Dodgers might have telegraphed future second base plans with top prospect in Arizona Fall League

Front offices rarely announce their long-term plans out loud, and usually tend to hold their hands close to their chest. More often, they reveal them in the margins — through a late-season promotion, a spring training invite or switching a top prospect’s position when they’re getting close to impacting the big league team. For the Dodgers, that tell might be the move they just made with Charles Davalan in the Arizona Fall League.

Regular readers might be sick of me banging the drum for Chuck since seeing him in Midland this summer, but nothing he's done since has changed my mind. He went on to win Midwest League MVP after hitting .292/.402/.535 with 24 homers, 17 steals and more walks (63) than strikeouts (57), leading the league in hits and doubles. He also set the tone atop the order in one wild playoff inning that showed just how loaded the Dodgers' next wave is.

The Dodgers took Davalan 41st overall out of Arkansas in 2025, and he's already climbed to No. 79 on MLB Pipeline's Top 100. Now, the organization is asking him to do something new.

Why the Dodgers are testing Charles Davalan at second base

Davalan played left and center field all season, but the Dodgers have him manning second base in the Arizona Fall League, a position he hadn't played since his freshman year at Florida Gulf Coast. He told MLB.com the club approached him with about a month left in the season and that he's "super open-minded" about the switch.

If you only glance at the numbers, the picture is not the prettiest. Through 16 games, Davalan is hitting .217/.333/.350 with three errors, and he's been honest that his footwork and double-play turns are still a work in progress. But the bat was never the reason he was sent to Arizona. The Dodgers told him to focus on his defense, and FanGraphs' Eric Longenhagen wrote that the return to second base is "going well." 

At the plate, the assignment is really about reps against better arms, the velocity, pitch shapes, command and sequencing that start to separate Double-A, Triple-A and big-league pitching. A six-to-eight-week sample won't define his future, but the lumps he takes now, both in the box and around the bag, could help those adjustments come a lot sooner.

I don’t think the timing is an accident, either. Miguel Rojas retired after the NLCS, Kiké Hernández is a free agent, and the Dodgers have been patching second base with role players and Alex Freeland. In my opinion, Davalan profiles as the premium version of Freeland, a contact-first hitter with real on-base skills and enough pop to hit in the middle of a lineup. If he can handle the position, he'd be an upgrade over anything Los Angeles has run out there recently, and a move to the infield gives him a path that doesn't have him competing with Josue De Paula, Eduardo Quintero and Mike Sirota for roster space.

I don't expect Davalan to break camp with the big-league club in 2027. He has just one game of Double-A experience, and the Dodgers' depth gives them no reason to rush him. But I'd be surprised if he doesn't get a big league camp invite (if we have one), where he can show the staff his bat and see how he fits in the clubhouse. If the glove keeps progressing and he hits in Double-A the way he did in High-A, it wouldn't be a shock to see him playing second base at Dodger Stadium sooner rather than later.

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