El Paso Chihuahuas (Lost series to Albuquerque Isotopes 1-5)
Matt Waldron in action last year with El Paso. (Photo: Jorge Salgado)
Players of the Week: The Chihuahuas had a brutal week at home as they slipped to 6-9 on the season after a relatively good series on the road at Tacoma. The offensive star was outfielder Carlos Rodriguez (no relation to the catcher of the same name with Fort Wayne), 25, who reached base nine times in 16 plate appearances for a team-leading 1.018 OPS. The 5-foot-9, 190-pound Venezuelan was in the Atlanta organization last year and posted a .650 OPS between Double-A and Triple-A . A left-hander who can play all three outfield positions, Rodriguez has seen most of his time in left and center. He had a nice spring training, posting a .366 on-base percentage, but didn’t show a lot of power. He squarely fits into the paradigm of the Padres’ Triple-A team, a player who can fill in at multiple positions. … With the apparent injury to Nick Pivetta, Matt Waldron, 29, may have bought himself another shot in San Diego with five shutout innings in his most recent rehab start. Despite the vast difference in talent between the major leagues and Triple-A, Waldron’s stuff has been more effective in the big leagues than in the thin air at altitude in the PCL, which drastically affects the amount of movement he can get. As we noted after his start on Thursday, he is still throwing his knuckler nearly a third of the time, but is mixing in more sweepers, sinkers, and cutters to go along with a four-seam fastball that he throws with the same frequency as his knuckler. He was a big part of San Diego’s staff in the first half of 2024, when he made 19 starts and threw 106.2 innings with a 3.71 ERA, before struggling in the second half. The key for him will be the five-pitch mix, so hitters can’t sit on his low- to mid-90s fastball.
Top Prospects and Others of Note: Marcos Castañon will always have doubters because of his high-effort swing with a big leg kick, but he continues to find a way to make it work. Last week was no exception for the former UC-Santa Barbara Gaucho, who checked in with an .897 OPS which included a double and a home run. In the field, he’s seen some time at first and third base and got a game as a DH. … Nick Solak, 31, a second-round pick of the New York Yankees in 2016 who is now on his eighth organization, had a nice week, reaching base eight times in five games for a .888 OPS. The Indiana native had a huge spring training, slashing .341/.362/.545 in 47 plate appearances, and posted a .902 OPS in Triple-A Indianapolis in 2025. He has over 250 games in the big leagues, but as a right-handed corner bat, there is a bit of a line to reach San Diego this season. … Starter Griffin Canning, 30, is another candidate to be moved up to San Diego, but will probably need a few more outings with El Paso. In his second rehab appearance, he went 3.1 innings and only allowed a run, with four strikeouts against three walks. The Padres have said they want him to have a full build-up. … The Chihuahuas have a strong bullpen with Alek Jacob, Jackson Wolf, who has moved from a starting role this year, and Garrett Hawkins, the Padres’ top prospect with the Chihuahuas. None of the three allowed a run on the week, and Hawkins picked up the only victory as he appeared in two games, got three strikeouts, and didn’t issue a walk. (John Conniff)
Luis Gutierrez has made big strides with his arsenal this year. (Photo: Courtesy of Fort Wayne TinCaps)
San Antonio Missions (Lost series to Corpus Christi Hooks 2-4)
Player of the Week: A year ago, Carson Tucker, was out of professional baseball and forced to sign with the Ogden Raptors of the Pioneer League. He used his success there to get another chance in affiliated ball, signing a deal with the Padres in January. His first full week in the system can only be viewed as encouraging. He hit .412/.500/.529 with seven hits, three walks, and two stolen bases. Even when he did not start, he came on late to pinch run and scored the game-tying run in the Missions’ walk-off win Saturday night. Not a bad Double-A debut for the former first-round pick. … LHP Luis Gutierrez pitched his way from Lake Elsinore all the way to one late-season appearance in El Paso last season, and this season has continued the success. In two starts, the 22-year-old has allowed one run over nine innings. He has given up three hits, walking two, and striking out 11. The 11 strikeouts, his 0.56 WHIP and .103 BAA all lead the team.
Romeo Sanabria hasn’t carried over his hot spring into the regular season. (Photo: Robert Escalante)
Top Prospects and Others of Note:. The only thing colder than weather in the Midwest might be the bats in San Antonio. Nearly every hitter struggled to start the year, and Ethan Salas was no exception. After putting on a show at the Spring Breakout Game, Salas started the season 2-for-16. Over the weekend, the 19-year-old looked like the rust is shaking loose, going 3-for-7 with a walk, RBI, and stolen base. Salas is hitting .217/.280/.261 so far this year. … Romeo Sanabria also looked like he was on fire at the end of spring training, just to be dunked into ice water. Sanabria has started the season hitting .189/.268/.243 with two doubles and three RBI. … Through nine games, Braedon Karpathios is batting just .139/.225/.194 on a 5-for-26 line with a triple and four walks. It’s an extremely small sample size, but his strikeout rate is north of 42%, nearly 15 percent above from his career norms. … Despite posting back-to-back seasons with an OPS above .800 in El Paso, Tirso Ornelas found himself back in Double-A when he started this year late following a minor injury in spring training. Compared to the rest of the squad, Ornelas had a solid opening week, going 6-for-23, with a double and a home run. His .755 OPS ranks third on the team. … If last year was the year that Miguel Mendez broke out onto the prospect scene, this will need to be the year he truly becomes a pitcher. After absolutely annihilating A-Ball last year, Mendez struggled with an 8.06 ERA over six Double-A starts to close out the year. This year, he has fared much better. Over two starts, Mendez has allowed one earned run on six hits over 7.2 innings. He has walked four and struck out eight. … Lefty Harry Gustin ended the 2025 season with 12.2 innings at San Antonio without allowing an earned run. His picked right up in 2026, allowing just one earned run in six innings on five hits with no walks, and six strikeouts. The 23-year-old is one to watch if the Padres need left-handed bullpen help later in the year. … It’s been a forgettable start to the season for Jagger Haynes, who didn’t get out of the second inning in his lone start of the week, and now has a 16.20 ERA. Haynes is coming off of a season where he posted a 4.11 ERA over 103 innings in Double-A but the lefty was left off the 40-player roster. … Righty Ian Koenig has started two games for the Missions, and thus far has allowed seven earned runs over 9.2 innings. The 25-year-old is averaging just under a strikeout an inning, and has a 1.03 WHIP. … Reliever Francis Peña, who also found himself back in Double-A, had three appearances in the club’s first 10 games. Two of them were scoreless outings in which he struck out 45% of the batters he faced without allowing a hit. The other outing, however, he walked five and was ultimately charged with four runs. Pena has shown enough raw talent to contribute in the big leagues, but seven walks in 3.1 innings is not going to cut it. … After spending most of his career in the rotation, Eric Yost came out of the pen last week. The 23-year-old was successful, allowing one run over 5.2 innings in a pair of outings. He walked two and struck out seven. Yost had a 5.79 ERA over 37.1 innings for San Antonio last year. (Ben Davey)
Fort Wayne TinCaps (Lost series to Lansing Lugnuts 2-4)
Alex McCoy squares up another one for the TinCaps to open 2026. (Photo: Jeff Nycz)
Player of the week: There were few highlights for the Fort Wayne TinCaps this past week, as they went 2-4 in their home opening series against Lansing… Without question, the strongest performance of the week came courtesy of Alex McCoy. The powerful outfielder went 7-for-20, collecting a pair of doubles and crushing his first two home runs of the season. None of the contact that he has made since arriving in the Midwest League has been quiet, as he has already logged eight exit velocities north of 105 mph this season. That included 119.5 mph exit velocity in Sunday’s series finale. Through eight games, he claims a 152 wRC+, .421 wOBA, and is slugging .607. Perhaps most encouraging, outside of McCoy’s exceptional batted-ball data, has been his ability to limit strikeouts—punching out only four times this past series and only five times so far this season. It continues the encouraging trend we saw at the end of last season when McCoy cut his K rate to 21% over his final 37 games with Lake Elsinore. … Despite having a full seven days of rest, left-hander Kash Mayfield worked only four innings in his Friday start. Still, he was effective in his brief outing, allowing no runs or hits, walking three, and striking out four. Mayfield collected nine whiffs and a 31% whiff rate. He’s struck out four in each of his first two Midwest League starts; however, he’s also walked two and has yet to work beyond four innings. Mayfield topped out at 93 mph in his latest outing.
Top Prospects and Others of Note: Carson Montgomery made his first regular-season appearance in nearly two years and looked solid, working four innings and allowing one unearned run, with three strikeouts and one walk. The Florida State alum has long struggled with matching his stuff with command, but Thursday night he did just that, throwing 69% of his pitches for strikes. The right-hander’s arsenal generated five whiffs and a 17.5% whiff rate. …Kavares Tears is still struggling with the strikeouts; that said, he’s off to a good start in 2026. In six games against Lansing, Tears went 5-for-19 with four extra base hits and four walks. Tears has made a few small mechanical changes to his swing as the left fielder has ditched his leg kick for a more subtle toe-tap, and he’s become slightly more crouched with his bat lying relaxed on his shoulder in his set-up rather than raised hinged above his head. Through 30 plate appearances, he owns a 123 wRC+ and .373 wOBA. … Among the bigger-name prospects in Fort Wayne, Lamar King Jr. has undoubtedly struggled the most to start 2026. King went 1-for-17 at the dish this past week, walking three times and striking out five times. He has drawn a fair share of his free passes, posting a 21.9% walk rate in eight games played. In his now 114 at-bats with Fort Wayne going back to last year, King Jr. is hitting .193 with a .272 wOBA. … Kasen Wells won’t produce eye-popping exit velocities, but he’s shown a knack for getting on base. Wells went 4-for-15 on the week with two RBIs, a run scored, and drew seven walks while striking out only once. (Clark Fahrenthold)
Lake Elsinore Storm (Split series against the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes 3-3)
The Storm opened their home slate last week at The Diamond and split the series against the Quakes, who are now an Angels’ affiliate. Despite being shut out in one game, the Storm offense scored 51 runs in the six-game set. The Storm will head north to take on Stockton in a six-game series this week.
Top Performers: Conner Westenburg had a week to remember for the Storm. The former McNeese outfielder went 11-for-18 with a double, a triple, six RBI, and three stolen bases. His slash-line for the week was .611/.667/.778 – good for a 1.445 OPS. Westenburg signed with the Padres as an undrafted free agent last year and is making his professional debut with the Storm this season. He has seen action in all nine games for the Storm this season, and he ranks sixth in the league in OPS (1.167), tied for second in hits (13), and he has struck out in just 17% of his plate appearances. … Bryan Balzer showed tantalizing stuff at times last season, but was hit hard by opposing Cal League batters. In his second stint in the Cal League, it looks like Balzer is settling in. The 21-year-old righty started on Thursday and tossed five shutout innings to earn his first victory of the season. He allowed just two hits, walked three, and struck out four. In 2025, Cal League batters hit .310 off Balzer; through two starts, opponents have managed just a .130 average against him.
Top Prospects and Others of Note: It was a slow week at the plate for Jorge Quintana, our sixth-ranked prospect. The 18-year-old hit .238/.304/.238 in five games. He struck out eight times in 23 plate appearances, and his defense was a little shaky as well. Through eight games, Quintana is hitting .172/.333/.172 with a K-rate north of 30%. … Truitt Madonna saw action in all six games last week, posting a .690 OPS to go with a triple and four RBI. … Kale Fountain connected on his first homer of the season and hit .238/.333/.429 in five games. The Storm outfielder has hit the ball hard after struggling mightily in the opening set at Ontario. Aside from Westenburg, the top performer for the Storm against Rancho was outfielder George Bilecki. Last year’s 12th-rounder had a 1.207 OPS in five games, collecting three doubles and his first professional homer to go with four RBI. Bilecki starred at Division II Lewis University, where he hit 22 homers in 2025. He was slated to transfer to Arizona State before the Padres paid him $150,000 to sign. … Infielder Bradley Frye also had a banner week, hitting .500/.524/.833 with nine hits, including three doubles and his first professional career homer. The 23-year-old signed with the Padres as an undrafted free agent out of Mercer University. … After an opening week clunker in Ontario, top prospect Kruz Schoolcraft started Friday night. Once again, he failed to get past one inning. Schoolcraft recorded just one out, allowing four runs (three earned) on four hits, while walking two. The 18-year-old lefty will look to get on track this week in Stockton. … Winyer Chourio pitched well in his first start of the season last Tuesday. He tossed four innings, allowing a run on three hits. He walked two and struck out six. Chourio made his full-season debut with the Storm late last season and will look to build on last week’s outing. (Kevin Charity)
