Ethan Salas keeps finding ways to make the Padres feel good about moving him fast.
The 20-year-old catcher already had a walk-off and a multi-home run game on his early major league résumé, and Wednesday night in Los Angeles gave San Diego another reminder of why the organization has trusted him so quickly. With Shohei Ohtani up in the fourth inning, the bases loaded and two outs, David Morgan fired a 3-1 fastball that was first ruled a ball. Salas didn’t just live with it - he challenged the call.
The pitch was overturned, the count went full, and Morgan finished the job by striking out Ohtani to leave the bases loaded. San Diego rolled to a 5-1 win, and while the sequence barely took a moment, it said plenty about how comfortably Salas is already operating in the majors.
What has stood out most about Salas has always been his glove. Before his debut, the buzz centered on his defense: the runner control, the strong receiving, the kind of arm and fielding grade that made him the sport’s 21st-ranked overall prospect. He had already thrown out multiple runners in the minors, and that reputation followed him to San Diego.
He has chipped in with the bat at times, too, but Wednesday was the clearest sign yet that he can handle the full weight of the job behind the plate. For a Padres organization that has gone through a dark age of catchers, that matters. It also helps explain why the club pushed him along so aggressively in the first place.
After a night like this, it’s easy to see why plenty of Friars fans have come around. Salas brings energy, but more than that, he brings trust. And with manager Craig Stammen expected to lean on a lot of different pitchers in October, that kind of steadiness from the catcher spot could matter even more when the postseason arrives.
In Other News...
Tatis Just Turned A Padres Bullpen Question Into Front Office Pressure
With the Padres back in the postseason, Fernando Tatis Jr. has already shifted the conversation from celebration to retention, publicly urging president of baseball operations A.J. Preller to bring back free-agent reliever Adrian Morejon. It is the kind of comment that lands differently when it comes from one of the franchises face-of-the-team players, especially with Morejon having become a key part of San Diegos bullpen mix.
Now the question is less about whether Morejon has earned a strong case and more about whether the Padres are willing to act on it under their new ownership. Keeping a reliable arm in place always comes with financial tradeoffs, and Tatis public push adds a little more heat to a decision Preller already has to weigh carefully as San Diego looks ahead beyond this October run. [Read more 🡒]
Craig Stammen Made The Padres Embrace A Risky Plan At Last
In late July, Craig Stammen had plenty of reason to be skeptical about A.J. Prellers unconventional pitching plan. The Padres were trying to navigate a rotation that no longer fit the traditional mold, so the club began leaning on pitchers in specific matchup roles instead of asking them to work as classic starters. It was a risky shift, but one that matched the roster the Padres had in front of them.
Once Stammen embraced it, the approach helped steady the team through a useful stretch and kept San Diego in the race long enough to justify adding more pitching at the trade deadline. The arrangement also underscored how much of the burden on the rotation belonged to both Stammen and Preller, whose shared fingerprints were all over the problems and the fixes that followed. [Read more 🡒]
Padres Clinched A Spot But This Series Still Carries Real Stakes
The Padres may already have punched their ticket to October, but the margin for error is still thin as they open a series with the Diamondbacks, who remain alive in the playoff race. San Diego enters the matchup sitting atop the wild-card picture, and Arizona needs every game it can get, which gives this weekend an October feel even before the postseason begins.
Casey Mize is set to start the opener for San Diego against Brandon Pfaadt, and both clubs are likely to treat the series like a test run for the kind of decisions that get magnified in the playoffs. For the Padres, it is less about securing a berth now and more about lining up the rotation and navigating a game that still matters plenty in the standings. [Read more 🡒]