{"id":832871,"date":"2026-09-01T09:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T09:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/832871\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T09:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T09:34:10","slug":"padres-to-promote-ethan-salas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/832871\/","title":{"rendered":"Padres To Promote Ethan Salas"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Padres are calling up top catching prospect\u00a0Ethan Salas<\/a>, reports Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune<\/a>. Salas, who turned 20 in June, will be the youngest player in the big leagues. Assuming he makes a defensive appearance, he\u2019ll also be the youngest MLB catcher since Iv\u00e1n Rodr\u00edguez<\/a> debuted as a 19-year-old in 1991.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the culmination of a fantastic rebound season. Salas was a marquee international prospect who signed for a $5.6MM bonus as the top player in the 2023 class. Although he was born in Florida, Salas spent part of his childhood in Venezuela and signed out of Latin America as an amateur. He had played one game in the Venezuelan Winter League before signing with the Padres, a rare feat for a player who was then 16 years old.<\/p>\n

That hinted at how polished the lefty-hitting Salas was on both sides of the ball. San Diego tends to be aggressive with their top prospects and had pushed him to Double-A within a couple months of his 17th birthday. That proved too ambitious, and Salas spent the entire 2024 season (his age-18 campaign) back in High-A.<\/p>\n

Salas struggled that year, hitting .206 with four home runs in 111 games. He lost most of the 2025 season to a back injury. That slightly dimmed his prospect stock, though it ironically might\u2019ve been the best outcome for the Padres in the long run. The back injury all but ensured that Salas wouldn\u2019t be moved at the \u201925 deadline. San Diego wound up giving up top shortstop prospect\u00a0Leo De Vries<\/a> to acquire Mason Miller<\/a> last summer and sent Salas back to Double-A to open 2026.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Healthy again, Salas has reestablished himself as one of the best young talents in the sport. He hit .286\/.361\/.417 across 72 contests to earn a bump to Triple-A El Paso at the end of July. Salas hasn\u2019t had any problem with the top minor league level, batting .326\/.410\/.539 with more walks than strikeouts across 24 games.<\/p>\n

Baseball America<\/a>, FanGraphs<\/a>, Kiley McDaniel of ESPN<\/a> and Keith Law of The Athletic<\/a> each rank Salas as the game\u2019s top catching prospect and among the top 15 minor league talents. MLB Pipeline<\/a> slots Salas 23rd overall and fourth among backstops. He\u2019s unanimously viewed as the marquee talent in an otherwise unimpressive Padres\u2019 system.<\/p>\n

Evaluators are effusive in their praise for Salas\u2019 defensive acumen. There\u2019s a little more question about the offensive ceiling, particularly from a power perspective, but he has shown an advanced approach with excellent contact ability this year.<\/p>\n

San Diego is making a sizable show of faith in calling Salas up in a tight Wild Card race. They\u2019ve gotten decent work out of the Luis Campusano<\/a> and\u00a0Freddy Fermin<\/a>\u00a0duo in the second half, though both players have slumped in the last couple weeks. It\u2019s unclear how much immediate playing time they\u2019ll give Salas, but the Padres could\u2019ve recalled\u00a0Blake Hunt<\/a> or\u00a0Rodolfo Dur\u00e1n<\/a> if they wanted a pure depth catcher to round out the bench.<\/p>\n

Salas adds a left-handed bat to an offense that lost Gavin Sheets<\/a> and the switch-hitting\u00a0Luis Rengifo<\/a> over the weekend. That\u2019d provide some balance off a heavily right-handed bench even if Salas breaks in as the third catcher. He\u2019ll have a few weeks to make a case for a potential playoff roster if San Diego qualifies and\/or an Opening Day spot in 2027. The Friars will need to select his contract but can easily accommodate him by transferring Rengifo to the 60-day injured list, as he\u2019s slated<\/a> for ACL surgery. They\u2019ll also be able to bring up a 14th pitcher for September.<\/p>\n

Despite the late-season call, Salas will remain rookie eligible in 2027 and could net the Padres a future draft pick via the Prospect Promotion Incentive if he breaks camp and meets the award criteria (i.e. Rookie of the Year or a top three MVP finish within his first three seasons). He\u2019ll be under club control for at least six full seasons and won\u2019t qualify for arbitration until the 2029-30 offseason at the earliest.<\/p>\n

The bigger roster consideration is that the Padres are selecting Salas onto the 40-man roster a year earlier than would\u2019ve been necessary to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. That means he\u2019ll be subject to a potential lockout and would be ineligible for minor league play if the work stoppage carries into next season.<\/p>\n

Image courtesy of Joe Camporeale, Imagn Images.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Padres are calling up top catching prospect\u00a0Ethan Salas, reports Kevin Acee of The San Diego Union-Tribune. Salas,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":832872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[47690,99],"class_list":["post-832871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ethan-salas","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832871","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=832871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/832871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/832872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=832871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=832871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=832871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}