It took until the 136th game of the season but on Sunday, September 4, 2016, Dodgers top ranked right-handed pitching prospect Jose De Leon will make his long awaited and much anticipated major league debut against the San Diego Padres at Dodger Stadium.

“We get to see Jose on Sunday, he’s our Sunday starter,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters on Friday afternoon. “He’s had a fantastic second half of the season (at Triple-A Oklahoma City). He’s earned the right to get up here. So he’s going to make that start on Sunday with Rich Hill going (on Saturday).”

Fantastic indeed. In his 16 starts with the OKC Dodgers De Leon posted a 7-1 record and outstanding 2.61 ERA. But what stands out most about the 24-year-old Isabel, Puerto Rico native are his strikeouts. In his 86.1 innings of work the hard-throwing right-hander struck out 111 while walking only 20 for a Kershaw-like K/BB ratio of 5.55. He also struck out 10 or more batters in five of his 16 starts, including 13 punch outs in his last outing on August 28 against the Colorado Springs Sky Sox (Brewers). The extremely polite and soft-spoken right-hander also owns an alien-like WHIP of 0.94.

De Leon fans have been saying for months that he had nothing more to prove at the minor league level. He will now test his skills at baseball’s highest level on Sunday afternoon. (Photo courtesy of OKC Dodgers)

“Jose I haven’t seen a whole lot but I know that he’s got a very good fastball, he’s got a plus change and he’s got a breaking ball to go along with his mix,” Roberts said. “What I do know about Jose is that he’s a great young man, he’s a hard worker, he’s got a lot of character and he’s from Puerto Rico, so I’m anxious to learn a little bit more about him.”

Roberts last comment was in reference to a spring training assignment given to all rookie non-roster invitees in which they had to share with their teammates and coaches where they were from while giving a geography lesson about their respective hometowns.

De Leon looks over a map of the world as part of his rookie spring training geography assignment.
(Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)

Although Dodger fans have been anxiously awaiting De Leon’s arrival in Los Angeles, Roberts would not commit to saying whether or not De Leon’s Sunday start is a spot start or if he will be inserted into the Dodgers rotation for the remainder of the season.

“He’s going to make a start on Sunday and we’ll see how he fairs, and then we’ll make a decision going forward.” Roberts said.

No matter if it’s only one start or the first of several over the next four weeks, you can be assured of one thing, De Leon’s biggest fan will be watching.

“I think my biggest fan is my grandpa [Abu], that’s who I pitch for. When I was a freshman in college my grandfather was my biggest fan,” said De Leon, during an April 2015 interview with ThinkBlueLA. “In Puerto Rico he was at every single game, no matter where it was, he was there every single time. I remember it was before the season started he passed away and it was devastating, it was brutal.

“I always try to look at things in a positive kind of way and I said ‘Man, this is happening for a reason,'” De Leon added. “I think God is taking over because physically he’s not going to be able to see me pitch, so I know now that he is seeing me pitch, every single pitch, no matter where I’m at. I joke with my dad – ‘I hope I don’t play in a dome because I want him to watch me.'”

I think it’s safe to say that Abu is going to have a perfect, unobstructed view of Jose De Leon pitching for many years to come because there are no plans to put a dome on Dodger Stadium anytime soon – or ever.

Welcome to LA, Jose … and Abu.