Growing up outside Portland, Ore, Kruz Schoolcraft’s family once served as a host family for High-A Hillsboro players. He has worked with the likes of Max Scherzer and Tarik Skubal.
He knows what professional baseball looks like.
The 6-foot-8 lefthander can’t wait to see what it does for him.
“I think I can get better with a lot of my pitches and become more developed as a pitcher,” Schoolcraft said after the Padres drafted him 25th overall. “But I think that my slider is something that I’m super excited to learn more about and kind of start getting that pitch down.
“I think that’s going to be really good for me.”
The Padres think so, too, projecting Schoolcraft to develop his slider into a mid-to-upper-80s equalizer when paired with a 93-97 mph fastball and a plus changeup.
Schoolcraft starred as a two-way player at Portland’s Sunset High. He pitched to an 0.39 ERA with 96 strikeouts in 54 innings on the mound, while hitting 10 home runs as a first baseman for the state champions.
“I want to be a big leaguer as long as I can and as fast as I can,” Schoolcraft said of focusing on pitching in pro ball. “So whatever I can do to get there, that’s the path I’ll take.”
Drafting Schoolcraft marked the ninth straight year in which the Padres used their first-round pick to select a high school player. He follows MacKenzie Gore (2017), Ryan Weathers (2018) and Kash Mayfield (2024) as prep lefties taken with San Diego’s first pick.
The Padres had scouted Schoolcraft going on two years. The intangibles gleaned from in-home visits with Schoolcraft solidified the organization’s conviction in him.
“He talked a lot about and asked about our culture, our winning culture and what we’re going to do to bring that first championship to San Diego,” said Chris Kemp, the Padres’ vice president of amateur and international scouting.
“For a kid like that to be proactive and asking those types of questions, it really resonated with what we’re about and the people we want to align with.”
FATHER FIGURES
— Shortstop Leo De Vries is expected to rejoin High-A Fort Wayne following his participation in the Futures Game. The 18-year-old switch-hitter batted .305/.446/.475 over his last 16 games in the Midwest League but still has a .248/.359/.406 batting line on the season.
— Righthanded reliever Bradgley Rodriguez is on the Triple-A El Paso injured list with shoulder discomfort. It is the second time since being demoted from the majors that shoulder discomfort barred him from the mound.