Padres Promote No. 1 Prospect Ethan Salas To Make MLB Debut

[Steve Drumwright]

The time has come. Ethan Salas, the 20-year-old catcher who is Padres Mission’s No. 1 prospect, will be called up Tuesday as the San Diego Padres continue to make a push for the postseason, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union Tribune reported Monday.

Salas will have his contract selected Tuesday from the Triple-A El Paso Chihuahuas as major-league rosters expand from 26 to 28. The Padres will have to make room on the 26- and 40-man rosters for Salas, who will become the youngest player in the majors when he debuts. Salas has been having the best of his four pro seasons this year, posting a slash line of .296/.374/.448 in 96 games, with career highs in homers (10), runs (54), RBIs (61) and stolen bases (17). That includes a .326/.410/.539 slash line with three homers and 24 RBIs at El Paso in 24 games.

He joins Luis Campusano and Freddy Fermin on the Padres’ roster, both of whom are right-handed hitters.

The 6-foot-1, 185-pound Salas will not be the youngest player to make his MLB debut for the Padres, although not by much. Fernando Tatis Jr. was 20 years, 85 days old when he played his first MLB game on Opening Day in 2019. Salas will be 20 years, 92 days old Tuesday when he joins the Padres for the second game of a three-game road series against the Cincinnati Reds. Salas will become the youngest catcher to appear in an MLB game since Ivan Rodriguez on Oct. 22, 1991, when he was 19 years, 309 days.

A left-handed hitter who plays excellent defense, Salas signed with the Padres for a $5.6 million bonus in January 2023 as a 16-year-old as the international signing period opened. At the time, it was the largest signing bonus for an international player under the current capped system. Salas was born in Kissimmee, Fla., but his father, Jose Sr., is from Venezuela.

He made a splashy debut, appearing in his first pro game that year, just two days before turning 17 on June 1. Salas went 2-for-3 with a walk in his first game for the Low-A Lake Elsinore Storm, then 2-for-2 with two walks in his second game. Salas would go on to put up a .267/.350/.487 slash line with nine homers, 35 RBIs and five stolen bases in 47 games at Lake Elsinore. He was promoted to the High-A Fort Wayne TinCaps and played in nine games, producing a .200/.243/.229 (7-for-37) slash line with three RBIs, then was aggressively moved up to the Double-A San Antonio Missions, who had won the first-half Texas League South Division championship and were playing in the postseason. He played in another nine games with a slash line of .179/.303/.214 (5-for-28).

In 2024 as a 17-year-old, Salas played the entire season at Fort Wayne, where he struggled offensively. He had a slash line of .206/.288/.311 with four homers, 53 RBIs and 10 stolen bases in 111 games. Salas was selected by the Padres to play in the Arizona Fall League, a prospect showcase, and had a .228/.327/.424 slash line in 23 games, hitting four homers and driving in 21 with four steals.

That set him up for a promotion to Double-A San Antonio as an 18-year-old to begin 2025. But Salas developed a stress reaction in his lower back that limited him to just 10 games to begin the season. That lost season and his struggles in the previous season saw his prospect status among various publications plummet, with some not including him in their Top 100 after reaching as high as No. 8 in all of baseball by Baseball America and MLB Pipeline before the 2024 season.

Salas, however, did a lot of work while sidelined and also gave him a chance to breathe following a whirlwind beginning to his pro career.

That time off would be very beneficial to Salas, who has regained the luster on his star status this season. Salas started the season back at Double-A San Antonio and got off to a strong start to the season, posting a .286/.361/.417 slash line with seven homers, 37 RBIs and 14 steals in 72 games, including a .311/.359/.503 mark in his first two months. That earned him a second trip to the Futures Games during All-Star weekend.

The Padres promoted Salas to Triple-A on July 29 and started off with two big games. In his Chihuahuas debut, Salas went 3-for-4 with a walk, a double, a triple, a run scored and two RBIs. The next day, he had two more hits, both doubles, a walk and two RBIs.

Salas has two brothers also in affiliated ball. Jose Salas Jr., 23, is currently an infielder at High-A in the Minnesota Twins’ organization, while 18-year-old Andrew Salas is a shortstop in the Miami Marlins’ chain who played the first half of the season at Low-A and then went to the Florida Complex League.

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