Josue De Paula on mission to improve defense and break into Dodgers lineup
The Dodgers have a designated hitter, and he’s under contract for seven more seasons.His name is Shohei Ohtani.Doesn’t matter how special of a hitter the Dodgers believe Josue De Paula is.Doesn’t matter how many evaluators say that De Paula reminds them of Yordan Alvarez in the batter’s box.De Paula will not be the Dodgers’ primary DH anytime soon.The 21-year-old knows what he has to do.His team knows.
His agent knows.Everybody knows.He has to improve his defense.“We’re going to keep working at it and come back better,” said De Paula, who is widely considered a liability as a corner outfielder.When the Dodgers were eliminated by the Brewers in the National League Championship Series, De Paula said he would return to his native New York, then spend time at a training center in Miami run by his agent, Scott Boras.“The focus is on him adapting to an outfield position,” Boras said.Working with De Paula will be former major league outfielder Alex Ochoa, who now runs Boras’ Miami facility.
A defensive standout as a player, Ochoa was a World Series champion with the Angels in 2002.He also played in Japan.Boras said he also expects former Red Sox outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr.
to assist De Paula.Bradley won a Gold Glove in 2018.De Paula isn’t being asked to transform into Willie Mays overnight.
He just has to be competent enough to make the Dodgers unafraid to play him in the outfield. He does that and he could make Teoscar Hernández expendable.He doesn’t and he will remain an insurance policy for Ohtani at DH — or, perhaps, become a trade candidate himself.With Ohtani on the injured list, De Paula was the DH in nine of the 10 games he started as a mid-September call-up.
In the one game he started in left field, he was removed after six innings.Nonetheless, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman argued that De Paula showed “marked improvement” as a defender over the last year.Friedman said he believed De Paula benefite...