San Diego Padres Top 31 Prospects

Below is an analysis of the prospects in the farm system of the San Diego Padres. Scouting reports were compiled with information provided by industry sources as well as our own observations. This is the fourth year we’re delineating between two anticipated relief roles, the abbreviations for which you’ll see in the “position” column below: MIRP for multi-inning relief pitchers, and SIRP for single-inning relief pitchers. The ETAs listed generally correspond to the year a player has to be added to the 40-man roster to avoid being made eligible for the Rule 5 draft. Manual adjustments are made where they seem appropriate, but we use that as a rule of thumb.

A quick overview of what FV (Future Value) means can be found here. A much deeper overview can be found here.

All of the ranked prospects below also appear on The Board, a resource the site offers featuring sortable scouting information for every organization. It has more details (and updated TrackMan data from various sources) than this article and integrates every team’s list so readers can compare prospects across farm systems. It can be found here.

Other Prospects of Note

Grouped by type and listed in order of preference within each category.

Throwing Hard
Yovanny Cruz, RHP
Miguel Mendez, RHP
Ruben Galindo, RHP
Manuel Castro, RHP
Yerry Landinez, RHP
José Geraldo, RHP

A minor league free agent signee, Cruz was injured a lot during his tenure with the Cubs. He’s still sitting 96-99 and will flash a plus changeup. A super skinny A-ball starter who just turned 22, Mendez is sitting 93-97 and will flash a good slider. He’s wild, his fastball lacks life, and his slider is crushable when it’s not located well. A 6-foot-1 Colombian righty up to 96, Galindo also has a pretty good changeup. He’s worked about two innings at a time out of the bullpen for the last several years and is currently on the IL. A 5-foot-8 Mexican righty, Castro is having success as a reliever at Fort Wayne sitting 93-95 with a bunch of other 45 and 45-grade pitches. A converted infielder, hitters don’t seem to see Landinez’s fastball out of hand, and even though it isn’t that hard, he’s generating a miss rate north of 40%. He’s wild but interesting to follow. Geraldo is 25 and sitting 94-97 at Fort Wayne.

Famous Guys
Jagger Haynes, LHP
Ryan Bergert, RHP
Carson Montgomery, RHP

Haynes was San Diego’s 2020 fifth rounder, a projectable high school lefty who didn’t pitch in an affiliated game until 2023 due to injury. His delivery and frame are still exciting, but neither Haynes’ velo nor his command has progressed. Bergert, a former sixth round pick, is sitting 92-93 with uphill angle and an occasionally good slider. Montgomery, San Diego’s 11th rounder last year, was a high-profile high schooler who went to Florida State and didn’t quite take a leap in Tallahassee. He ran a WHIP near 2.00 as a junior and has been hurt for most of 2024.

A-Ball Hitters
Rosman Verdugo, 1B
Romeo Sanabria, 3B
Jay Beshears, 2B

Verdugo was given a pretty aggressive assignment last year as an 18-year-old assigned to full-season ball, and he didn’t perform especially well. He’s back in Lake Elsinore and things have been better overall, but he’s actually striking out a little more than in 2023 and is having arm accuracy issues at third base, where he’s playing more often because of De Vrie’s presence at short. His zone control is great, but for now he’s just a young follow. A physical 22-year-old first baseman, Sanabria slugged his way out of Elsinore earlier this year but has started to come back down to Earth at Fort Wayne. His hit data from the Cal League was awesome, but we don’t trust that his swing will play at the upper levels, let alone in the big leagues. Clearing the bar at first base is super hard. Beshears transferred from Northwestern to Duke for his draft year and then walked and slugged his way from Lake Elsinore to Fort Wayne this season. He swings hard but lacks feel for contact, and his arm isn’t a fit at shortstop.

Rookie-Level Names to Know
Yimy Tovar, SS
Yoiber Ocopio, C/1B
Jordan Valenzuela, RHP

Tovar is a physical DSL shortstop with an advanced bat and modest projection. Ocopio made the DSL All-Star team last year but has been left back there again in 2024. He’s a stocky guy with a compact swing that produces impressive power. Valenzuela is a 6-foot-2 righty who sits about 90 with pretty nasty natural cut. He’s got good arm speed and physical projection, but is wild right now.

System Overview

Like last year, the Padres system has impact talent at the top but it thins out pretty quickly. The team’s ability to pick good players in the draft and international market has kept the big league team flush through promotions and trades. Jackson Merrill is already contributing to the major league club at a high level, and several other teams (especially the Nationals) are reaping the rewards of the Padres’ good draft room judgement on the back of big trades. The Padres have been one of the most active teams on the trade market in recent memory and that has taken a chunk out of their prospect talent pool. It’s probably a safe assumption that more players will be on the move in coming weeks.

As good as the Padres’ scouting departments have been at identifying talent, it’s been hard to keep the system stocked at the pace they’ve traded it away. The number of Padres draft picks and signees who’ve become relevant big leaguers is incredible evidence of their proficiency in the realm, but the fact that so many of them play for other teams has got to make you jealous if you’re a Padres fan. You could argue some of these trades were short-sighted, but part of the reason they feel that way is because former Padres chairman Peter Seidler passed away and the front office had no choice but to alter course pretty significantly.

For the first time in a while there are some identifiable changes being made to pitchers in the system that seem to have improved their results. Isaiah Lowe, who was already pretty good, appears to have been proactively tweaked. The fact that this happened even though he was coming off a successful season is an indication that player dev is starting to get a bit of a footing in San Diego. Dylan Lekso’s slider, some changes to the way Robby Snelling’s fastball works, the leap Francis Pena has made, and Tirso Ornelas’ launch angle creeping up offer further proof that there’s good stuff happening here now when, not long ago, the player the Padres drafted or signed was usually the one they had to roll with later on.

While this system is soundly below average in most respects, the reasons it became so aren’t all bad. Way more than anyone should “Trust the Process” they should “Pick Good Players,” and the Padres tend to do that. Of course, one team’s “creativity” is another’s “impulsivity,” and the Padres could use a Tom Hagen-type who can help the front office rein in its occasional (but usually costly) impulsivity.