The Los Angeles Dodgers have been associated with a plethora of trade rumors throughout the offseason.
Naturally, given that the team has a loaded farm system, some of the franchise’s prospects have been widely speculated on as possible trade chips. On the other side of the coin, considering the team’s need for outfielders, many within the fanbase have been clamoring for some of the ballclub’s best prospects to get a look with the Dodgers coming out of Spring Training.
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Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic recently completed a mailbag in which he answered questions sent in by readers of the platform. The farm system inevitably came up, and Ardaya touched on who he felt could make an impact this upcoming year. As Ardaya broke down the grouping of outfielders player by player, there are those that may be surprised by who he predicted could emerge in 2026.
“The top three should effectively be a top four of Josue De Paula, Zyhir Hope, Mike Sirota and Eduardo Quintero, who have separated themselves and represent some of the most intriguing names of their outfield prospect surplus. Of those four, the quickest to the big leagues could be De Paula, who, with another leap forward, could become a real conversation in late 2026 or sometime in 2027, when he’d still be just 22 years old. It could also be Sirota, who is already 22 years old and could move quickly in 2026. Hope could line up with a similar timeline.
“But two outfield names who could appear in the bigs before any of the four both arrived in the same trade last July: James Tibbs III and Zach Ehrhard, who came from the Boston Red Sox for Dustin May. Keep those names on the radar, along with Ryan Ward, who could all debut.”
Ward makes the most sense given that he is already 27 years of age. He’s coming off a monster season in Triple-A with the bat (36 homers, 122 runs batted-in, .290 batting average). Ehrhard reportedly has excited the franchise with his ability to play with terrific energy and effort.
Tibbs III might have the best ceiling of the group projected to emerge earliest. A former first-round pick, the hit tool is quite advanced for someone in their early 20’s.
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