The Padres top prospect is a step closer to the majors.
Catcher Ethan Salas has been promoted to Triple-A El Paso, continuing a bounce-back season after a back injury limited him to just 10 games last year.
The 20-year-old Salas was hitting .286/.361/.417 with seven homers, 37 RBIs and 14 steals in 72 games in the Texas League. Salas has not homered since May. He had an .883 OPS the first month of the season, an .849 OPS during the second and then posted a .465 OPS in June while missing time with an oblique injury.
Salas, however, represented the Padres in the All-Star Futures Game in July and was hitting .321/.413/.377 in 16 games this month at the time of his first promotion to the Pacific Coast League.
The Padres’ lone consensus top-100 prospect, Salas is ranked No. 30 at MLB.com and No. 11 at Baseball America.
Salas signed for $5.6 million as the top prospect in the 2023 international amateur class, hit nine homers in 48 games that year after starting his career as a 16-year-old in the California League and was aggressively pushed to the Double-A Texas League before the end of the season.
The next year, Salas hit .200/.243/.229 with three homers in 35 games at high Single-A Fort Wayne as the youngest player in the Midwest League for opening day in 2024.
Salas was again the youngest player in the Texas League to start 2025 when a stress reaction in his lower back sent him to the injured list in April. He did not play again in a game until this spring, leading to MLB.com to leave him off their top-100 to start the year.
Now Salas is a level away from the majors and will likely at least enter spring training competing for a spot on the big-league roster if he can continue his success in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.