High Prospects Collection

Under is an evaluation of the prospects within the farm system of the San Diego Padres. Scouting reviews had been compiled with data offered by business sources in addition to my very own observations. That is the third yr we’re delineating between two anticipated reduction roles, the abbreviations for which you’ll see within the “place” column under: MIRP for multi-inning reduction pitchers, and SIRP for single-inning reduction pitchers. The ETAs listed usually correspond to the yr a participant must be added to the 40-man roster to keep away from being made eligible for the Rule 5 draft. Guide changes are made the place they appear acceptable, however I take advantage of that as a rule of thumb.

A fast overview of what FV (Future Worth) means will be discovered right here. A a lot deeper overview will be discovered right here.

The entire ranked prospects under additionally seem on The Board, a useful resource the positioning gives that includes sortable scouting data for each group. It has extra particulars (and up to date TrackMan information from numerous sources) than this text and integrates each workforce’s checklist so readers can examine prospects throughout farm techniques. It may be discovered right here.

Different Prospects of Word

Grouped by kind and listed so as of desire inside every class.

Catching Depth
Oswaldo Linares, C
Lamar King Jr., C
Juan Fernandez, C
Yoiber Ocopio, C
Oliver Carrillo, C

Linares, 20, was a two-year DSL man who was despatched to Lake Elsinore not lengthy after the Complicated League season began. He seemed superb throughout prolonged spring coaching, exhibiting really feel for the barrel and a satisfactory look behind the dish. He has 40-grade bat velocity however is in any other case a fairly well-rounded younger catcher. King, whose dad performed defensive finish for the Seahawks, was a $500,000 highschool signee in 2022. He’s extraordinarily bodily and has gotten significantly better on protection over the last yr, however he’s nonetheless a long-term dev venture in principally each approach. Fernandez, 24, is a multi-positional participant with an extended bat-to-ball observe file. He’s not nice at any of the positions he performs (C/1B/3B, a little bit of second base final yr). Ocopio is a big-framed DSL catcher with a powerful early-career bat-to-ball efficiency. Carrillo is a extra mature catcher who’s crushing the DSL proper now and must be despatched to Arizona to be examined.

FanGraphs’ Taste
Alain Camou, 2B
Ismael Javier, MIF
Emil Turbi, MIF
Luis De Leon, MIF

This complete group is comprised of undersized center infielders, lots of whom switch-hit, and all of whom have superior really feel for contact. They’re additionally all fairly small. Camou is on the complicated in Arizona whereas the remainder are within the DSL.

You May Be Curious about Understanding About…
Nerwilian Cedeño, 2B
Yendry Rojas, SS
Daniel Montesino, LF
Joshua Mears, LF

Particularly in case you already care about Padres prospects, you is perhaps questioning about among the names from this group. Cedeño is just a little infielder with sneaky pop for his dimension. I worry he’s a second base-only defender with out sufficient hit software to profile as an on a regular basis man. Until they will play one other place, guys like this have a tendency to finish up on Domingo Leyba’s path. The identical is essentially true of Rojas, who signed for $1.3 million in 2022. I’m undecided he’s going to remain on the dust. For him, Montesino and Mears, the offensive bar they’ll have to clear is sort of excessive.

Stock Arms
Bodi Rascon, LHP
Jose Espada, RHP
Matt Waldron, RHP
Kobe Robinson, RHP
Carter Loewen, RHP

Rascon is a 6-foot-5 lefty with a low-90s fastball, a mean slider, and a changeup that flashes. He might be a sturdy spot starter. A 2019 minor league rule 5 choose by Boston (from Toronto), Espada was signed as a minor league free agent within the offseason. He has a vertical fastball/curveball cut up and a few of his breakers are actually nasty. His changeup can miss a bat, too. None of his pitches have constant end, which makes Espada’s fastball particularly weak at 40-grade velo. Waldron is a knuckleballing depth arm who made his huge league debut not too long ago. Robinson is a low-slot righty sitting 94. Loewen is sitting 95 and has an 87 mph slider; he was promoted to Fort Wayne on the finish of June. He’s a possible reliever who’s an awesome distance from Petco.

System Overview

The Padres system is extraordinarily prime heavy, with a four-player tier of potential stars up prime after which a large drop off quickly after. The Padres’ deadline posture as huge time consumers every of the final a number of years has positively price them good prospects as they’ve aggressively pursued a hoop, which is pretty much as good a cause to have a barely depleted farm system as any. The Padres have tended to maintain their system flush with sufficient premium prospects to maintain this strategy. They aren’t good, however they have a tendency to choose and signal actually good gamers. Final yr, I wrote that their system was down in comparison with prior years and so they had been nonetheless in a position to commerce for Juan Soto. At instances, the Padres are just a little over-aggressive on the commerce market and it finally ends up costing them the occasional Matt Brash or Emmanuel Clase kind of participant in a smaller deal. The sheer variety of graduated huge leaguers in different orgs who had been initially signed by the Padres proves each factors. There are presently 15 prospects in different techniques who had been initially signed by San Diego. On common since 2020, seven gamers initially signed by the Padres have performed sufficient huge league baseball to lose rookie standing, together with Brash, Clase, Jack Suwinski, Andrés Muñoz, and David Bednar.

San Diego is comfortable to draft pitchers who fall solely resulting from damage, with Dylan Lesko and Henry Williams the latest examples; Cal Quantrill and Mason Thompson will be described this manner too. As all the time, on-mound demeanor and worn-on-the-sleeve competitiveness appear to be separators for the Padres, although no quantity of chest-pounding will assist a few of these guys’ fastballs play. On the place participant aspect, just a little pod of compact, hitterish infielders has popped up at San Diego’s lowest ranges. It is a prospect phylum I are inclined to affiliate extra with groups that take an analytically-oriented strategy within the worldwide market, like Cleveland and Milwaukee. I don’t suppose I’d name this a development but, and it could simply be the kind of participant they pivoted to with the intention to fill out a signing class behind Ethan Salas.

The Padres professional division nonetheless deploys a number of scouts on the complicated stage though the workforce was anticipated to contend this season and be consumers on the deadline. This isn’t true of all contenders, a few of which take a extra dynamic strategy and throttle down complicated protection once they’re much less more likely to commerce for prospects. The Braves are a superb instance of this. Within the occasion they fail to get rolling in July and determine to make some sellers’ offers, the Padres are in place to take gamers from the decrease minors.