The day many in the organization treated as a foregone conclusion in January, 2023, but which seemed wildly uncertain as recently as this February, has arrived.
Ethan Salas will be called up to join the San Diego Padres in Cincinnati as big league rosters expand today.
The 20-year-old backstop, who has been one of the organization’s best prospects since the day he signed for the largest signing bonus any international free agent has earned under current MLB rules, earned the opportunity with a stellar 2026 campaign. Salas has hit .296/.374/.448 across two levels while continuing to show elite skills behind the plate.
His results are built on a stellar foundation of elite bat-to-ball skills paired with a patient approach he was intentional in cultivating this season.
Salas missed virtually all of 2025 with a stress reaction in his back, but he has seemingly never doubted his ability to return with authority.
Ethan Salas put a perfect swing on his Spring Breakout game homer. (Photo: Jerry Espinoza)
“I’m just going to go out and keep playing every single day, happy like a kid, and trying to beat people’s asses every single day,” he told us after a huge showing in this year’s Spring Breakout showcase game during spring training.
From one perspective, it’s not surprising that Salas has forced his way to the big league squad in the midst of a playoff push.
“He’s just the total package,” Padres scouting director Chris Kemp said as he celebrated bringing Salas into the organization three-plus years ago. “There isn’t one tool that he doesn’t have.”
Of course, baseball’s history is littered with ‘can’t-miss’ prospects who never fulfill their promise.
Ethan Salas has shown poise behind the plate since his 2023 debut. (Photo: Robert Escalante)
Salas did his best to put such concerns to rest when he became the first player to reach full-season ball as a 16-year-old in almost 20 years and blasted his way to a .366/.416/.720 line in July of 2023 for Lake Elsinore. The Padres responded with an ultra-aggressive series of promotions that pushed him to Double-A San Antonio within two months of his 17th birthday.
The approach backfired as Salas struggled through a rough 2024 campaign back in Fort Wayne. He hit just .206/.288/.306 as he endured failure on the field for the first time in his life.
Things went even further south in 2025 as Salas posted an ugly .544 OPS through 10 games in San Antonio before he hit the IL. It took nearly a month for the organization to acknowledge he was dealing with a stress fracture in his back, and multiple efforts to get back to play in the regular season and then the Arizona Fall League were aborted.
Having a year off may have helped Salas more than anyone realized, both phsyically getting stronger and an opportunity to refocus after a dissapointing year.
“I worked on getting the right routine and was in the mirror a lot, looking and making some changes in my swing, said Salas to us this year in San Antonio. I needed that time to grow; it wasn’t wasted.”
Even with the concerns, Salas was our top prospect in the system coming into this year and the Padres were unconcerned, returning to San Antonio to open this year.
“In 2024, I saw him more than anyone,” Mike Daly, San Diego’s Assistant Director of Player Development told us at the end of spring training. “He was never over-matched at that level. He understands the strike zone, and defensively, he is at a very high level.”
Ethan Salas returned offensively this year in San Antonio. (Photo: San Antonio Missions)
He rewarded the Padres for their confidence, showing exactly that combination of strike zone management, confident at-bats, and elite work at the most difficult position on the field. His performance in San Antonio earned him a promotion to El Paso shortly after he once again represented the organization in the Future Stars game in July.
Salas, who is now 6-foot-3 and between 210 to 215 pounds, credited a big part of his resurgnece to at the plate to getting back to his approach in Lake Elsinore in 2023; trying to do more than just making contact.
“I tend to make a lot of contact, I don’t swing and miss a lot, and in 2024, I found that I was getting myself out a lot with weak contact and putting balls in play that I shouldn’t have,” said Salas. “I started to identify that and decided I want to be up here to do damage, and I want to do it on a pitch I want.”
In the month since, Salas has hit .296/.374/.448 while showing the sort of confidence and leadership his position demands.
Salas joins the big league club in an ideal circumstance as both Freddy Fermin and Luis Campusano have been productive in the second half of the season. He will likely get some starts against right-handed pitching and provide flexibility for himself and Campusano to get extra at-bats at designated hitter.
The club’s offense, finally producing over the last two months of the year, doesn’t need him to be a savior, simply the Ethan Salas he’s always thought himself to be.
“I just want to be myself,” Salas told us this spring. “I think everything else in my game is pretty locked in, so I’m not trying to put any number goals or anything, just trying to go out there fresh-minded every day.”
