Yeah, the Padres have a type.

For the 10th straight year, the Padres selected a high-schooler with their first pick to begin the 2026 draft.

Burly, 18-year-old high school pitcher Coleman Borthwick — already sitting on a commitment to Auburn — didn’t exactly hide his intentions after the Padres selected him 21st overall on Saturday afternoon.

“I’ve dreamed for this since I was a kid,” he said on a video conference call from a party at a beach house at Santa Rosa Beach, Fla. “I’m ready to play some baseball, especially over there in California. I’m ready to go beat the Dodgers. That’s my main goal. Whenever I heard San Diego, I was like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s the team to beat the Dodgers.’”

First things first.

As the 21st overall pick with a recommended signing bonus of $4.22 million, the 6-foot-6, 245-pound Borthwick will be the biggest expenditure from the Padres’ $9.48 million bonus pool.

The industry believed Borthwick to be a difficult prospect to sign away from his college commitment, but he said Saturday the chances of him joining the Padres were “almost 100%.” The Padres have until July 27 to sign this draft class.

The Padres selected Canadian high school shortstop Elliot Lascelles with their second-round pick and closed the first day of action with three collegians: right-hander Ryan Lynch, catcher Robbie Lavey and outfielder Alex Conover.

The final pick of the day was compensation for losing right-hander Dylan Cease to the Blue Jays in free agency.

The draft will conclude with the final 16 rounds on Sunday as president of baseball operations A.J. Preller looks to boost a farm system ranked last in the majors by Baseball America following recent trades of prospects for big-league pieces.

In fact, the only first-rounders that Preller has not traded away in more than a decade on the job are big-league center fielder Jackson Merrill (2021) and left-handed pitchers Kash Mayfield (2024) and Kruz Schoolcraft (2025).

The 19-year-old Schoolcraft is currently at low Single-A Lake Elsinore, while the 21-year-old Mayfield is joining catcher Ethan Salas — the organization’s only consensus top-100 prospect — in Philadelphia on Sunday for the All-Star Futures Game.

Borthwick has traits that could put him on the same path.

Borthwick sits in the mid-90s with his fastball and can approach triple digits on the radar gun. He pairs that heat with a mid-80s slider and a changeup that likely tops his developmental to-do list. He simply didn’t need it while striking out 121 batters against seven walks over 65 ⅔ innings (0.21 ERA) his senior year at South Walton High School.

Borthwick also paired nine homers with a 1.498 OPS in helping his high school win a state championship and himself 2025-2026 Gatorade Florida Baseball Player of the Year honors. He was also named the MVP last fall after throwing 10 shutout innings in the championship game against Japan in the 18U World Cup.

“It’s just a track record of domination,” said Chris Kemp, vice president of amateur and international scouting. “Just the ‘compete’ level is so high, which raised our conviction level. There’s just no let-up in the kid. When you’re that dominant and that consistent for as long as he has been, it really stands out.”

Added Preller: “I think if you’re on Team USA and you pitch a championship game against Team Japan, that obviously kind of stamps you as one of the top guys in the country. Had an opportunity to see him this spring, and it’s a very unique player. You don’t see somebody that big that controls his body that well, can also play shortstop and honestly could get drafted or go play college baseball as a two-way player.”

The Padres believe Borthwick’s future is on the mound, and he appears sold on their developmental plan.

“I’ve always wanted to do both as long as I can until baseball tells me I can’t,” Borthwick said. “Right now, baseball’s telling me that I can’t because it’s going to hold me back from making it to the big leagues and being the best player I could possibly be.”

The Padres’ history with Borthwick — via area scout Clint Harrison — dates back to his sophomore year at South Walton, where his dad was the head coach.

A Driveline-like throwing program at that school, Borthwick said, emphasized promoting the durability of a pitcher as much as the velocity that jumped as he neared the draft. He played some high school football as a backup quarterback and middle linebacker, but Borthwick very quickly aimed his future at the diamond.

The Padres making him their top pick on Saturday is the next step in his journey.

He can’t wait to get started.

“Velocity is great; that’s a great thing to have,” Borthwick said. “But the thing that’s going to get you drafted, the thing that’s going to get you to the big leagues is being a competitor and learning to throw strikes while being durable. And that’s what we founded off of that throwing program. We don’t want to be our best at the beginning of the year. We want to be the best at the end to win a high school state championship or a Team USA gold medal and a World Series for the Padres.

“That’s my goal: To be durable at the end, not at the beginning.”

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PADRES’ 2026 DRAFT CLASS

1   |   RHP Coleman Borthwick (South Walton HS, Fla.)
2   |   SS Elliot Lascelles (Upper Canada College HS, Ontario)
3   |   RHP Ryan Lynch (North Carolina)
4   |   C Robbie Lavey (George Washington University)
4C |   OF Alex Conover (Oklahoma State)

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Sunday: Rounds 5-20 (MLB.com, MLB TV)