Ethan Salas

The highly-touted 18-year-old backstop looked like he fit right in on the big league field on Sunday as he laced an RBI double (103.5 mph EV) off of Giovanny Gallegos to open the scoring in the second inning. He then raced around to score on an RBI single off the bat of Forrest Wall. Salas is extremely unlikely to break through to the big leagues in 2025, but the future behind the plate looks unbelievably bright in San Diego.

Salas is already up to four doubles in the AFL. The 18-year-old struggled in the regular season, but he’s been able to register an .895 thus far in the prospect-heavy league. Salas isn’t likely to be an option for San Diego until 2026, but there’s as much upside in his profile as any catching prospect in the sport.

Salas hit his two-run blast in the seventh inning, and it went an estimated 402 feet with a 100.4 mph exit velocity. The 18-year-old is coming off a disappointing offensive season, but he’s still widely considered one of — if not the — best catching prospect in baseball. The fact he’s playing against this level of competition as an 18-year-old makes it pretty clear how much the Padres believe in Salas in the long-term.

There are no major surprises among the first large batch of cuts for the Padres, as anticipated. With these moves they are now down to 50 players remaining in big league camp. Salas, the 17-year-old phenom, went 2-for-7 with a double and an RBI in his limited Cactus League action this spring. It’s highly unlikely that we see him in the big leagues during the 2024 season, but his time will be coming soon.