PEORIA, Ariz. \u2014 The industry is down on the Padres\u2019 farm system.<\/p>\n
Of course it is.<\/p>\n
Since the start of the 2019-2020 offseason, A.J. Preller has traded away more than 80 prospects who\u2019ve ranked among the club\u2019s top 30. The top position player left in their system played just 10 games last year because of a back injury. Their most promising young arm appeared in just one game after the amateur draft.<\/p>\n
You really don\u2019t have to rack your brain to understand why Baseball America has ranked the Padres\u2019 system No. 29 of 30 or why MLB.com listed it dead last heading into Saturday\u2019s Spring Breakout prospect game against a team of Chicago Cubs minor leaguers in Mesa.<\/p>\n
And yet \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cYou would hope we would get the benefit of the doubt,\u201d Padres assistant farm director Mike Daly said with a laugh. \u201c \u2026 We have to go out there and prove it. There\u2019s something to prove every year.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Padres have certainly proved adept at prospect churn.<\/p>\n
Preller launched quite a few promising kids to fortify a postseason run for the COVID-shortened 2020 season and still developed pieces two years later to land Juan Soto and Josh Hader. Two years after that, Preller emptied the farm again to add Dylan Cease, Luis Arraez, Tanner Scott and Jason Adam to the 2024 postseason run. Last year, he traded top prospect Leo De Vries and six picks from the previous draft to add Mason Miller, Ram\u00f3n Laureano and Ryan O\u2019Hearn to another 90-win team.<\/p>\n
That leaves just one top-100 prospect in the Padres system, depending on your preferred ranker.<\/p>\n
Catcher Ethan Salas, still just 19, is down from as high as No. 8 in Baseball America\u2019s top-100 before the 2024 season to No. 90 now after a stress reaction limited him to just 10 games last year at Double-A San Antonio. Left-hander pitcher Kruz Schoolcraft is debuting at No. 88 in MLB.com\u2019s top-100 after facing just nine batters at low Single-A Lake Elsinore in the weeks after the Padres selected him with the 25th overall pick in the draft.<\/p>\n
Both will appear in Saturday\u2019s Spring Breakout game, with the 18-year-old Schoolcraft expected later in the pitching plans after left-hander Luis Gutierrez and right-hander Miguel Mendez get the early innings.<\/p>\n
The Spring Breakout game is an official launch point for Schoolcraft, who will be pitching regularly as a pro for the first time this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just really excited to get out there and get started,\u201d said the 6-foot-8 Schoolcraft, who was clocked as high as 99 mph after the draft. \u201c\u2026 Still 18 years old. I\u2019ve got a long ways to go, so just learning myself. After that, I imagine there will be some things. Obviously working on the slider, just trying to refine all my pitches.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Padres\u2019 top 30 prospects, as ranked by MLB.com, consist mostly of players the industry is just getting to know.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old Mendez (No. 3) was added to the 40-man roster after pitching at three levels last year and Gutierrez (No. 20), who jumped three levels to Triple-A El Paso last year, was touching 95 mph last week as an addition to a Cactus League game.<\/p>\n
Right-hander Lan-Hong Su (No. 18) signed this offseason, and has been wowing in bullpens this spring. Michael Salina (No. 13) should also pitch in the California League this year once he finishes his Tommy John rehab.<\/p>\n
Slugger Kale Fountain (No. 10) is year further away from his Tommy John surgery and will move to the outfield this year, while upside bats from the 2025 draft class \u2014 third-round outfielder Ryan Wideman (No. 9) and catchers Ty Harvey (No. 8, fifth round) and Truitt Madonna (No. 24, 11th round) \u2014 can stretch their legs for the first time as pros this year.<\/p>\n
The Padres\u2019 system also includes players who are looking to build on last year\u2019s success:<\/p>\n
Left-hander Kash Mayfield (No. 4), the Padres\u2019 2024 first-rounder, should head to high Single-A Fort Wayne after striking out 88 in 60 \u2154 innings (2.97 ERA) last year at Lake Elsinore;
\nRight-hander Bradgley Rodriguez (No. 6) debuted with the Padres last year and is in the running for the opening day bullpen this year;
\nRight-hander Garrett Hawkins (No. 14) recovered from his elbow reconstruction and turned in 80 strikeouts and a 0.85 WHIP in 60 innings as a first-time reliever en route to reaching Double-A San Antonio;
\nUndrafted outfielder Alex McCoy (No. 21), checking in at a hulking 6-foot-5 and 260 pounds, paired six homers with a .907 OPS in 53 games at Lake Elsinore in his first real pro action.<\/p>\n
Players like these could go a long way toward shining up the Padres\u2019 system.<\/p>\n
Not that the front office puts a whole lot of thought into rankings.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll we care about is helping the players that are in our system now be the best versions of themselves,\u201d Daly said, \u201cand \u2026 helping them along their path to be winning players at Petco Park.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spring Breakout Game: Padres at Cubs<\/p>\n
When: 6:05 p.m. Saturday<\/p>\n
Where: Mesa, Ariz.<\/p>\n
TV: Padres.TV<\/p>\n
Radio: 97.3-FM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PEORIA, Ariz. \u2014 The industry is down on the Padres\u2019 farm system. Of course it is. Since the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634189,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2407],"tags":[5,853,4,43,137,18,4339,4338,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-634188","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego-padres","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-padres","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-san-diego-padres","14":"tag-sandiego","15":"tag-sandiegopadres","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116263559409455289","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}