Dodgers promote top 2 prospects, but there’s a catch

The Los Angeles Dodgers have not been playing very good baseball lately to say the least. They’ve lost all three of their past series (dating back to August 29) — a stretch that includes a sweep at the hands of the Pittsburgh Pirates. It’s only due to a similar slump from the San Diego Padres that they remain atop the NL West standings.

But the Dodgers’ roster movement never stops even with the regular season drawing to a close and even with the team slumping hard. In fact, as reported by Jonathan Mayo of MLB Pipeline, the Dodgers did promote their two top prospects in outfielders Josue de Paula and Zyhir Hope. However, that promotion news does come with a bit of a catch, as LA is simply promoting them to their Double-A affiliate in Tulsa.

Both prospects are as highly-touted as it can get, with many prospect analysts rating them among the 20 best prospects in all of baseball. According to MLB.com’s rankings, de Paula ranks as the Dodgers’ best prospect and 12th overall in MLB, with Hope not being too far behind at 19th.

What makes de Paula such an exciting young prospect, who, at just 20 years of age, is well on his way to knocking on the big-league door, is his incredible tools at the plate. Scouts rate the Dodgers youngster’s hitting prowess highly, as they believe he has the potential to hit 30 or more home runs while being an on-base machine in his heyday while calling him a smaller Yordan Alvarez.

Meanwhile, Hope appears to be a more all-around prospect than de Paula, with scouts rating his defense in the outfield. He has considerable power potential, but his hitting tools aren’t as advanced as that of de Paula’s.

In High-A, de Paula put up an OPS of .827 with an excellent walk rate of 19.0 percent against a 20.2 percent strikeout rate. Hope, on the same level, recorded an .805 OPS with 13 home runs and 75 RBIs.

Dodgers’ future looks as bright as their present