James

Tibbs III

It’s the best-case scenario for the Dodgers and fantasy managers as Hernández is likely to only miss a couple weeks. Los Angeles opted to bring up Ryan Ward, who is finally getting a real opportunity at the highest level after years at Triple-A, as a short-term stopgap. It sounds like they considered bringing up red-hot prospect James Tibbs III, but he’s been dealing with a forearm issues that has limited him to DH exclusively of late. His opportunity figures to come later this summer.

Tibbs took Astros elite closer Josh Hader deep to cap off his third multi-homer performance of the season. The 23-year-old slugging outfield prospect won’t be receiving the call to replace an injured Teoscar Hernández (hamstring) with the Dodgers turning to Ryan Ward instead as a temporary stopgap. However, he’s certainly shown enough to be under consideration as a mid-to-late season call-up as a platoon specialist.

Hernández left last night’s game with a left hamstring strain and figures to miss multiple weeks. The 33-year-old corner outfielder had produced an .892 OPS in a resurgent May. Alex Call would figure to get more playing time going forward if Hernández’s injury doesn’t force the Dodgers into thinking about some of their better prospects, like James TIbbs III, who has a 1.028 OPS in Triple-A Oklahoma City with 12 home runs.

It seems like a possibility that Hernández will require a trip to the injured list, depending on the severity. The 33-year-old veteran slugger suffered the injury while attempting to beat out attempting to beat out a second-inning grounder. He was replaced in left field by Hyeseong Kim. There should be some additional clarity on his status prior to Friday’s series opener against the Phillies. There’s no shortage of options for the Dodgers in the upper minors with Ryan Ward and Alek Thomas representing in-house options already on the 40-man roster while prospect James Tibbs III might be a consideration as a potential solution. Tommy Edman (ankle) is at least another week or two away from returning from the injured list.

Tibbs is hitting .474 AVG in nine games with four doubles, seven home runs, 13 RBI, and a .535 on-base percentage. Tibbs came over to the Red Sox as part of the Rafael Devers trade, but didn’t seem to respond well to coaching in Boston and was shipped off to the Dodgers for Dustin May last year at the trade deadline. That may go down as the worst trade of the Craig Breslow era in Boston.

There’s no path to for Tibbs to play regularly in Los Angeles this season, barring an unexpected development, but he’s making some serious noise on the doorstep of the majors. The 23-year-old former first-rounder, who was traded by both the Red Sox and Giants last year, is hitting .545 (12-for-22) with three homers and nine RBI through five games. He’s going to cool off at some point soon, but it’s looking like he could force his way to the big leagues at some point later this year.

Tibbs impressed this spring and is off to an 8-for-13 starts with six extra-base hits in three games for Oklahoma City. The Dodgers might not ever need the twice-traded 2024 first-round pick (first from the Giants to the Red Sox in the Rafael Devers deal and later to the Dodgers in the Dustin May trade), but he could be a big part of another deadline deal this summer.

Siani is the most prominent inclusion among the big leaguers in this latest batch of cuts from Dodgers camp. The 26-year-old defensive specialist figures to be up with Los Angeles at some point in a bench role. Hope is the biggest prospect in this group as he ranks right up there with Eduardo Quintero, Josue De Paula and Mike Sirota as one of the organization’s top prospects.

Tibbs has his first spring homer with the solo shot off Ryan Johnson. A 2024 first-round pick, Tibbs has been traded twice in his early career, and while he doesn’t project to be a star, he has enough of a well-rounded game to potentially become a regular in the next couple of seasons.

We’re not sure how the Dodgers were able to get two prospects in the Red Sox’s top 30 overall prospects for two months of May, especially Tibbs, who was Boston’s 5th-ranked prospect, according to MLB Pipeline. Tibbs was the 13th overall pick in the 2024 MLB Draft and was a central component of the return package in the Rafael Devers trade earlier this summer. That being said, Tibbs hit just .205/.321/.268 in 29 games in Double-A for Boston with a 27.6 percent strikeout rate, so the organization may have questioned his long-term upside. That being said, he’s just 22 years old, so it feels very early to give up on him.