The Padres may still be working with a thin farm system, but there are at least a few reasons to look twice at this latest draft report card.
Carlos Collazo of Baseball America handed San Diego its draft grade, and the big picture is the same one the Padres keep running into: they have to keep restocking the system while also paying for the moves that have thinned it out. That cycle has only gotten tougher after GM A.J. Preller once again dipped into the farm to land starters Casey Mize and Robbie Ray at the deadline, even if both came up short in some of the team’s biggest moments.
Still, the report did spotlight a couple of prospects who stood out.
At hitter, Elliot Lascelles got the nod. The Padres’ shortstop prospect was one of the more unusual names in the system this year, in part because he’s from Canada, a country that doesn’t exactly produce a flood of top baseball talent. But Lascelles made noise in the MLB Draft League, then carried that into his looks against pro pitching before the draft.
Collazo praised him for a “pure, direct swing with very few moving parts,” and the early returns backed that up. At Low-A Lake Elsinore, Lascelles hit .321 and posted a 94.6 percent contact rate on pitches in the zone.
He also brings plus speed, which puts him in the same conversation as a few other notable Padres prospects. Collazo went a step further and called Lascelles the best pro debut among all of San Diego’s prospects.
On the mound, the name that popped was Borthwick, who was listed by Collazo for best fastball, best secondary pitch and best athlete. That’s enough to make him the clear best overall pitcher in this group.
The Florida prep star has already touched 100 mph, but what stands out just as much is his feel for when to ease off and still land the fastball for strikes. His slider sits in the mid-80s and was also tagged as a plus pitch. Borthwick also brought a lot more than arm strength in high school, showing real athleticism, the ability to move well and enough power at the plate to matter when he wasn’t dominating hitters on the mound.
There was also some encouraging pop from the Arizona State product, who has long been viewed as a hit-first bat. This spring, though, he added another layer by belting 21 home runs in 53 games.
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