Padres' Ethan Salas Skyrockets 90 Spots in Latest Prospect Rankings

San Diego Padres top prospect Ethan Salas was perhaps one of the most underrated young talents heading into the 2026 season.

After last year's deadline deal that saw the Padres let go of No. 1 prospect Leo De Vries in exchange for closer Mason Miller, Salas became the new face of the future for the organization.

The only problem: Salas had sustained a back injury and missed most of the 2025 season.

The small sample size from Salas also wasn't encouraging as he hit .188 with an OPS of .544 across 10 games in Double-A last year. His limited performance drastically dropped him in the rankings as he entered big league camp this spring completely out of most Top 100 prospect lists.

After making a few adjustments to his swing and implementing a toe tap, Salas has fully broken out in the minors.

Salas is hitting .298 with six home runs, 24 runs batted in and an OPS of .843 at Double-A this season. The performance has seen him skyrocket in ESPN's Top 100 prospects list, now coming in at No. 20.

Te catcher was previously listed at No. 110. Now, he's climbed 90 spots in a matter of months because of his success this season.

While Salas continues trending upward on MLB's Top 100 prospect ranking, president of baseball operations A.J. Preller recently made it clear the Padres don't plan on bringing him up to the big leagues any time soon.

"I think the great part with Ethan is he's had a really good start to the season. Everything that we've all seen from him in terms of super talented player that can handle a pitching staff, defend the position, swing the bat well — he's wired the right way, he wants to be really good, he asks all the right questions, all those things. We've seen with results, which is fun when all that comes together," Preller said on 97.3 The Fan.

"You start seeing the prospect rankings and now he's — miraculously a month later he's now towards the top of the prospect rankings. I think we all take it with a grain of salt. He's still a minor league player. He's still developing. The minor league group talked about it yesterday, there's still a lot of things that he has to do and check the box in terms of the development card. But he's got that type of ability, that one day down the road he's gonna help lead us."

The 19-year-old has shown some promising characteristics in this recent stretch of the season and he will continue making headlines with a strong performance in the minors.

For now, Salas will continue checking off all the boxes necessary before debuting in the big leagues over the next

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