San Diego Padres Minor League Week in Review: April 30 through May 6

El Paso Chihuahuas (Split series with Sugar Land Space Cowboys)

Top Performers: After starting the year in a brutal 3-for-34 slump, Tirso Ornelas has turned it on over the last two weeks. He led the El Paso offense at home against the Astros’ top affiliate, posting a .400/.429/.700 line with only two strikeouts in 21 plate appearances. The 24-year-old outfielder is tracking to a career-low 17.2% strikeout rate on the year as he works his way back up to league average production following the cold start. … Lefty Jackson Wolf got a pair of starts in the series and was dominant in both as he allowed just one earned run on six hits over 11 innings. He continued to dial in his command with a 13:4 strikeout-to-walk ratio. The 25-year-old got off to a rough start to the year, but has rebounded nicely over his last three outings.

Top Prospects and Others of Note: Infielder Mason McCoy went 7-for-18 with a double and homer while holding down shortstop in five contests. The 29-year-old minor league free agent signee has a .650 OPS on the year. … Outfielder Bryce Johnson reached base 10 times in 20 trips to the plate and stole three bases once he got on. After getting brief tastes of the big leagues in the Giants organization the last two seasons, the 28-year-old owns a career-best .409 on-base percentage in his first campaign in the Padres system. … Donovan Solano hit in all five of his games as he got warmed up to join the Padres on Sunday. The long-time big leaguer finished his 12-game stint in El Paso with a .318/.392/.455 line. … Sean Reynolds had the best showing among several strong weeks for the Chihuahuas bullpen as the big righty struck out six over 4.1 scoreless innings in a pair of appearances. … Lefty Austin Davis, who has slid into the back of the El Paso pen, picked up two saves in as many appearances as he allowed just one hit. (David Jay)

San Antonio Missions (Lost series, 2-3 at Arkansas Travelers)

Top Performers: In a tough week that saw the Missions lose their two best position player prospects in Nathan Martorella and Jakob Marsee, Cole Cummings, 26, came through with five hits in five games, including a pair of doubles and a home run to go along with a pair of walks. For the season, the former UC Santa Barbara Gaucho has an .800 OPS. The club will rely on him to keep producing while seeing regular time at first base with the departure of Martorella. … Adam Mazur, 23, bounced back from his worst start of the year to throw six shutout innings and lower his ERA to 2.39 in five starts and 26.1 innings on the season. His velocity has increased a few ticks this season, but maybe the most significant change is the increased use of his curveball, which the Padres had him pull back in his first professional season to focus more on his slider.

Top Prospects and Others of Note: Ray-Patrick Didder, 29, had four hits, including two doubles, in five games, with three walks and a stolen base. Didder has primarily played shortstop but has also seen limited action at second and third base. … Martorella and Marsee played well in their last four games in the organization before being moved. Martorella had three hits and three walks for a .462 on-base percentage, and Marsee walked five times to go along with a double, home run, and two stolen bases. … Jared Kollar, 25, continues to pitch effectively, delivering five strikeouts in 4.2 innings as he followed Victor Lizarraga on Saturday. For the season, his 2.78 ERA only trails Mazur. The righthander, who was signed as an undrafted free agent in 2022 from Rutgers, is emerging as one of the organization’s better finds. … Last week, we wrote about Jayvien Sandridge, 25, who was dominant with nine strikeouts in three innings. He also had a good week with a clean inning to lower his ERA on the season to 0.96. … Another bullpen arm having a solid season is Jason Blanchard, 27, who had three strikeouts and one walk in his inning of work. The lefthander from Lamar University has thrown very well this season with a 0.66 ERA in 13.2 innings with 18 strikeouts against only two walks. (John Conniff)

Fort Wayne TinCaps: (Lost series @ Lake County Captains 2-5)

Top Performers: Lefty Miguel Cienfuegos threw a complete game (seven innings) shutout in the first game of Thursday’s doubleheader.  He allowed only two hits in the game, striking out five without handing out a walk. It was his first career outing of seven innings. The 27-year-old improved drastically after giving up eight runs in his previous two starts. … There was not a ton of offense as the TinCaps averaged less than three runs per game and got shut out twice. Devin Ortiz was one of the lone bright spots. He homered twice in one game and now has the team lead with four on the season.  The 25-year-old out of the University of Virginia is now hitting .280/.379/.463, leading the club in all three categories. Ortiz is walking more, striking out less, and making harder contact than he did in his first pass at full-season ball last year.

Top Prospects and Others of Note: The day before Cienfuegos dominated, righty Enmanuel Pinales tossed six innings of shutout ball himself. He allowed two hits and a walk while striking out seven. We flagged the 23-year-old as one of the system’s sleeper prospects going into the season, and he has shown why so far. In 18 innings, Pinales has a 3.00 ERA with 20 strikeouts. … Another bright spot came from lefty Jagger Haynes, who breezed through six quick, one-run innings.  He had given up 11 earned runs over his first three starts in which he’d managed just 4.2 innings combined. … Dylan Lesko had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.  The top prospect struggled to locate any of his pitches and could only land his fastball for a strike by taking a few mph off of it. When he did, it got crushed. Lesko gave up six earned runs and walked four while recording just two outs. Lesko now has 20 walks in 15.1 innings this season. … The club’s other top 50 overall prospect, Ethan Salas, didn’t fare much better.  He went 3-for-24 on the week with eight strikeouts.  He did get an RBI on a ground out and stole a base.  With his 0-for-4 on Sunday, Salas fell to a season-low .190/.296/.238 line. … For the second straight week, righthander Henry Baez, had an ugly inning that torpedoed an otherwise strong outing. After breezing through two frames, he allowed five runs (four earned) on five consecutive hits in the third before bouncing back to toss two more scoreless innings. The 21-year-old’s inconsistent performance has left him with a 4.74 ERA but a strong 9.95 K/9.  … After a rough start to his Fort Wayne career, hard-throwing reliever Bradgley Rodriguez threw 2.1 innings of scoreless ball.  He allowed one hit while striking out three in his longest professional outing. … Homer Bush Jr. went 5-for-20 with two runs and two stolen bases.  He leads the organization with 12 stolen bases but has yet to collect an extra-base hit this season. …Kai Murphy had a solid week, going 8-for-23 with four doubles and a triple, and four RBI.  After a slow start to the season, the former Sun Devil is hitting .274/.361/.440 with a team-high 15 RBI. (Ben Davey)

Lake Elsinore Storm (lost series to San Jose, 4-2)

Top Performers: The Storm lost the series’ first four games before sweeping a doubleheader on Sunday. Lake Elsinore finished their 12-game road trip with a 3-9 record. … First baseman Romeo Sanabria led the club in most offensive categories, producing a solid .950 OPS while playing in all six games. The left-handed hitting first baseman had two doubles, a homer, and tied for the club lead with six runs batted in. The 22-year-old ranks eighth in the California League with a wRC+ of 149. … The Storm received an excellent start from Eric Yost, who appears to have found a home in the Lake Elsinore rotation. Yost worked a career-high six innings Friday night and allowed just two runs on three hits. The 21-year-old has a 2.63 ERA in three starts after allowing six earned runs in four innings pitched as a reliever. The Storm have had to send five pitchers to the IL in the last three weeks, opening the door for several undrafted free agents and less-heralded prospects. Yost’s performance could give him an opportunity to establish himself as a guy to watch going forward. 

Top Prospects and Others of Note: Jay Beshears continued his excellent work this season, as the third baseman hit .353/.455/.412 with four more walks in five games. Beshears is one of three batting title qualifiers who has an on-base percentage of .500 or better. The former Duke infielder ranks second in the circuit with a .518 mark. Beshears has walked in over a quarter of his plate appearances this season. … Rosman Verdugo played in all six games, going 4-for-23, with two of the hits leaving the yard. Verdugo has four homers this year, which is more than he had all of last year. Out of the gate, Verdugo has struck out a tad more than he did last year but he’s also shown more power. Last season, he slugged just .332 in 113 games; this season that mark is at .438. Verdugo is a guy to watch going forward. … Catcher J.D. Gonzalez went 3-for-15 in five games for the Storm, tying with Sanabria for the team lead in RBI with six. The 18-year-old catcher drew five walks and struck out eight times. In ten games for the Storm, Gonzalez is hitting .226/.395/.258 with a double and a walk rate close to 19 percent. Gonzalez’s strikeout rate is north of 37% so he will need to find a way to make more consistent contact going forward. … Leodalis De Vries went 0-for-7 in two games before missing the last four games of the series. We’ll have more on his status as we confirm it. … After struggling in his season debut, Keegan Collett pitched well in a pair of outings. The 25-year-old threw four innings and allowed just one hit, walking one while striking out five. The former Florida Gulf Coast reliever has put up remarkable strikeout numbers over his tenure in the Padres’ system but he’s struggled to throw strikes consistently. After pitching for Fort Wayne last year, he started the season in extended spring training as he dealt with an arm injury. Last week’s performance should put him in the discussion to return to the Midwest League soon. … Dillon Head played in three games for the Storm last week, going 1-for-11 before being moved to Miami in the Luis Arraez deal. Head, 19, will be assigned to Single-A Jupiter of the Florida State League. At the time of the deal, Head was hitting .237/.317/.366 in 21 games with the Storm. (Kevin Charity)

ACL Padres 5, ACL White Sox 4 (7 innings)

Key Statistics: CF Donte Grant, 0-for-2, BB, RBI, SB (1, 2); LF Daniel Montesino, 1-for-2, R, 2B, BB; 1B Addison Kopack, 2-for-3, R, RBI; DH Kaden Hollow, 0-for-0, R, 3 BB; LHP Adler Cecil, IP, BB, 3 K (pro debut); RHP Bernard Jose (W, 1-0) 2 IP, H, BB, 2 K; RHP Kleiber Olmedo (S, 1) IP, 2 H, R, 2 K

Prospect Watch: Full-season minor league baseball goes dark on Mondays, leaving the beginning of the week for complex league baseball. The Padres’ ACL squad improved to 2-0 despite going 1-for-13 with runners in scoring positions. Even though the two teams played just seven innings as planned, it took three hours to complete this game. … Addison Kopack recorded the Padres’ only multi-hit game as the 22-year-old collected the first two hits of his professional career. The former University of Rhode Island catcher/first baseman signed last season as an undrafted free agent and got into just three ACL games. As a sophomore in 2022, Kopack hit 17 homers with a .364 average, but he struggled to a .259 average in his junior year. He saw action in college as a middle infielder and appeared in six games on the mound as a freshman. … After going 3-for-4 in his season debut, Kaden Hollow started at designated hitter and drew three walks. The 23-year-old played collegiately at Dixie State (now called Utah Tech), hitting .327/.418/.525 in his final season in the WAC. He has played the last two seasons in the complex league and has hit .313/.459/.479 overall as a professional. … Lefty Adler Cecil made his professional debut Monday night, spinning a scoreless innings. He faced four hitters, walking one and striking out three. The Padres drafted Cecil out of Temecula Valley High School in the 19th round last year and agreed to a $175,000 bonus, $25,000 of which counted against their bonus pool. … Donte Grant drew a walk, got hit by a pitch, and stole a pair of bases. The 19-year-old from the Seattle area signed with the Padres last year as an undrafted free agent out of high school. He’s reached base five times in his first eight plate appearances without the benefit of a hit.