Ethan Salas: From Padres Call-Up to a 352-Foot First Hit
San Diego called up 20-year-old Ethan Salas on September 1. His first hit took six games to arrive and went 352 feet off the wall at Oracle Park.
Most catchers spend years in the minors learning a pitching staff before anyone trusts them with a big-league game. The Padres called up Ethan Salas at 20, in the middle of a Wild Card race. According to MLB researcher Sarah Langs, his first start behind the plate made him the youngest big-league catcher since Iván Rodríguez in 1991.
Salas’ first MLB hit took a week to arrive. It came on September 13 in San Francisco, where he drove a 2-2 fastball from Logan Webb off the wall for a triple. No Padre has ever hit a triple at a younger age.
The Padres called him up on the last day he could still play in October
In August we looked at the month at Triple-A that put Salas on the doorstep. The Padres made the call on the night of August 31, and Salas joined the club the next day. That was the day rosters expanded from 26 players to 28.
A player has to be on the 40-man roster by September 1 to be eligible for a playoff roster later. By calling Salas up that day, the Padres kept a 20-year-old catcher available for October.
Salas signed at 16 and was the best catching prospect in baseball by 20
San Diego signed Salas at 16 for $5.6 million, as the top international prospect in the 2023 class. MLB Pipeline now ranks him first in the Padres system and 23rd in all of baseball. Baseball America, FanGraphs, ESPN and The Athletic all rank him the best catching prospect in the sport.
He also bats left-handed, unlike most catchers, and a left-handed bat was exactly what San Diego was short of.
He rebuilt his climb one level at a time
A back injury cost Salas most of 2025 after only 10 games at Double-A San Antonio. He opened 2026 back at that same level and played 72 games there. He hit .286 with 7 home runs and a .361 on-base percentage. That good but quiet season earned him a promotion to Triple-A El Paso on July 29.
The bat got louder in El Paso, where Salas hit .326 with a .949 OPS over 24 games. The number worth circling sits underneath those two, because he walked 14 times and struck out only 10.
A hitter who walks more often than he strikes out knows where the strike zone ends. For a catcher, that same eye also knows when to call for a slider in the dirt.
He went hitless through his first six big-league games
Salas started his first major league game behind the plate on September 2 against Cincinnati. Over his first six games he caught three and served as the designated hitter in three more. He went 0-for-14 at the plate across those games.
His catching work never paused while his swing was missing. On his nights behind the plate, a team chasing a postseason spot still trusted him with its pitching staff. He still had to block pitches in the dirt and remember what each hitter chased early in the game.
A 2-2 fastball from Logan Webb went to the wall
Game seven came on Sunday night, September 13, at Oracle Park in San Francisco. That night’s starting pitchers were Nick Pivetta for San Diego and Logan Webb for the Giants. Salas was catching Pivetta, and he struck out looking against Webb in the second inning.
He came up again in the fourth, and the count ran to 2-2. Webb came back with a high four-seam fastball, and Salas turned on it.
The ball carried 352 feet over the center fielder’s glove and off the wall in right-center, and Salas kept running into third. Fernando Tatis Jr. followed with a single to center that scored him and put San Diego ahead 6-2. The Padres held on to win 6-4 and complete a three-game sweep.
Two innings later, manager Craig Stammen sent Freddy Fermin up to pinch-hit for Salas. That left Salas 1-for-2 on the day, and his one hit was the triple.
No Padre has ever tripled at a younger age
Born June 1, 2006, Salas was 20 years and 104 days old when that ball hit the wall. According to the reporting on the game, that made him the youngest player in Padres history to hit a triple.
His own pitcher talked about the other half of the job
Pivetta threw to Salas all night, which made him the closest witness to the work. Afterward, as The Sporting Tribune reported it, he did not lead with the triple. Pivetta said: “It’s the overall knowledge of what’s going on, the recall. He’s a professional, he does a great job back there.”
That praise went to a 20-year-old working with a big-league pitching staff through a playoff race. It described the half of his first two weeks that never went badly.
In the same report, Stammen spoke about the hit itself: “He played his way to have the opportunity to play in the big leagues and it was a good feeling for everybody when that ball fell in.” The manager said Salas played his way there, which covers much more than hitting.
The at-bats will come
Salas did not skip a step to get here. He lost a season and went back to a level he had already passed. Then he played 72 ordinary games at Double-A before his 24 loud ones at Triple-A. In the majors, he went six games without a hit and still earned his pitcher’s praise for his recall.
When your bat goes quiet for three straight games, your pitcher is still standing sixty feet, six inches away. He still needs you to get your chest in front of a curveball in the dirt. He also needs you to know what the cleanup hitter chased last time.
That part of the job stays open on the days when nothing else works. Doing it well is how a catcher stays in the lineup long enough for the hits to show up.
Try this at your next practice
- The one-line scouting card. After every inning you catch, write down one thing you learned about the hitter who just batted. Note what he chased, what he took, or where he stood in the box. Salas’ own pitcher praised his recall, and remembering hitters is what that kind of praise is made of.
- Blocking reps at the end, not the start. Move your blocking work to the last fifteen minutes of practice, when you are tired and frustrated. Salas caught three big-league games while he was still looking for his first hit. The skill has to hold up on a day when nothing else does.
- Twenty swings with two strikes. Off a machine or front toss, start every rep with two strikes, at 0-2, 1-2 or 2-2. Count how many balls you put in play instead of how many you square up. Salas’ first hit came on a 2-2 count against a big-league starter, where a shorter swing is how you survive.
Sources: Padres fast start is enough once again to complete sweep, Salas gets first hit (The Sporting Tribune) · Padres top prospect Salas triples for 1st big league knock (MLB.com) · Ethan Salas triples for first MLB hit (NBC Sports) · Padres’ Ethan Salas makes history with triple as first MLB hit (Yardbarker) · Padres 6-4 Giants box score, September 13, 2026 (ESPN) · Ethan Salas player page and game log (MLB.com) · Padres To Promote Ethan Salas (MLB Trade Rumors) · Reports: Padres to call up catching prospect Ethan Salas (ESPN) · Ethan Salas being called up to Padres (MLB.com) · San Diego Padres Promote No. 1 Prospect Ethan Salas to Triple-A (MiLB.com)