Josue De Paula optioned to minors despite scorching hot bat, but fret not Dodgers fans

Josue De Paula won’t finish the regular season on the Dodgers’ active roster.But he should still have the inside track for a postseason roster spot.On Wednesday, De Paula was optioned by the club back to the minor leagues to make room on the active roster for Shohei Ohtani’s return from the injured list, marking the end (for now) of an electrifying 11-game stint for the 21-year-old slugger in his MLB debut.At first blush, it may seem like a surprise move — given De Paula’s breakout performance over the last two weeks since being called up directly from Double-A as the organization’s top prospect.However, it was one rendered necessary by other roster considerations — and, importantly, that will still preserve De Paula’s eligibility to return for the playoffs.Here was the crunch: In addition to Ohtani’s return on Wednesday, the Dodgers are also planning to activate catcher Dalton Rushing from the IL later this week.That meant two position players were going to be squeezed off the active roster.And while Alex Freeland was one logical choice, identifying another was not so easy.Other than perhaps optioning outfielder Alex Call, the Dodgers did not have any other feasible candidates to swap out besides De Paula.

Another factor: De Paula (who had been filling in as DH in Ohtani’s absence) and Rushing (who is limited to only hitting now due to an elbow injury) would effectively be serving in the same role as left-handed-hitting pinch-hit options, leaving too few at-bats for the two of them to share over the club’s final handful of regular-season games. The other route, of course, would have been for the Dodgers not to activate Rushing at all, after he missed most of the last two months battling his elbow injury (including a brief return a few weeks ago before he suffered a setback while trying to progress through an ill-fated throwing program).However, it’s possible Rushing will be needed at some point during October.Thus, the Dodgers decided that...