Format = Position Player | Age on 4/1/2027 | Highest Level Played | Estimated Time of Arrival
1. OF Josue De Paula | 21 | MLB | 2026
Listed at 6’3” 185 pounds, De Paula appears to be bigger than that to the naked eye–not that I’m walking around with inappropriate eyewear looking at teenage athletes. A left-handed hitter with great plate skills and impressive contact skills for a guy with his raw power, De Paula looked like the toughest out in LA’s lineup for a minute, posting a .500 on base percentage through 42 major league plate appearances. When I sent Grey my top prospects for 2027 redraft leagues on the eve of the postseason, I ranked De Paula first and thought he had all but displaced Teoscar Hernandez as the everyday left fielder. Grey was dubious that De Paula would get the playing time to secure that outcome. I thought they’d need him in the lineup to compete for a title and that they generally need to start infusing some youth into an aging offense. I genuinely thought he might become a star on the national stage this October. Dear reader, I was wrong. The Dodgers left De Paula on the bench as they got swept. Is that a harbinger of how they’ll deploy him next season? Certainly could be. They did have him skip Triple-A, so I suppose they could send him back there and leave him in Oklahoma City until some kind of injury opens a door for him. In 124 Double-A games this year, he hit 27 home runs and struck out just 87 times against 81 walks. A better hitting prospect does not exist right now.
2. OF Mike Sirota | 23 | AAA | 2027
A third-round pick by Cincinnati in 2024, Sirota was dealt to the Dodgers before he could debut for the Reds. He hasn’t stopped hitting since, slashing .333/.452/.616 with 13 home runs and five stolen bases in 59 games across two levels in 2025 and repeating the feat in 2026, playing at three levels and slashing .307/.461/.526 with 17 home runs and 13 stolen bases in 108 games. A twitchy righty at 6’2” 188 pounds, he’s played a lot of center field on his way up the system and has a chance to stick at the position. Maybe not for the Dodgers, who have an elite defender out there already in Andy Pages, but Sirota’s best path to playing time is probably in another organization anyway.
3. OF Eduardo Quintero | 21 | AA | 2028
Too fleet-footed to waste away at catcher, Quintero moved out to centerfield and started letting that speed eat in the lower minors, stealing 22, 32, and 47 bases in 49, 83, and 113 games across three professional seasons. He really grew into his skin with Low-A Rancho Cucamonga in 2025, slashing .306/.425/.533 with 14 home runs and 35 stolen bases in 81 games, earning himself a 32-game stretch in High-A to close out the season. He returned to High-A in 2026 and thrived: .309/.445/.495 with 12 home runs and 44 stolen bases in 111 games before heading to Double-A in time for Tulsa’s post-season.
4. SS Emil Morales | 20 | A+ | 2028
A right-handed hitter listed at 6’3” 191 pounds, Morales signed for $1,897,500 in the 2024 international class and won the Dominican Summer League MVP that summer. He was great again in 2025, closing out the season with 30 games in Low-A, where he returned to start the 2026 season and slashed .323/.385/.570 to force a promotion after 36 games. He’s not the fastest dude and might have to move off of shortstop, but he’ll likely open the 2027 season as a 20-year-old in Double-A and won’t turn 21 until September 22nd, which puts him on a special dynasty trajectory. It’s not crazy to imagine he could see the majors before that 21st birthday.
5. OF James Tibbs III | 24 | AAA | 2027
Tibbs owns the odd distinction of being selected in the top half of the first round and then traded twice within a calendar year, give or take a few weeks. The first time, being traded for as one of four guys in exchange for Rafael Devers, might even have been a confidence booster. The second time, swapped for a few months of a scuffling Dustin May, might have achieved the opposite. Hard to say. Humans will be humans. On the field, Tibbs III is fine. No less exciting than Tibbs II, anyway. He was on fire for the first month or so but settled back into his above-average profile, slashing .287/.409/.552 with 30 home runs and ten stolen bases in 141 games: a great season for a good prospect, to be sure, but it’s hard to see how he’ll fit into this roster at the highest level.
6. OF Charles Davalan | 23 | AA | 2028
The 41st overall pick in the 2025 draft, Davalan’s a 5’9” 190 pound left-handed hitter with a good hit tool alongside above-average power and speed. In 115 games for High-A Great Lakes, he slashed .292/.402/.535 with 24 home runs and 17 stolen bases in the Midwest League, which isn’t always kind to hitters. Like Quintero, he was promoted to Double-A just one game before the playoffs started and will likely open 2027 at that level.
7. RHP Christian Zazueta | 22 | AA | 2027
Listed as 6’3” 163 pounds (the Dodgers don’t seem to update weights for public-facing purposes), Zazueta signed with the Yankees in the 2022 international period and was traded to Los Angeles along with LHP Matt Gage in exchange for LHP Caleb Ferguson. Two years later, Ferguson and Gage are lefty specialists struggling to get results, and Zazueta is on the brink of a major league debut as the best pitching prospect in a great system, wielding a dynamic fastball/changeup/slider combination that plays up thanks to Zaz’s ability to repeat his delivery and command all three offerings.
8. OF Zach Ehrhard | 24 | AAA | 2027
Among the many things you notice tracking this organization year over year is that they stay after the players they like. Sirota, Tibbs III, Zazueta and Ehrhard are all guys they traded for using major league players to get the job done. Sirota came back in the Gavin Lux trade, and Ehrhard was part of the Dustin May trade that also brought back James Tibbs III from Boston at the 2025 deadline. A fourth-round pick out of Oklahoma State in 2024, he’s played all over the outfield and could be a useful fourth-outfielder type this coming season after slashing .291/.400/.472 with 20 home runs, 28 stolen bases and a 20.2 percent strikeout rate in 138 Triple-A games. It’s a little crazy that one team has about half a dozen viable centerfielders so close to the majors, but that’s life in LA these days.
9. 3B Chase Harlan | 20 | A+ | 2029
My first thought when I watch Harlan hit is that he swings like a twitchy small dude, whipping his hips through the zone with abandon and letting his hands find the ball in their own time, by which I mean late if necessary, making him rare among power hitting prospects in that he drives the ball to right with apparent ease. This should help him improve against off-speed pitches as he gains experience, but even now, his all-fields power and surprising contact skills for a big guy (6’3” 205 pounds) proved too much for Low-A arms. He slashed .329/.438/.571 with ten home runs in 57 games to force a promotion to High-A, where he was less successful for 29 games (.239/.331/.389) but young enough for that level that it doesn’t even cast a shadow on what was an excellent developmental year for Harlan.
10. OF Kendall George | 22 | AA | 2028
We’re seeing OF Chandler Simpson bat third for a World Series team this month, so I’m not in the habit of dismissing speedy contact hitters who don’t hit for power. The game has shifted: ground balls that used to be outs can now be hits if you’re fast enough, and stolen bases are available to pretty much anyone daring enough to take them. While George doesn’t minimize strikeouts quite as well as Simpson, he’s a plus defender in center field with a chance to be elite out there. A left-handed hitter at 5’10” 170 lbs, he slashed .332/.418/.399 with zero home runs and 33 stolen bases in 55 Double-A games before he injured his patellar tendon while jumping out of the way of Tulsa’s bat dog, Achilles, a Belgian Malinois who has since been sidelined.
Thanks for reading!
