Padres draft St. Bonaventure star for long pitching journey from upstate New York

It's a long way from upstate New York to San Diego.

That's the journey that Michael Salina will be attempting to travel.

The San Diego Padres picked Salina at the No. 130 overall pick in the fourth round of the 2025 MLB Draft on Monday.

Salina was a high school star at Webster Schroeder, just east of Rochester. After a year at George Mason, he returned to New York to pitch at St. Bonaventure.

For the Bonnies, Salina became a star.

Here's how MLB.com describes Salina:

After starring in high school outside of Rochester, N.Y., Salina headed south to George Mason University for college ball. After a freshman year pitching sparingly out of the Patriots' bullpen, he moved closer to home, staying in the Atlantic 10 Conference to attend St. Bonaventure. He spent his sophomore year in the rotation and was off to a solid start as the Bonnies' No. 1 starter this year when an elbow injury shelved him after four starts; he had Tommy John surgery in April.

A 6-foot-1 right-hander, Salina has electric stuff when he's healthy. He's gained some ticks of velocity in his fastball from earlier in his college career and was averaging close to 95 mph with it, while touching 98 routinely and topping out at 102. The pitch misses bats thanks to excellent extension. So does his mid-80s slider, which is short and hard with two-plane break. He doesn't go to his changeup often, but he has feel for the upper-80s cambio. While he's strong and compact, Salina is a sneaky good athlete and does a decent job of repeating his simple, from-the-stretch delivery. He found the zone a lot in his first four starts and now teams will have to decide if they want to take him and let him rehab in their system.

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Salina will have to recover from his Tommy John surgery to start his professional journey.

It's actually quite encouraging that he went this high in the draft despite the injury. The Padres are clearly high on him.

Salina's cross-country journey will continue soon enough.

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