Padres Suddenly Have a Top 5 Prospect in All of MLB

A familiar name to Padres fans is familiar to all of baseball — again

San Diego Padres catcher Ethan Salas (90) rounds third base and scores a run against the Los Angeles Dodgers during the second inning at Camelback Ranch-Glendale on Feb. 23, 2025. | Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images

On March 11, 2023, Ethan Salas made his Cactus League debut with the San Diego Padres.

That was incredibly rare for a 16-year-old, and even more so for a catcher.

By 2024, at least one reputable prospect observer was comparing Salas to Hall of Famer Ivan Rodriguez, and projected him to reach the big leagues in 2025 as a 19-year-old.

Flash forward to 2026. Salas, who turns 20 on Monday, hasn't yet reached Triple-A let alone the big leagues. But after an injury forced him to miss all but 10 games last year, and knocked him off a couple Top 100 prospect lists, Salas is back on the national radar.

Keith Law of The Athletic placed Salas fifth on his midseason Top 50 prospect list.

"He’s back," Law wrote. "Our third 19-year-old in Double A — Salas turns 20 on June 1, and I will probably say this a hundred more times before one of us retires, but he’s the first player I ever scouted who was younger than my daughter — has returned from a 2025 lost to a back injury to hit .298/.361/.482 in the first two months of this season.

"He’s receiving well again, and his contact quality is back up now that he’s both healthy and a year older."

What might have been a completely stalled trajectory to the big leagues now looks like a one-year blip. That's good news for the Padres, who have gotten suboptimal offensive production from their catchers all season.

Starter Freddy Fermin has a .407 OPS, with more strikeouts (24) than hits (13). Luis Campusano is on the injured list and his replacement, journeyman Rodolfo Duran, is 2-for-20 (.100) as Fermin's backup. The Padres' catchers have a combined 76 wRC+ (20th in MLB).

Catcher Brandon Valenzuela, whom the Padres signed out of Mexico in 2017, made his big league debut earlier this season and has a solid .736 OPS. Trouble is, he's doing it for the Toronto, after the Padres traded him to the Blue Jays last year.

Salas ostensibly made Valenzuela expendible, and it's not inconceivable that a promotion to Triple-A is at hand.

While Salas won't meet his initial ETA in the big leagues, the four players above him on Law's prospect list — Jesús Made, former Padres prospect Leo De Vries, Franklin Arias and Kade Anderson — might.

It's impressive that the Padres have the No. 5 prospect in baseball. If Salas keeps this up, he won't be ranked that low much longer.

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