Ethan Salas’ grandfather played baseball for some two decades in Venezuela. His uncle runs academies in multiple countries. His father caught for six years in the Atlanta Braves system.
So when Salas’ pre-teen training regimens included his dad tossing trios of different colored balls in the air and calling out a specific color to be attacked with a smooth, left-handed swing, Salas never really thought much of it.
Dad, Salas said, always had a “bunch of wacky stuff” up his sleeve.
“I always thought it was normal,” Salas said. “Definitely not normal now that I look back and see not everyone’s blessed to be from a baseball family.”
Salas’ pedigree has led the 20-year-old to the major leagues and, perhaps soon, the record books. Whenever Salas takes the field for his postseason debut, he’ll become the youngest player to ever catch a playoff game.
The Padres’ top prospect was called up Sept. 1, and brushed aside an 0-for-15 start at the plate to hit .400/.423/.720 over his last 10 games. That resume includes a triple for his first big-league hit, a two-homer game, a walk-off single and increasing his command of both the pitching staff and all the intricacies that come with running a big-league game from behind the plate.
The catching prodigy pulled so much trust into his orbit in less than a month that he was charged with catching back-to-back games last week at Dodger Stadium as the Padres closed in on a third straight postseason berth.
Up next: Likely a Game 2 start behind the plate with Nick Pivetta pitching. Salas, at 20 years and 120 days old, eyes the record that the Braves’ Bob Didier (20 years, 230 days) set in the 1969 NLCS.
“I think the most impressive part has been what he’s been doing with the fingers,” said third baseman Manny Machado, who also played in the postseason at age 20. “I mean, to catch a staff that you really haven’t had all year. You’ve been here three weeks, and you’ve been running the game that you’ve been calling. I think it has showed what he has, the composure in certain situations. Putting down the fingers is not the easiest job in the world.
“To do it with the staff that we have, not being part of it all year, to come and be here three weeks only and do it; I mean, a 20-year-old doesn’t do that.”
Ethan Salas of the San Diego Padres looks on during a game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on September 23, 2026 in Los Angeles, CA. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Salas was seemingly made for it, alongside his brothers.
The oldest, José Salas Jr., signed with the Marlins for $2.8 million as a top international amateur in 2019. Chris Kemp, the Padres’ vice president of amateur and international scouting, had spent a good deal of time around the family’s training facilities and certainly noticed a pre-teen Ethan Salas catching bullpens off to the side.
Somewhere along the line, the younger Salas was made a priority for the Padres’ 2023 class.
“You didn’t know how good it was going to be when he was on the backfield while you’re watching José,” Kemp said. “But when you saw it at 13, 14, you kind of started thinking, yeah, we’re going to go after this guy.”
Salas’ price tag ultimately swelled to $5.6 million, the largest given out that year by any team and the richest for the Padres in the hard-cap era. The raw tools had been obvious from the start — “elite catcher that’s hitting, getting on base, and a chance to be a five-tool catcher,” Kemp said — but the organization felt Salas was so polished as a bilingual 16-year-old that they trotted him out at Petco Park and put him on MLB Network immediately after finalizing a years-in-the-making relationship.
Weeks later, Salas was catching Yu Darvish in spring training bullpens. By May, he became the first position player to get into a game in a full-season affiliate before his 17th birthday since Wilmer Flores in 2008. Those first couple months at low Single-A Lake Elsinore went so well (9 HRs, .837 OPS, 48 games) that the Padres pushed Salas to high Single-A Fort Wayne before the end of the summer. The bat never got up to speed at that level, but the Padres pushed Salas to Double-A San Antonio after nine games to test him between the ears.
“We’ve always talked about pushing the gifted,” Padres assistant farm director Mike Daly said. “The gifted means not just having the talent, but also having the mental ability to be able to handle the challenges of being at a higher level.”
Ethan Salas of the San Diego Padres looks on during a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Petco Park on September 27, 2026 in San Diego, CA. (K.C. Alfred / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Salas posted a .599 OPS while beginning the 2024 season as the youngest hitter in the Midwest League. He was again the youngest bat in the Double-A Texas League when a back injury limited him to 10 games and was the second-youngest player in the circuit when he checked back in this season with fully defined delts and his weight up from 195 to 215 pounds.
His 6-foot-1 frame filled out, Salas homered seven times in 72 games (.778 OPS) while reintroducing a toe-tap and opening his stance to put him in position to damage pitches. The so-called “baseball school” that Salas was put through while on the extended stay on the injured list last year was part of the reason for his mid-season promotion to Triple-A El Paso.
Soon, there was an organization-wide conversation.
Could Salas help the big-league team this year?
Everyone from Kemp to Daly and farm director Riley Westman to Triple-A El Paso manager Pete Zamora to the scouts and lieutenants who watched Salas in the Pacific Coast League weighed in. Baseball ops chief A.J. Preller even ran the question up to new owners José E. Feliciano and Kwanza Jones, just as he had to Peter Seidler when Machado was among the big-leaguers pressing him to put Fernando Tatis Jr. on the big-league roster in 2019.
When to start a high-end prospect’s service time clock is always part of the conversation. The specter of a lockout and lost contact with players on the 40-man roster was unique to the Salas conversation.
“It has a big impact on the organization,” Preller said. “ … Ultimately he kind of made his argument by his play on the field, which is the most important thing, and the way he handles himself.”
The 20-year-old Salas has done nothing but continue to meet moments.
The next — behind the plate with Pivetta — will be the biggest yet.
Salas’ new teammates are convinced he’s ready for it.
“It’s a ton of information for him to absorb,” pitcher Michael King said. “He continues to ask awesome questions. He continues to learn. Every time he gets beat, he asks (pitching coach Ruben Niebla) why. Was it a poorly executed pitch … or just the wrong pitch? You can tell he’s going to learn throughout his career. I’ve got a ton of confidence in him calling games right now at 20 years old only being on this team for a month.
“It will be special to watch him out there.”