Padres Notes: SD Officially Releases Veteran, Jackson Merrill Injury Update, Ethan Salas Development

The San Diego Padres lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-0, on Wednesday night and fell to 29-20 on the year.

Star outfielder Jackson Merrill left Wednesday's contest early due to his attempt at robbing Dodgers starting pitcher Shohei Ohtani's home run that was hit on the first pitch of the game. Manager Craig Stammen said after the game that Merrill is having testing done on his back and more information will be available on Thursday or Friday.

“He’s never gonna say I need to come out of the game,” Stammen said. “I have to personally take him out of the game, and so we tried to let him gut it out a little bit, and just seeing him moving around the outfield didn’t look right to me.”

Ahead of the series finale, the Friars released a veteran who joined the squad on a minor league deal in December. The 27-year-old had a breakout spring training, hitting .304 with a .907 OPS across 22 appearances. However, he didn't get an MLB opportunity, and now next chapter of his baseball life will not be with the Padres organization.

Finally, minor league standout Ethan Salas has continued to shine in Double-A with six home runs, 23 RBIs and a .303 batting average. President of baseball operations AJ Preller touched on the catcher's development and when he can one day be promoted to the majors.

"You start seeing the prospect rankings and now he's — miraculously a month later he's now towards the top of the prospect rankings," Preller said. "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 current backstop situation in San Diego consists of Freddy Fermin and rookie catcher Rodolfo Durán. Luis Campusano is also one of the mainstays behind the dish, but is still on the injured list nursing a left toe fracture.

Here’s all the latest Padres news and stories (click the headline for the full article):

Padres Officially Release Offseason Addition in Surprise Move

Padres' Jackson Merrill Exits Game vs Dodgers With Apparent Injury in Concerning Development

AJ Preller Reveals When Padres Could Promote Ethan Salas to MLB

Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts Shares Thoughts on Padres' $3.9 Billion Sale

One Dodgers Hitter Believes He Knows How to Beat Padres' Mason Miller

Dave Roberts Says Dodgers Have Benefitted From Padres' Success

Padres Announce Lineup for Huge Series Finale vs Dodgers

Padres Tweets of the Day

Jackson Merrill was already gone by the time we got to the Padres clubhouse. Craig Stammen says he's having some testing done and they'll know more tomorrow or Friday. Said he felt discomfort on back after hitting wall on Ohtani HR
— Marty Caswell (@MartyCaswell) May 21, 2026

Padres manager Craig Stammen says Jackson Merrill is getting testing done on his back and the team is waiting on more information.
— 97.3 The Fan (@973TheFanSD) May 21, 2026

Hold up, pose ✨ pic.twitter.com/OABvMlGw9l
— San Diego Padres (@Padres) May 20, 2026

Craig Stammen discussed his expectations for Randy Vasquez, the impact that "the little things" can have on a series like this and how the Padres can make life difficult when facing Shohei Ohtani on the mound: pic.twitter.com/4BMmunG3Zm
— 97.3 The Fan (@973TheFanSD) May 20, 2026

Vásquez on the bump against the Dodgers. pic.twitter.com/LheHnIe33L
— SleeperPadres (@SleeperPadres) May 20, 2026

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