MiLB
During the A.J. Preller era, the San Diego Padres have regularly been involved in the Rule 5 Draft at the Winter Meetings.
Players like Luis Perdomo, Luis Torrens, and Stephen Kolek are among those they have taken in the past under Preller. With needs on the pitching staff, they could very well turn to the well once more.
Considering the team’s needs, here are five candidates whom the Padres could select among this year’s crop of eligible players.
Harrison Cohen, Yankees
Season Stats (Double-A & Triple-A) – 49 GP, 3-2 W-L, 5 SV, 51 IP, 1.76 ERA, 3.35 FIP
While San Diego will be unlikely to look for a bullpen arm in the Rule 5, there is a chance that they will go in that direction.
Of the strictly relief prospects that are up for the taking, Harrison Cohen is coming off one of the strongest seasons in the upper minor leagues. A former undrafted free agent signed by the Yankees out of George Washington University, Cohen made his way to Triple-A in his third professional season. The right-hander split time at Double-A and Triple-A in 2025, pitching to a cumulative 1.76 ERA, 3.35 FIP, 28.2% strikeout rate, and 14.4% walk rate.
The right-hander doesn’t possess overpowering stuff in terms of velocity, topping out around 94 mph, but his arsenal is rather fleshed out for a player mostly working in relief. Cohen features a four-seam fastball, cut fastball, changeup, and slider. Part of what makes the right-hander so hard to hit is his pairing of extension and arm angle. Cohen throws from a 41° arm angle but only gets 5.4 feet of extension, giving his breaking pitches more time to break compared to the average arm.
While his arsenal currently lacks a huge outlier offering (as most of his breaking balls average between 0-10 inches of horizontal movement in either direction), the arsenal tunnels very effectively. The changeup is the real weapon here, as it recorded a chase rate of 41.4% in his Triple-A stint. On the whole, at Triple-A in the International League, Cohen recorded a 36.4% whiff rate in 28.2 innings. Everything about Cohen in terms of size, arsenal, and velocity is like a mirror image of prime Tommy Kahnle, and their pitching motions are rather similar in appearance as well. Even with some level of adjustment between the Majors and Triple-A, Cohen could slot into the middle of the Padres’ right-handed relief corps, covering middle innings in a bullpen that may lose one of its key arms to the rotation (be it David Morgan, Adrian Morejon, or Mason Miller).
26-year-old RHP prospect Harrison Cohen can make an impact with the Yankees pitching staff in 2026. In 2025:
2.01 ERA in 20 AA Games
– 30 K to 13 BB
– .158 BAA
1.57 ERA in 29 AAA Games
– .146 BAA
– .252 xSLG
– 28.4% HH%
– 36.5% Whiff%
– 77.6% Z-Contact%
– 15.05% SwStr%#RepBX pic.twitter.com/fWBvSO5Wub
— Tobey Schulman (@tschulmanreport) November 13, 2025
Credit: USA Today Sports
Connor Noland, Cubs
Season Stats – 27 GP (22 GS), 9-6 W-L, 132.2 IP, 4.07 ERA, 4.02 FIP
Elite fastballs may be all the rage nowadays, but the Padres have shown that they can guide pitchers into getting the most from a diverse arsenal.
With the Padres’ pitching philosophy, Chicago’s Connor Noland is a good fit. Noland, who will open the 2026 season at age 26, spent the 2025 season at Triple-A Iowa, tossing 132.2 innings to the tune of a 4.07 ERA and 4.02 FIP. While his strikeout and walk rates were average (19.9% K vs 9.5% BB), he performed strongly in long relief. 22 of his 27 outings in 2025 were as a starter, and in the five relief outings,
Noland pitched to a 1.96 ERA in 18.1 innings, striking out 19 against nine walks. His September 3 outing against Omaha gave a glimpse of what he could bring out of the bullpen: 3.2 innings, one run, seven strikeouts. Noland uses a six-pitch mix with three separate fastballs: a four-seam, cutter, and sinker. Noland’s breaking balls are the strongest elements of his arsenal, as his slider and curveball grade out as 60-grade offerings. He favored his cutter as his primary fastball, which allowed him to post a 37.5% hard-hit rate on batted balls. This figure would rank in the top 25th percentile of qualified MLB pitchers, among the likes of Emilio Pagan and Justin Verlander.
Noland also throws a changeup, mainly to left-handed batters, and the offering averaged 11.2 inches of horizontal break at 85.7 mph. While he throws from a more conventional 38° arm angle, his sequencing has allowed him to generate whiffs in shorter outings. Having Noland as a sixth-man/swingman would be a worthwhile investment given his consistency in landing his pitches for strikes, as well as his potential for swing-and-miss.
#Cubs No. 22 prospect Connor Noland struck out six batters in a scoreless five-inning start last week.@USAFRecruiting #AimHigh pic.twitter.com/WUxxhL2DHu
— Iowa Cubs (@IowaCubs) September 16, 2025
Dodgers
Peter Heubeck & Jared Karros, Dodgers
Heubeck Season Stats – 16 GS, 2-5 W-L, 66.1 IP, 4.34 ERA, 4.02 FIP
Karros Season Stats – 12 GS, 1-5 W-L, 52.1 IP, 6.54 ERA, 5.00 xFIP
Taking a pound of flesh from a rival is not something that happens often, but the Padres’ search for quality depth arms could lead them to their bitter rivals in Los Angeles. Peter Heubeck and Jared Karros are two promising, but underrated arms in a Los Angeles system that can at times be seen as overvalued.
Starting with Heubeck, the former third-rounder has been one of the best strikeout arms in the minor leagues over the past three seasons, but has struggled with walks. That remained the case in 2025, as Heubeck struck out 27.7% of batters while walking 12.2%. Heubeck only threw 16 starts and 66 innings this past season due to an injury that caused him to miss the second half, but when he was on the mound, his stuff remained electric.
His fastball sits at 92-95 comfortably, peaking at 97-98 early in games. His secondaries are equally as strong, with his curveball being lauded highly since his draft class. His slider is also equally strong, a sharp bullet slider that pairs well with the bigger breaking curveball. Heubeck’s changeup is still in its development, but his current arsenal would be efficient in relief, as he has shown he can retire batters of both sides. In shorter outings, his high-rise fastball can be deadly, especially at the top of the zone. Aiming high in the zone with the fastball is something Heubeck has done regularly, and is also something the Padres have done well. While he has some injury risk and his career-high in innings is only 91.1 innings, having him in relief at the MLB level could give him meaningful reps to continue to refine his command in shorter spurts.
#Dodgers No. 25 Prospect, Peter Heubeck, was HITLESS on the bump for the #TulsaDrillers! ?
The Drillers pitching staff tonight were ONE OUT away tonight from throwing a combined no-hitter in this shortened seven inning game.
5.2 IP | 0 H | 0 R | 3 BB | 7 K#DodgersProspects pic.twitter.com/oia668wigH
— Ava Cruchon (@AvaCruchonTV) June 4, 2025
Then there’s Karros. The son of former MLB slugger Eric Karros, Jared Karros, has only 86 innings of experience at the Double-A level. Karros’ 2025 season at Double-A was rough, as he posted a 6.54 ERA. However, there was some batted ball luck (and by that, I mean there was a lack of luck), as batters hit .349 on balls in play against Karros with an unsustainable 22.9% HR/FB rate.
Standing at 6’ 7”, Karros gets impressive extension that allows his usually 92-94 mph fastball to gain additional perceived velocity. His arsenal is rounded out by a sharp 12-6 curveball, a tight bullet slider in the mid-80s, and a growing changeup also in the mid-80s. For an arm of his stature, he repeats his delivery consistently enough to throw strikes. Like Heubeck, he missed the second half of the 2025 season due to an undisclosed injury, but if he is fully healthy for 2026, skipping the Pacific Coast League and pitching in a pitcher-friendly environment like Petco Park could allow him to be successful in a long relief role while managing his workload.
Jared Karros has built a ton of momentum because he made huge strides between 2023 and 2024!
Last year he posted a 2.79 ERA, a WHIP of just 1.08, he had 74Ks in 67.2 IP.
Karros features a 4 pitch mix, 4 seam in the 92-94 range, traditional changeup, bullet slider, and a spiked… pic.twitter.com/TwVe7naRZs
— Dodgers Daily (@dodger_daily) February 23, 2025
Credit: Orioles
Alex Pham, Orioles
Season Stats – 18 GP (6 GS), 2-3 W-L, 1 SV, 49 IP, 4.04 ERA, 3.30 FIP
Considering Baltimore’s eternal struggle to find consistent starting pitching, it was alarming not to see one of their rising arms in Pham added to the 40-man.
Despite this, it could play into the Padres’ hands. San Diego is familiar with the Baltimore farm system, having taken Juan Nunez in the Rule 5 draft last offseason. Alex Pham is another arm that could intrigue the Padres. Pham is quite a fascinating case study: he doesn’t throw overly hard, but gets some of the best iVB numbers in all of minor league baseball. His fastball averaged 93.2 mph in 2025, but even with average velocity, the pitch averaged 20.1 inches of induced vertical break.
Pham may be slightly undersized for a starting pitcher at 5-foot-11, but his 84-degree arm angle gives his fastball plenty of late life. His main secondary is a biting curveball that has more perceived drop than measured due to his high arm angle. The curveball allows Pham to set up whiffs on the fastball, and he complements this 1-2 punch with a cutter in the mid-80s, averaging 86.3 mph at Triple-A in 2025. The cutter is one he has used to batters of both sides, as it allows him to get up and in on left-handers while generating chases off the fastball from right-handers.
A work-in-progress slider and changeup round out his arsenal and give him the weapons to be a starter, though he has experience as a reliever from both his early minor league career and his college days at the University of San Francisco. Pham could be another arm in the 2024 Stephen Kolek role (or, if you’d prefer, the 2016 Luis Perdomo role), where the team carries him to manage his workload with goal of starting long term. This plan becomes especially feasible due to Pham’s history of health, as he missed three months in 2025 due to forearm inflammation.
Pham (26 y/o) is a reliever with starter experience that posted solid results and whiff numbers with Baltimore, and got all the way up to AAA in 2025. Across all ranks:
-4.04 ERA
-3.30 FIP
-29.3% K%
-8.3% BB%
-32.3% GB%
-0.92 HR/9 pic.twitter.com/IKjVsogQVD
— Past The Eye Test Baseball (@PastTheEyeTest) November 20, 2025
San Diego has plenty of avenues and options for adding depth on the mound and at the dish, and a promising young arm who could be a Top 30 caliber prospect might be at the very top of that wish list come the MLB Winter Meetings.
A born and raised San Diegan, Diego Garcia is a lifetime Padres fan and self-proclaimed baseball nerd. Diego wrote about baseball on his own site between 2021-22 before joining the East Village Times team in 2024. He also posts baseball content on his YouTube channel “Stat Nerd Baseball”, creating content around trades, hypotheticals, player analyses, the San Diego Padres, and MLB as a whole.
A 2024 graduate of San Diego State, Diego aims to grow as a writer and content creator in the baseball community.
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