Top Dodgers prospect Josue De Paula hit a three-run home run in the 2025 MLB Futures Game in the National League’s 4-2 win over the American League at Truist Park in Atlanta. That earned the outfielder the Larry Doby Award as the game’s Most Valuable Player.
De Paula is the second Dodger to win MVP in the 27-year history of the Futures Game, joining shortstop Chin-lung Hu in 2007 in San Francisco.
Zyhir Hope, another top-50 Dodgers prospect and De Paula’s fellow 20-year-old teammate with High-A Great Lakes, batted fifth and started in center field on Saturday. Hope singled to open the fourth inning, then 18-year-old Brewers second baseman Jesús Made did the same. That set the stage for De Paula to blast a home run over the wall in right center field.
The MLB Network broadcast later showed that De Paula’s 108.5-mph exit velocity made it the fifth-hardest-hit home run in Futures Game history. The left-handed-hitting De Paula hit the home run off White Sox minor league left-hander Noah Schultz, which isn’t too surprising considering half of De Paula’s 10 home runs are against southpaws this season despite only 30 percent of his plate appearances coming against lefties, against whom De Paula is hitting .333/.451/.536.
Jarrett Seidler of Baseball Prospectus posted during the game that De Paula “is the best hit/power prospect in the minors. Let’s not talk about his defense.”
Both De Paula and Hope played four of the seven innings, with De Paula playing left field on Saturday.
To top it all off, De Paula was presented the MVP award by Ken Griffey Jr. on the field after the game.