One year and one day after making his Red Sox organizational debut, Dodgers prospect James Tibbs III became the first hitter in the Pacific Coast League to reach the 20 home run mark this season.
Tibbs proved to be the hero for Triple-A Oklahoma City in Thursday’s matinee against Sacramento at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. After going hitless in his first four at-bats, the 23-year-old slugger led off the bottom of the 10th inning by belting a 360-foot two-run shot over the left field wall, driving in old friend Ryan Fitzgerald and himself to lift the Comets to a 5-4 win over the River Cats in walk-off fashion.
With Thursday’s late-game heroics, Tibbs became the eighth hitter across Minor League Baseball so far in 2026 to reach the 20-homer mark. The left-handed hitter also matched his home run total from last season, his first full professional campaign, doing so in 54 fewer games.
Overall, Tibbs is batting .297/.413/.602 with 17 doubles, two triples, 20 home runs, 61 RBIs, 63 runs scored, three stolen bases, 51 walks, and 83 strikeouts through 69 games (320 plate appearances) for Oklahoma City this season, his first at the Triple-A level. He is slashing .310/.404/.690 against lefties and .291/.416/.560 against righties in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.
Defensively, Tibbs has primarily been used at two positions by the Comets. The 5-foot-11, 201-pounder has made 25 starts at first base (where he has committed three errors in 216 chances) and 22 starts in right field (where he has committed four errors and recorded one assist in 45 chances). He has also made 20 starts at DH, including Thursday, and has prior experience in left field.
For as successful as Tibbs has been this season, it may come as a surprise that he is already with his third organization since being drafted in 2024. The Florida State product was taken 13th overall by the Giants that summer and signed for $4.7475 million, only to be traded to the Red Sox as the top prospect switching teams in last June’s Rafael Devers blockbuster. He then spent all of six-plus weeks in Boston’s system at Double-A Portland before being dealt once again ahead of July’s trade deadline, this time to the Dodgers alongside fellow minor leaguer Zach Ehrhard for Dustin May.
The Red Sox, for what it is worth, never seemed overly enamored by Tibbs in the first place. They had an opportunity to draft him with the 12th overall pick in 2024, but chose another college outfielder in Braden Montgomery (who was later dealt to the White Sox as part of the Garrett Crochet trade). Upon acquiring Tibbs from the Giants, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow and Co. attempted to alter his swing (to no avail) and subsequently made him available to other teams in trade deadline talks. The Dodgers, looking to move on from a struggling free agent-to-be in May, happily obliged.
“Breslow’s willingness to include Tibbs to acquire a fringe rental starter surprised members of the Red Sox, Dodgers, and Giants front offices, sources with those teams said,” The Boston Globe’s Tim Healey wrote last week. “The Dodgers ‘couldn’t agree to that fast enough,’ a source said, when the Sox proposed giving up Tibbs and Ehrhard.”
As he explained to MLB.com’s Cole Weintraub last August, Tibbs worked with Double-A Tulsa hitting coach Blake Gailen to refine his swing and return to the form he showed at Florida State, where he earned 2024 ACC Player of the Year honors in his last season with the Seminoles. The adjustments have seemingly paid off. This year alone, he received his first invitation to major league spring training, made the All-Spring Breakout First Team, and has twice been named Pacific Coast League Player of the Week.
Tibbs, who does not turn 24 until October, is currently ranked by Baseball America as the Dodgers’ No. 13 prospect. If he were not positionally blocked, he likely would have made his major league debut by now. Instead, he now projects as one of the summer’s more intriguing trade chips as Los Angeles aims for a third straight World Series title, leaving the Red Sox to wonder what could have been.
(Picture of James Tibbs III: Brandon Sloter/Getty Images)
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