Dodgers Identify Where Top Prospect Josue De Paula Needs to Improve

The list of top Los Angeles Dodgers prospects for 2026 is headlined by Josue De Paula, who was ranked No. 1 in the organization by Baseball Prospectus, MLB Pipeline, FanGraphs and ESPN.

Fellow outfielder Eduardo Quintero was ranked the top Dodgers prospect by The Athletic and Baseball America. De Paula checked in second within the organization on respective lists by those publications.

Dodgers want Josue De Paula to improve

While De Paula has established himself as a consensus top-25 prospect in baseball, the 20-year-old is still developing and has key areas where the Dodgers want to improvement.

"I want to see him become a better defender," manager Dave Roberts said. "He's a great young man, he's physically talented. The at-bat, he's a pure hitter. He's got that hit gene. He's always going to hit, but I think the defensive value has got to improve.

"We've had conversations about that, he and I. We get him better defensively, to be a better baserunner, things like that, I think those are things to me that at first glance I see."

De Paula is among a vast group of non-roster invitees to Dodgers Spring Training this year. Entering Monday, he has appeared off the bench in two Cactus League games so far.

Some of the concern regarding De Paula's defense surfaced on Sunday, when he wasn't able to get to a slicing fly ball in left field. Though some of that could also be related to De Paula having more Minor League experience in right field, where he's played 158 games over the past four years.

By comparison, De Paula has appeared in 84 games in left field and 28 as a center fielder during that same span.

Defensive improvement seemingly is the final hurdle to be cleared in order for De Paula to make his MLB debut. He's just 20 years old but has otherwise shown strong power and good plate discipline. Last season he struck out 86 times while also drawing 81 walks.

Overall in 2025, De Paula hit .250/.391/.400 while spending time with High-A Great Lakes and Double-A Tulsa. The bulk of the year was spent with the Loons, where De Paula batted .263/.406/.421 with 16 doubles, 12 home runs and 44 RBI in 98 games. He was named to the National League team for the 2025 MLB All-Star Futures Game and went on to win MVP of the event.

It wasn't until the final week of the season that De Paula joined the Drillers roster. He appeared in four games at the Double-A level and figures to start 2026 with Tulsa.