Ethan Salas Is Finding Out Just How Tough the Majors Can Be

[Sam Caulder]

The jump from Triple-A to the major leagues is a tough adjustment for any young player, and the San Diego Padres’ top prospect, catcher Ethan Salas, is finding that out the hard way.

Now before we get too far, it’s worth noting that we’re dealing with a very small sample here. Salas has only logged 17 major league plate appearances since being called up earlier this month, so there’s obviously not enough data to draw any meaningful conclusions about his future. But there hasn’t been a whole lot of success in those 17 trips to the plate.

Salas has gone 1-for-17 in that span with no walks and seven strikeouts. His lone hit was a triple, and it would’ve been a home run at a handful of ballparks. But while you should definitely take any data in this small of a sample with a grain of salt, it’s not pretty. Just three of the 10 balls he’s put in play have been hard-hit. He’s also chasing out of the zone a lot more than he did in the minors, while making far less contact when he does so. After striking out in just 14.3% of his minor-league plate appearances this season, that number is up to 41.2% in his first cup of coffee in the majors.

Although this is far from the start any of us were hoping for, it’s important to remember who we’re talking about here. Salas turned 20 in June. For probably 99.9% of professional baseball players, they’re not even sniffing the major leagues at that age. Let alone a catcher, where you have to be able to call the game and be in control of the diamond at a very high level.

Catchers often take a while to work their way through the minor leagues because of everything they have to learn and manage at the position. Salas, meanwhile, has already worked his way through the minors and is now getting his first taste of major league baseball at just 20 years old. That’s not normal.

It’s also worth remembering that we’ve already seen Salas have success against high-level pitching as recently as a few weeks ago. After being promoted to Triple-A El Paso, Salas posted a .949 OPS over 24 games. He also had 11 extra-base hits and walked more times than he struck out, showing a very well-rounded approach at the plate. That’s pretty much everything the Padres could have asked for from him at the highest level of minor-league baseball, and he can’t even buy himself a beer for nine more months. Again, that’s not normal.

There’s a reason Salas has been regarded as one of the top prospects in baseball for so long. The Padres have watched him handle every challenge they’ve thrown his way at an extremely young age, and he has continued to move through the organization at a remarkable pace. Major-league pitchers are going to expose weaknesses that minor-league pitchers might not. They’re going to attack the strike zone differently, execute pitches more consistently, and force young hitters to make adjustments. Salas is getting his first look at that right now, and it hasn’t gone particularly well. But there’s a big difference between struggling in your first 17 plate appearances and struggling over an entire season. There’s an even bigger difference between struggling at 20 years old and struggling as an established major-league player. That’s why I don’t think there’s any reason to overreact to what we’ve seen from Salas so far.

Obviously, the strikeout and chase numbers are worth monitoring as Salas gets more opportunities. If those issues continue over a much larger sample, then it will be fair to start looking more closely at what’s going wrong. But we’re nowhere near that point yet.

San Diego doesn’t need him to take over the starting catcher duties for a playoff hopeful team right now. They don’t even need him to be the backup. This is about getting him a taste of what major league pitching looks like before he’s eventually thrust into a much more impactful role.

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