San Diego Padres 2025 Draft Review with Jim Callis

The San Diego Padres signed all 19 of their draft picks by the July 28 deadline, and brought in a league-high 11 additional undrafted free agents.  

San Diego has had some notable recent successes among undrafted signees, particularly in 2022, when they signed a converted center fielder from an NAIA school, and a reliever David Morgan, and one of their top pitching prospects, Braden Nett, from St. Charles Community College and the Home Depot.

We will have more in the upcoming weeks about some of the undrafted players and most of the players taken in rounds four through 20. Today, though, we focus on the five players who ate up nearly all of the club’s draft pool: Kruz Schoolcraft, Ty Harvey, Truitt Madonna, Ryan Wideman, and Michael Salina, with MLB Pipeline’s Jim Callis, who predicted the Padres would select Schoolcraft if he was available.

MadFriars: If we go by signing bonuses, San Diego had a very top-heavy draft; three high school players received the majority of the signing bonuses.  Do you approve of a team using this approach?

Jim Callis: It’s important to remember that the Padres didn’t have a second-round pick, so they were limited in what they could do. I firmly believe, especially in the first round, you take the best player available, regardless of the costs, and they did that with Kruz Schoolcraft. We had him ranked as the 19th best player in the draft, and if the ranking were based solely on ceiling, he would be in the top five.

So, the Padres got the best player they possibly could at the position they selected.

We discussed before the draft that if the Padres had the opportunity to select Kruz Schoolcraft, he would be their guy, but you didn’t think he would fall to the 25th pick. How did he arrive at that level, and were you surprised the Padres were able to sign him for slot value?

Jim Callis: First, $3.6 million is a lot to turn down, especially for a pitcher where there is always a high chance of injury.  A limited draft pool may have helped them because, unlike a team with a $10 million pool, San Diego was paying all that it could within its means.

There is a lot of credit to be given to A.J. Preller and Chris Kemp for identifying that Kruz could be available and doing the legwork to make sure they had the funds to pay him.  I was a little surprised to see that he was still there and had signed for the slot.  A little, but you never really know what the asking price is for any player.

In the fifth and eleventh rounds, the Padres took high school catchers Ty Harvey and Truitt Madonna, both of whom are described as very athletic. What do you know about them, and do you think they are limited to behind the plate?

Jim Callis:  What stands out about both is right-handed power, and we did have Harvey in our top 250 players. I do know Harvey is considered a solid receiver, and from what I understand, both are expected to stay behind the plate.

I wasn’t sure if Ryan Wideman and Michael Salina were value picks or draftees who would sign for significantly below slot values, but they both received nearly full slot value.  What can you tell us about them?

Jim Callis:  Looking at it from the outside, the Padres seemed to want players with ceilings that were also signable around the slot amount. Wideman is fascinating, standing 6-foot-5 and weighing 204 pounds, and was one of the best athletes in Division I this year. The problem is that his chase and ground ball rates were also among the worst in college baseball. So, the gamble is whether they can get him to make better swing decisions and lift the ball; they could have something.

Salina was hitting 102 mph before he went down with Tommy John surgery.  He also has a power slider and a real feel for the change. If he hadn’t been injured, he would have gone much higher.

So both are exciting dice rolls that fit into their budget. So, for a team with one of the lowest draft pools, it was a very interesting and exciting strategy.

Kerrington Cross was the Big-12 player of the year and put up some phenomenal numbers in his fifth year at the University of Cincinnati. We are aware that he is 23, but were you surprised that he would accept $20,000 in the seventh round, rather than waiting for the later rounds (11-20) or even as an undrafted free agent, when he could have received $150,000? 

Jim Callis: He was going to get drafted, but why he accepted the offer he did, you will need to ask him that question. He was the Player of the Year in the Big 12, and while it’s not the SEC, it’s still a very strong conference. He has a somewhat unorthodox setup at the plate. I’m not sure how good his arm is or if he can stick at third base.  If he doesn’t, you have a right-handed first baseman who is somewhat older than the league.

From what I understand, he has a tremendous makeup.  He has a degree in chemical engineering, and you need to sign players like that.  Again, for why he signed, you would have to ask him, but sometimes teams make agreements about where they will start someone, and other players just want to be with a pro team as quickly as possible.

Anyone else stand out to you in the draft?

Jim Callis: Not particularly, because most of this draft was five players. Again, I’m not criticizing it, but it’s just the reality of how much money they had to spend. If I go into rounds 11 through 20, I would say Tyler Schmidt of the University of Illinois stands out.  He has a good arm, but he just hasn’t thrown a lot of strikes.  Those are the type of players that are development projects that could work out.