{"id":412431,"date":"2026-01-17T06:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T06:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/412431\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T06:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T06:52:08","slug":"padres-sign-3-of-the-top-100-international-prospects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/412431\/","title":{"rendered":"Padres sign 3 of the top 100 international prospects"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Joniel<\/p>\n

Joniel Hernandez<\/p>\n

The San Diego Padres have a long history of signing top international prospects. Catcher Ethan Salas signed in 2023, and shortstop Leo De Vries signed in 2024. Top reliever Adrian Morejon was a 2016 signee, part of the biggest and most expensive Padres amateur class.<\/p>\n

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The 2026 signing window opened Jan. 15 and closes on Dec. 15. The Padres have $5.94 million available to them for signing players. The total amount spent so far is not currently publicly known but their two biggest bonuses, $1.4 million to Cuban shortstop Joniel Hernandez and $1 million to Mexican LHP Diego Serna, was a good start.<\/p>\n

Both players are ranked in the top 100, per Baseball America<\/a>, and were joined by Curacao shortstop Timothy Mogen, who signed for $600,00. All three had prior agreements with the organization and the announcements came soon after the opening of the official window.<\/p>\n

#31 Hernandez, 16, is a plus-runner with a plus-arm and athleticism. He has good bat speed and could develop above average power. If he doesn\u2019t stick at shortstop, he has the skills to also profile in center field.<\/p>\n

#45 Serna, 16, could be the best lefty pitcher in the class. He has a starter profile and is already 6-foot-3 and 205 pounds. He throws a mid-90s fastball, a plus-slider and a changeup with an advanced development due to his extensive experience in Mexico.<\/p>\n

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#76 Mogen, 17, is a shortstop from Aruba with plus-speed and a plus-arm and could develop power as he fills out his 6-foot-4, 170-pound frame. He has good contact skills and a high baseball IQ.<\/p>\n

The other players signed in the first 24 hours include:<\/p>\n

RHP Joel Duarte, 17, ($150,000) from Venezuela was training as a shortstop but converted to pitching recently with a plus-arm. At 6-foot-2 and 185 pounds, started with a mid-90s fastball and has topped at 98 mph.<\/p>\n

Catcher Jhoneiker Leon is from Venezuela with a strong arm and plus-power as a hitter.<\/p>\n

RHP Jordan Perez ($300,000) is a Cuban that has starter tools. He currently shows a low-90s fastball and a good curveball.<\/p>\n

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LHP Joel Gonzalez is out of Panama and shortstop Osmy Osorio is from Venezuela. There are no current scouting reports for either of these players.<\/p>\n

Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune reported the above signings as well, but they are not confirmed by the team.<\/p>\n

Expect more players to sign over the next year. All international players must be 16 before they sign and turn 17 by Sept. 1 of the following year. They must all be registered with MLB before signing. All players signed before summer will be part of a group who will start their professional careers as part of the Padres international group that lives and trains at their complex in the Dominican Republic.<\/p>\n

The Dominican Summer League is home to several of the Padres top prospects and last year featured No. 9 prospect Deivid Coronil, an infielder who spent his rookie season as part of the DSL Padres Gold team, and No. 17 prospect Jhoan De La Cruz. Cruz, a shortstop and second baseman, spent his rookie season playing alongside Coronil in the Gold team infield.<\/p>\n

Some DSL players play more than just their rookie season in the Dominican, but the more advanced players transfer stateside to begin their US careers with Lake Elsinore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joniel Hernandez The San Diego Padres have a long history of signing top international prospects. Catcher Ethan Salas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[193590,197839,197841,197840,197842,363,2328,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-412431","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-adrian-morejon","9":"tag-diego-serna","10":"tag-international-players","11":"tag-international-prospects","12":"tag-joniel-hernandez","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-san-diego-padres","15":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}