (@wilberdata) flagged De Paula’s 10 BB / 4 K line through 10 games on September 21. Earlier verified sources — Yahoo Sports and Sports Illustrated — already had him at 8 BB and 2 K through 8 games, with a slash line of .238/.448/.476 and a .924 OPS. The trend is consistent: more patience, less swing-and-miss, week after week.
None of this is new. In Double-A Tulsa, De Paula hit .303/.401/.547 with 27 home runs, 104 RBI, and 31 stolen bases in 124 games. His swing-and-miss rate in the minors was just 15%, and his exit velocities were in the 90th percentile. The discipline didn’t appear when he reached the big leagues — it traveled with him.
According to Statcast, De Paula averages 90.9 mph exit velocity in MLB with an xwOBA of .442 — meaning the quality of his contact actually projects to an even better offensive line than the one he’s already producing. When the model says you should be performing better than you already are, that’s usually a good sign.
Manager Dave Roberts said De Paula «should be under consideration» for the postseason roster, though he was careful to note the call-up was a «trial run, no promises» — as reported by Sports Illustrated on September 19. The eligibility question is real: he wasn’t on the 40-man roster before September 1, so there’s no automatic playoff spot. But the conversation is happening, and it’s happening just three weeks after his debut.
The Prospect Profile the Scouts Already Knew
De Paula was born on May 24, 2005, in Brooklyn, New York, and moved to the Dominican Republic at age 15. He signed with the Dodgers on January 15, 2022, for $397,500 out of the El Niche academy. At the time of his call-up, MLB Pipeline ranked him the No. 6 prospect in all of baseball and described him as «the most advanced young hitter Los Angeles has had since Corey Seager.» The scout comparison making the rounds: a more athletic version of Yordan Alvarez, built on the same combination of swing decisions and exit velocity.
That a franchise as conservative as the Dodgers — one that hadn’t promoted a position player directly from Double-A in over a decade — chose to make this move in the middle of a National League pennant race (94-60, 1.5 games ahead of Milwaukee as of September 19) says everything about how they view him. They didn’t call him up to watch. They called him up to play.
The Numbers Behind the Hype
- Plate appearances (2026): 34
- Home runs: 1 | RBI: 7
- AVG: .250 | OPS: .929
- xwOBA: .442
- Exit velocity: 90.9 mph avg.
- Barrel rate: 14.3%
- Hard-hit rate: 52.4% (balls hit 95+ mph)
- Sprint speed: 41st percentile
