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Ethan Salas is still just 19 years old. And yet somehow, after an injury-plagued 2025, he fell out of favor in prospect rankings.
The guy who was a top-10 prospect in the sport before turning 18 didn't even make MLB Pipeline's top-100 prospects this offseason. There's a very good chance that the San Diego Padres' catching phenom makes that shift look silly.
Saturday was just one game, but in the Padres' Spring Breakout game against the Cubs, Salas hit a go-ahead three-run home run, singled, stole a base, threw out two base stealers and made a sweet catch in foul ground.
Welcome back, Ethan Salas.
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He didn't play after April 27 last season because of a back injury, which is concerning, but also put him out of sight and out of mind for a bit.
When Salas is on the field, he still reminds everyone he might just turn out to be quite special.
And if you think he cares about the prospect rankings one bit, you'd be wrong.
“Not at all,” Salas told MLB.com Saturday night. “The guys in this clubhouse know who I am. I don’t think any prospect rank or not determines that -- determines how I am as a teammate, as a human, as a baseball player. So I’m just going to go out and keep playing my game every single day, happy like a kid.”
Salas is also simply feeling the joy of being back in the game after his injury trouble.
“It’s way better doing this,” Salas said of playing versus watching. “Definitely happy to be back on the field. And yeah, I’m excited. I’m excited for the season.”
Given how Salas is feeling, Padres fans should be excited, too. The youngster might still work out.
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