2026 San Diego Padres Top Prospects Ranking

Salas, who played with players twice his age in the Venezuelan winter league just months before signing, made his debut in the Padres organization two days before his 17th birthday, playing for the Low-A Lake Elsinore Storm.

Coming from a baseball family—dad Jose Salas Sr. played catcher in the Atlanta system, his paternal grandfather and his dad's brother played in the minors and Ethan has two brothers currently in the minors (Jose Jr. with the Minnesota Twins and Andrew with the Miami Marlins)—Salas had a wealth of knowledge that helped elevate his prospect status. Plus, being a 6-foot-2, 185-pounder who would have had to wait another year or two before being drafted doesn't hurt, either.

He was a rare catcher that not only had elite defense, but had a good approach at the plate as a left-handed hitter. He has a proclivity for hitting the ball to all fields and was scouted with plus power. Salas showed those skills at Lake Elsinore. In his first 48 professional games, Salas had a slash line of .267/.350/.487 with nine homers, 35 RBIs and five stolen bases. Defensively, he had just one error and threw out eight of 37 steal attempts.

As the Padres are wont to do, Salas was quickly promoted to the High-A Fort Wayne TinCaps. He wasn't there very long, playing in just nine games with Fort Wayne and struggling offensively with a .200/.243/.229 slash line. With the season coming to an end, the Padres surprisingly moved Salas up again, this time to the Double-A San Antonio Missions, where he spent another nine games. There, he had a slash line of .179/.303/.214.

Baseball America and MLB Pipeline each had Salas ranked as the No. 8 prospect in baseball as he returned to Fort Wayne to start the 2024 season as a 17-year-old, the youngest player in the Midwest League. This time, he stuck around for 113 games, but the offense he showed at Lake Elisnore wasn't there. Salas put together a .206/.288/.311 slash line with four homers, 53 RBIs and 10 steals, playing against players who on average were 4.3 years older than he was. He threw out 28 of 111 runners attempting to steal in 67 games at catcher. With a full season under his belt, the Friars sent him to the Arizona Fall League, a prospect showcase. The offense was still a work in progress as he finished with a .228/.327/.424 slash line, but he did pop four homers and drove in 21.

The lack of offense started to dampen Salas' prospect luster, as Baseball America dropped him to No. 31 and MLB Pipeline to No. 33 entering 2025. Now 18 years old, Salas went up to Double-A, where he was five years younger than the average player in the Texas League. But just 10 games into the season, Salas' campaign came to an abrupt end with a stress reaction in his lower back.

Salas, now 19, is likely returning to San Antonio to begin 2026. He participated in major-league camp this year, but went just 2-for-11 (.182). He slid further in the prospect rankings, tumbling to No. 90 in the Baseball America list and not being included in MLB Pipeline's Top 100. Some outlets even moved Salas to No. 2 in the Padres' system, behind last year's first-round draft pick, left-handed starter Kruz Schoolcraft.

All of this adds up to making 2026 a key year for Salas. The defense is still there, with improvements made to his throwing process to better cut down runners. His approach at the plate has been considered simple (in a good way, with fewer moving parts) and he had an 86% in-zone contact rate in 2024 and his brief stint in 2025 before being hurt. He improved his strikeout rate by about five percentage points from 2023 to 2024 even though he didn't fare well against breaking balls.

How the Friars treat Salas if he has success offensively will be something to watch. Double-A pitching is sometimes better than Triple-A pitching due to the number of prospects at the second-highest minor-league level, so any development on that front would be a huge boon for the best catcher in the system.

While he was out injured last year and continuing this offseason, Salas worked with a number of people who have catching experience in the Padres' organization, including A.J. Ellis, Scott Servais and Mike Borzello, a current advance scout with a lot of experience on championship-winning teams as a bullpen catcher and catching coach.

It helped Salas with game-planning and other items to sharpen him defensively. He is now up to 215 pounds (and down to 6-foot-1 in revised measurements) and worked to shorten his swing to improve his offense.

"Cerebrally he’s advanced for his age, and for as little as he’s played, he absorbs the information really well," Borzello told the San Diego Union-Tribune. "Now it’s just about playing and getting reps."

Added Salas: "I think that’s why I didn’t see last year as the biggest negative in the world. I just took a lot of time to reflect, kind of make a plan starting forward and how I want to start going about things and I want to start playing and taking care of my business."

With better health, Salas could make a loud return to top prospect lists around the league in 2026. Hard as it is to believe, he's still just a teenager, as he won't turn 20 until June.

The San Diego Padres organization has been extra cautious with Kash Mayfield ever since taking the left-hander 25th overall in the 2024 MLB Draft. They delayed his pro debut until last April, and then the team capped his workload for Low-A Lake Elsinore tightly. Mayfield never worked more than five innings or threw more than 80 pitches in a game. His innings limit shrank further in midseason after he missed three weeks in May and June with inflammation in his pitching shoulder.

When he did take the mound, he showed a lot of promise. Over 19 games (all starts) and 60 2/3 innings, Mayfield produced a 2.97 ERA/3.06 FIP, a 34.1 percent strikeout rate, a 3.14 strikeout-to-walk ratio, and a 43.6 percent ground-ball rate. He was excellent at keeping the ball in the yard, allowing just two home runs in a hitter-friendly environment. His 10.9 percent walk rate was a blemish, if only slightly, given his youth and lack of consistent reps.

He succeeded despite working with a diminished arsenal. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported last September that Mayfield's fastball velocity was down about 3 mph from his days at Elk City (Okla.) High School; he topped out at 94 mph in the Cal League, compared to 97 mph in the prep ranks. The 21-year-old's offseason plans included adding weight and strength. That could bump the velocity back up.

Other aspects of pitching helped him compensate. The heater had lively arm-side run, and Mayfield created deception with both the extension from his 6-4 frame and a relatively low release point. A mid-80s changeup and upper-70s slider gave him excellent separation. In fact, the changeup is thought to be Mayfield's best pitch. It has big-time sink and fade, making it a weapon against right-handed batters, and his arm speed creates great deception. His mechanics are considered advanced; his motion looks smooth and repeatable.

Mayfield was one of 21 pitchers in the preliminary player pool for the Padres' Spring Breakout game on March 21 against the Chicago Cubs' top prospects. A strong outing against high-level competition would give him a nice boost ahead of his second minor-league season, which should begin at High-A Fort Wayne.