{"id":161843,"date":"2026-02-03T12:36:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T12:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/161843\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T12:36:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T12:36:23","slug":"padres-spring-training-primer-catchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/161843\/","title":{"rendered":"Padres spring training primer: Catchers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pitchers and catchers will report to the Padres\u2019 spring training complex by Feb. 11 ahead of the first full-team workout on Feb. 15.<\/p>\n

To get you prepped for spring training, we\u2019re taking a deep dive into each corner of the organization\u2019s roster.<\/p>\n

First up, the Padres\u2019 catchers:<\/p>\n

2025 recap<\/p>\n

Trading away more than 10 years of control bundled up in Stephen Kolek and Ryan Bergert to install a career backup as the No. 1 catcher says everything you need to know about the Padres\u2019 success at the position in 2025.<\/p>\n

The Padres placed an emphasis on run prevention in choosing Elias D\u00edaz and Mart\u00edn Maldonado as the catching tandem over the homegrown Luis Campusano. The duo certainly did that, guiding the pitching staff to the eighth-lowest ERA (3.66) through the first half of the season. But offense was a struggle: Padres catchers ranked 27th with a .597 OPS at the time of the trade deadline, prompting Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller to give up two rookie starting pitchers to see if Freddy Fermin could blossom outside of the shadow of Royals veteran Salvador P\u00e9rez.<\/p>\n

Fermin thrived through his first 10 games as a full-time starter (.885 OPS), too, but he still finished with worse numbers as the Padres\u2019 No. 1 catcher (.617 OPS in 42 games) than he did as the Royals\u2019 backup catcher (.648 OPS in 67 games) in 2025.<\/p>\n

D\u00edaz remained on the roster as the backup catcher, but a strained oblique over the final homestand led the Padres to bring back Maldonado \u2014 released after the trade deadline \u2014 and call up Campusano as emergency options in the NL Wild Card Series. Neither appeared in the series.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"LuisLuis Campusano #15 of the San Diego Padres and Nick Pivetta\u00a0#27 walk to the dugout during a practice before the Wildcard series against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on Sept. 29, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by K.C. Alfred \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)
\nCurrent picture<\/p>\n

Fermin won\u2019t be a free agent until after the 2029 season, so he has four years to assert himself atop the depth chart. To date, he\u2019s a .263\/.308\/.374 hitter across 918 plate appearances as a starter.<\/p>\n

While there\u2019s ample opportunity for Campusano to wrestle away playing time, he\u00a0hasn\u2019t done much with the chances he\u2019s received since pairing six homers with a .331\/.375\/.500 batting line in the second half of the 2023 season.<\/p>\n

The former second-rounder was the opening-day starter in 2024 only to lose the starting job to Kyle Higashioka and then the backup job to D\u00edaz. And in 2025, Campusano went 0-for-21 with 11 strikeouts in sporadic at-bats as a DH. First-year manager Craig Stammen said the out-of-options Campusano has nothing left to prove at Triple-A El Paso, where he had 25 homers and a 1.035 OPS last year in his fifth tour through the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.<\/p>\n

That makes Campusano the leading candidate to take the second catching spot<\/a> on the roster. Campusano\u2019s perceived shortcomings behind the plate \u2014 even with Dylan Cease\u2019s no-hitter on his resume \u2014 led him to seemingly fall out of favor with past managers Bob Melvin and Mike Shildt. Perhaps the arrival of the automatic ball-strike system will impact the position battle.<\/p>\n

Without any other catchers on the 40-man roster, the Padres turned to a familiar face to fill out the room this spring, signing Blake Hunt \u2014 a former second-rounder shipped to the Rays in the Blake Snell trade \u2014 to a minor league deal that includes an invitation to spring training.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old posted a career-high .820 OPS despite playing just 68 games last year at Triple-A Tacoma.<\/p>\n

Meantime, the 27-year-old Rodolfo Duran is coming off the best season of his minior-league career. He paired 16 homers and an .847 OPS in 86 games while sharing catching duties last year at El Paso with Campusano.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"PadresPadres catch Ethan Salas looks on during a spring training workout on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. (K.C. Alfred \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)
\nOn the farm<\/p>\n

Ethan Salas, still only 19 years old, remains the jewel of the Padres\u2019 system, but that doesn\u2019t mean quite the same thing as it did the day he signed for $5.6 million as the top prospect in the 2023 international class.<\/p>\n

For one, the trades Preller has made over the last few seasons have repeatedly thinned out the Padres\u2019 farm system. And Salas\u2019 development has stalled since he hit nine homers in 66 games (.752 OPS) immediately after signing.<\/p>\n

Salas hit .206\/.288\/.311 over 113 games the following year at high Single-A Fort Wayne and had played just 10 games last year at Double-A San Antonio (.188\/.325\/.219) when a stress reaction in the lower right side of his back sent him to the shelf.<\/p>\n

Salas did not play the rest of the 2025 season and did not appear in the Arizona Fall League or winter ball. Preller has said the organization is erring on the side of caution with a young player, but it\u2019s been more than two years since Salas generated any tangible momentum toward becoming a future All-Star catcher.<\/p>\n

Beyond Salas, 22-year-old Lamar King Jr. reached high Single-A Fort Wayne in 2025 after years of shoulder trouble. And last year\u2019s draft added fifth-rounder Ty Harvey and 11th-rounder Truitt Madonna. Harvey and Madonna both reached Lake Elsinore in 2025 and should return to the low Single-A California League to start this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pitchers and catchers will report to the Padres\u2019 spring training complex by Feb. 11 ahead of the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161844,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,1334,74,76,75,2611,127],"class_list":{"0":"post-161843","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-latest-headlines","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-san-diego","11":"tag-san-diego-headlines","12":"tag-san-diego-news","13":"tag-san-diego-padres","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}