‘I just want to feel saucy’: Inside Josue De Paula’s fearless Dodgers debut

CINCINNATI — Josue De Paula is in his element in the batter’s box. He carries himself like a guy who knows his importance to the Los Angeles Dodgers depends on how well he can command himself within those 24 square feet of chalk lines. De Paula asserts himself with a confident shake of the head after each pitch outside the strike zone.

Some head shakes are more exaggerated than others. Each demonstrates the same message: De Paula is not going to give in.

“I just want to feel saucy when I’m up there, you know what I’m saying?” De Paula told The Athletic this week. “I feel like I’m in control, not you. … I want my pitch. Come in the zone. Let’s go.”

This is who De Paula wants to be. He describes hitting as “aggressive patience,” an approach that puts him on the attack.

“It’s almost like a war for me in my head,” De Paula said. “I look confident. I look saucy. I feel saucy when I’m in the box, so it’s like, ‘Hey bro, let’s keep it rocking.’”

It took four games for De Paula to inspire fascination within the Dodgers dynasty, where his every at-bat feels like a must-watch example of how to command a zone. Of the first 37 big-league pitches De Paula saw outside of the strike zone, he swung at just five. He made it 17 plate appearances without striking out before going down swinging in the seventh inning and looking in the ninth in the Dodgers’ 4-0 win over the Reds on Tuesday. De Paula does not seem fazed that he is just 2 for 14 (.143) since being called up, including five hitless at-bats in his first game in the leadoff spot.

That’s because he believes in his process. A day earlier, De Paula battled back from down in the count against Reds lefty Nick Lodolo, a former All-Star. The left-handed batter took a 2-2 fastball just below the knees, crouched and shook his head. A pitch later, De Paula walked for the fifth time in his short career.

The clip of the head shake drew a chuckle from the proprietor of the “Soto Shuffle” himself, Juan Soto, who, like De Paula, once honed his craft at the El Niche Baseball Academy in the Dominican city of Santo Domingo.

Josue De Paula live reaction to you trying to get him to chase. pic.twitter.com/dbXGz8WYL0

— Chad Moriyama (@ChadMoriyama) September 14, 2026

“El loco mío,” Soto shared to his Instagram story in Spanish, stamping his approval with a laughing emoji. My guy.

“I swear I wasn’t trying to do like the whole thing,” De Paula said with a laugh. “I just got into my legs, and I was shaking my head … but I’m not mad. That’s not a bad player to look like.”

De Paula, 21, feels like an injection of youthful exuberance for baseball’s oldest lineup. The Brooklyn-born son of a Dominican father (and relative of NBA veterans Stephon Marbury and Sebastian Telfair) speaks with a thick New York accent and oozes the confidence of a player who carries that swagger into the box.

De Paula is the crown jewel of a Dodgers farm system that is expected to prolong this run of excellence. Last week, he became the first position player ever to be called up directly from Double A by this Andrew Friedman-led front office group.

De Paula is here because he can hit, has always hit, and the Dodgers need him to hit. De Paula is here to serve as the Dodgers’ designated hitter, at least until Shohei Ohtani returns from the injured list. No one with the Dodgers, however, is ruling out the possibility that De Paula could help them in October as they seek a third consecutive World Series title.

“I hope he makes our decision hard,” manager Dave Roberts said.

Through De Paula’s torrid run through the Dodgers’ farm system, officials raved about his keen ability to pick up the baseball, make proper swing decisions and recognize spin.

“He doesn’t give away any pitches, which I love, let alone give away any at-bats,” Roberts said.

Pair that with a preternatural ability to make contact, and De Paula entered this season as one of the highly-regarded young hitters in the league. The Dodgers implemented a change to De Paula’s swing this year, lowering his hands and opening up his resulting bat path to keep the barrel in the zone longer. That has allowed him to access more power by pulling more fly balls and has made him a lethal producer at Double A.

De Paula slugged 27 home runs this season in Double A, more than double what he had in any of his first four professional seasons. His first hit Sunday in Miami was a mammoth upper-deck shot to right field on the kind of awe-inspiring swing that has come much more easily for De Paula than in years past.

“When all those things are kind of clicking, it’s tough for any pitcher to compete with,” hitting coach Robert Van Scoyoc said. “So it’s been very impressive so far.”

De Paula became a Dodger partially as a byproduct of the COVID-19 pandemic, which shut down the New York baseball season and prompted De Paula’s father, Josue Sr., to send him to the Dominican Republic to work at El Niche under Cristian “Niche” Batista.

“It was like stepping into a whole other world,” De Paula said.

It was there, during an offseason workout, that De Paula met Soto, who broke into the big leagues at 19 years old with the kind of swaggering command of the batter’s box that De Paula hopes to replicate. Rather than enter the amateur draft, De Paula signed directly with the Dodgers as an international amateur for a bonus of just under $400,000. De Paula estimated that, in one of his two tryouts with the organization and with several of the club’s brass in attendance, he collected nine hits in 10 at-bats.

“I killed,” De Paula said, reliving the memory as if it just happened.

He has hit ever since, ascending to the top of prospect lists. His list of star-studded admirers grew, too. After accompanying Soto in being represented by super agent Scott Boras, De Paula was asked by Boras to name some of his favorite players. De Paula selected Elly De La Cruz, who at that time was set for his first season as a breakout star for the Cincinnati Reds but was already dominating the minor leagues. Boras invited De Paula to his Newport Beach offices in Southern California after that and surprised him by bringing De La Cruz.

The two have remained close, working out together in the Miami area in the winters. Friday, just before he made his major-league debut against the Marlins in Miami, De Paula called De La Cruz on FaceTime. When they met up again this week in Cincinnati, they posed for a picture.

“I’m really happy for what he’s doing,” De La Cruz said.

De Paula sees a kinship between De La Cruz and Soto.

“We’re all killers,” De Paula said with a knowing smirk.

When De Paula spent his first spring training in big-league camp with the Dodgers in 2025, he quickly heard from Mookie Betts. The former Gold Glove right fielder wanted to make De Paula and fellow newcomers Zyhir Hope and Justin Dean feel welcome, so over dinner at a Phoenix-area soul food restaurant, he talked shop. When De Paula went out for early defensive work in the outfield this week, he had Roberts and Betts at different points offer some advice.

Now in a clubhouse filled with stars, De Paula said he feels at home. Whether he stays there heading into October will depend on how the rest of the regular season goes. The first few games have left a strong first impression.

“It’s a slow heartbeat,” Van Scoyoc said. “He’s not overwhelmed at all. It seemed like he picked up where he left off in Double A. … I wouldn’t say it’s surprising, but it’s just nice to see.”

Ohtani is expected to return from his nagging biceps and knee injuries by year’s end. De Paula has a lack of defensive utility at this point. While he did play in left field on Sunday, the Dodgers still want to work on getting De Paula to “value” the defensive side of the ball first, Roberts said. That means his path to the Dodgers’ postseason roster will likely be as a left-handed bat off the bench, essentially the role the club envisioned for Dalton Rushing before his most recent IL stint.

That decision is still up in the air, Roberts said. There will be “growing pains,” as Roberts said after Tuesday’s performance. The manager said he “didn’t love” the quality of De Paula’s at-bats. But October is a scenario De Paula feels he will be ready for.

“Especially in big moments, I feel like my mind just goes to a whole ‘nother level,” De Paula said. “Especially competing. The bigger the moment is … it’s like the more my mind hyper-focuses. So when I’m hyper-focused like that a lot, it’s dangerous.”