CINCINNATI — The Padres will call up 20-year-old catcher Ethan Salas on Tuesday.
The organization’s top prospect will join the team here before the second game of their series against the Reds as one of the two players added at the start of September. Rosters expand to 28 players from the standard 26 for the season’s final calendar month.
Salas, ranked as the 23rd best prospect in baseball by MLB.com, has been playing in Triple-A for a month and has hit .326 with a .949 OPS in 24 games there. He began the season in Double-A.
It is unclear when Salas will catch for the Padres, but the left-handed hitter is expected to get at-bats as the team fights for a playoff spot. That likely will be off the bench and also in some sort of of platoon at designated hitter. The Padres will be more comfortable using Luis Campusano as a DH now that they will have three catchers on the roster.
Salas was signed as a 16-year-old in 2023 and immediately touted as the Padres’ catcher of the future and put on a fast track to the majors. He has spent time in big-league camp the past three spring trainings.
Even with setbacks due to performance and the back injury that wiped out all but 10 games of his ’25 campaign, he will become the youngest active player in the major leagues, at 20 years, 92 days as of Tuesday.
And he has a good chance to be the youngest player to catch in an MLB game since Ivan “Pudge” Rodriguez, who was 19, in 1991.