Ethan Salas Is at the Triple-A Doorstep
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The Padres’ top prospect is batting .360 with a 1.053 OPS in Triple-A at 20 — and the August 31 postseason eligibility deadline is running out.
Ten days ago, we covered Ethan Salas’s Triple-A debut. It was a three-run shot in the third inning against Reno, in only his seventh game at the level. That piece ended with one sentence: the call-up conversation was becoming inexorable. This week, a Padres insider confirmed it.
Salas is 20 years old, the No. 1 prospect in the Padres organization, and ranked No. 30 overall by MLB Pipeline. He has played 13 games at Triple-A El Paso since his late July promotion. In 60 plate appearances, he is batting .360 with a 1.053 OPS. He has also driven in 16 runs and hit 2 home runs. But the numbers that define what he is doing are not the ones in the power column. His walk rate is 13.3 percent. His strikeout rate is 11.6 percent. More walks than strikeouts, at 20, in Triple-A. That is prodigious plate discipline — the kind that scouts notice before anything else.
Padres insider Dennis Lin has reported there is a very good chance Salas reaches San Diego in September, with an earlier arrival still possible. Manager Craig Stammen has been measured. He wants Salas healthy and in rhythm. But Stammen has also said Salas is capable of being a major-league player at any point. That’s the front-office version of a green light.
There is a hard clock on this decision. August 31 is the last day a player can be added to a team’s 40-man roster and still be eligible for the postseason. In MLB, the 40-man roster is the list of players a team can use in the playoffs. If the Padres want Salas available in October, they have to act before September arrives. Right now, they are in the wild card race. Organizational decisions usually take weeks and this important choice has days.
The backstory is what makes the stakes feel real. Salas spent most of 2025 watching from the training room. An injury ended his season after just 10 Double-A games. He batted .188. Nothing to build on. Everything to prove. He came back this year and rebuilt at Double-A San Antonio: .286/.361/.417, 7 home runs, 37 RBI, 14 stolen bases across 72 games. Then he earned the Triple-A shot in late July. Since then, he has hit like a player who has been waiting for this level his whole career.
The Padres already have Luis Campusano and Freddy Fermin behind the plate. So Salas would not arrive as a starter. Instead, he would come in as a left-handed bat off the bench. That is still a first look at the room he will eventually own. And if the Padres make the postseason, he would be on the roster — not watching from home the way he did in 2025.
Mastery earned the call. Salas did not force his way up with one flashy game. Instead, he posted a 13.3 percent walk rate and 11.6 percent strikeout rate over 60 Triple-A plate appearances. But those numbers do not come from strength or speed. They come from a 20-year-old catcher who decides, before every plate appearance, what he is willing to swing at. When the count goes against him, he does not change that decision. That discipline is the thing you build at practice. In fact, it is the thing that earns the next level, at any age, at any level. Every young catcher who thinks the jump is about getting stronger should watch what Salas is doing at the plate. Notice what he is not doing: chasing.
The Padres have until August 31. Salas has done everything but buy the plane ticket.
Try this at your next practice
- Zone map drill. Before your next round of live BP, draw your strike zone on a notepad — four squares (up/down, in/out). Every pitch you see in warmups or BP, tap the square it lands in. After 20 pitches, look at the map. Your instinct about what is in your zone and what is not becomes visible. Salas’s walk rate starts with knowing the zone that well.
- Count discipline focus. Ask your coach to call out counts randomly during BP — 0-2, 1-1, 2-0. Your job is to treat a hittable pitch the same no matter what the count is. Don’t expand your zone when the count is against you. The drill teaches you that “hittable” is not a count — it is a location.
- Swing-or-take log. During a bullpen session or BP, track every pitch: swung at or took, and whether it was in or out of your zone. Your goal is zero swings on out-of-zone pitches and zero takes on pitches right down the middle. This is the exact skill Salas is running in 60 Triple-A plate appearances.
Sources: Padres insider puts Ethan Salas on the doorstep of a September call-up (Friarsonbase) · Padres’ Top Prospect Ethan Salas Could Soon Be Knocking on the Door of the Majors (Yahoo Sports) · Padres’ Ethan Salas is Already Dominating in Triple-A (SI) · Padres Ethan Salas promoted to Triple-A (MLB.com)