The San Diego Padres’ farm system has hit a rough patch, and Baseball America’s latest ranking puts the problem in blunt terms: it’s the worst in baseball.
That’s a tough label, but it lines up with the way the Padres have operated. GM A.J.
Preller has built a reputation for dealing prospects in pursuit of help that can produce right away, and that approach has clearly thinned out the pipeline. Whether he can pull off that kind of move again this season is very much in doubt.
Baseball America’s preseason ranking had San Diego at 29th, and the system’s lone player in the outlet’s Top 100 Prospects is catcher Ethan Salas, who came in at No. 10. Even with that kind of headline talent, the overall picture is still bleak.
The one area the BA staff pointed to as a strength is upside. The Padres keep leaning into high-risk, high-ceiling players, with shortstop Leo De Vries and Kruz Schoolcraft serving as the latest examples.
De Vries, of course, is already gone, shipped out in the deal that brought in Mason Miller. That move has worked out well for the Padres in the short term, since Miller is not only a closer, but the best closer in baseball right now.
Schoolcraft is a different kind of bet. He’s a massive pitcher with big velocity and enormous potential, but the issue at the moment is simple: he’s having trouble throwing strikes.
Salas remains the crown jewel. After several years of injuries, he’s finally healthy and beginning to hit, too. At just 20 years old, he still has plenty of runway to develop into a top catcher and possibly much more.
Where the Padres really get exposed is depth. That’s the part of the system that reflects Preller’s style most clearly. He’s willing to move multiple good prospects for the player he wants, and the result is a group that Baseball America described as "old-for-their-level players who are generally viewed as low-ceiling prospects or organization players."
The BA staff also noted that San Diego has spent much of its bonus money on individual stars, which has left the organization with fewer mid-tier prospects than most other clubs.
In Other News...
Padres Just Made An Outfield Move Fans Saw Coming
The Padres kept working to shore up their outfield depth this week, making another low-risk addition in Dustin Harris. The 26-year-old has already surfaced with Triple-A El Paso, giving San Diego a fresh name to monitor at a position that has been thinned out by injuries and left the club searching for more coverage behind the big league group.
Harris arrives with a track record that helps explain the interest, having put together a solid minor league resume and a strong season at the plate. For the Padres, the move is less about splash and more about necessity, with the organization trying to protect itself against further attrition while keeping one more capable outfielder in the pipeline if the depth chart gets tested again. [Read more 🡒]
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The Padres also had to deal with the fallout on their own bench, where hitting coach Steven Souza Jr. was ejected after arguing over a challenge-related sequence tied to one of Pawols calls. Later, another controversial ruling went against Toronto and helped San Diego on the scoreboard, but by then the bigger story had already become the same one that seems to follow too many games these days: the strike zone and the umpire behind it. [Read more 🡒]
Padres Cant Keep Ignoring The Lineup Decision Luis Campusano Is Forcing
Luis Campusano has spent the summer making the Padres catcher situation harder to ignore. With Freddy Fermin out, Campusano has taken over behind the plate and kept forcing his way into the conversation with his bat, giving San Diego a much-needed offensive spark at a time when the club is hovering around .500 and trying to stay relevant in both the NL West and Wild Card races.
The bigger question now is what the Padres do when the catching picture gets crowded again. Campusanos production has been too loud to treat as a temporary fill-in, and the case for keeping his bat in the lineup does not stop at one position. San Diego may have to get creative to keep finding him at-bats, because the alternative is letting one of its most productive hitters sit too often. [Read more 🡒]