The Padres signed 16-year-old catcher Ethan Salas, the younger brother of Twins prospect Jose Salas, for $5.6 million this January — the highest bonus in this year’s international free agent class. He won’t turn 17 until June, but was already in minor league camp, and in a five-inning intrasquad game on Saturday morning he caught a rehabbing Joe Musgrove. I can’t believe this kid is only 16.
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Salas catches like a veteran already, and just watching him catch Musgrove it was easy to forget there was a 15!? year age difference between the two. Salas showed soft hands and agility behind the plate, with plenty of arm strength in warmup throws, and he had no trouble blocking the few times he had to get into position to do so. At the plate, he has an incredibly simple swing and controls the barrel very well, with a direct path to the ball and the ability to pull his hands in to adjust to stuff on the inner third. It’s contact over power for now, given his age, of course, but also because he doesn’t always keep his front side strong, landing late and rolling over his front foot enough that it deprives him of some of the strength he should get from his legs.
Salas is Venezuelan by descent but spent much of his childhood in the U.S. and speaks both English and Spanish, giving him another advantage over many catchers his age who just speak one language and allowing him to move even faster through the low minors. I could see him turning into a Gabriel Moreno-type prospect — a high-contact, high-average hitter who’s a plus defender and hits the ball hard enough that there could still be some future power there. Moreno was a top 10 prospect going into last season. I’ll be surprised if Salas doesn’t end up there soon.
More observations from the Cactus League …
• I know you’re sick of hearing about Dodgers prospects, but lefty Justin Wrobleski, their 11th-round pick in 2021 off Tommy John surgery, was 92-97 mph on Saturday with a power breaking ball at 84-86 mph and a cutter at 90-91 mph with just a little cutting action. He’s got a fast arm and a fairly clean delivery, getting on top of the fastball and generating good ride on the four-seamer. I didn’t see a changeup, but that’s a good arm slot to throw one. The curveball is plus, the fastball is at least a 55, and he should be able to repeat the delivery well enough for strikes – which he didn’t do before the elbow injury at Oklahoma State, so that’s the main thing to watch for as he takes the mound this year.
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• Right-hander Juan Morillo is also on the way back from Tommy John surgery, having thrown just 1.2 innings since the end of the 2019 season. He was 96-98 mph with a mid-80s slider and hard changeup at 90-91 mph, and it’s a pretty clear reliever look even before we consider how little he’s pitched, but the Dodgers seem incapable of developing a pitcher who throws slower than 95 mph.
• Notes on a few Dodgers young ‘uns for you: Mairoshendrick Martinus, a native of Curaçao, has an incredible baseball physique and really good bat speed. He looked much better than Oswaldo Osorio, whose bat was overmatched by decent velocity. I also saw outfielder Josue De Paula, but he never got the bat off his shoulder, walking in both plate appearances I caught.
• I spent some time with the Giants’ and Brewers’ Double-A clubs, as they were playing each other every night at the end of the week. Milwaukee outfielder Jackson Chourio is the No. 1 prospect still in the minors, and will be the No. 1 overall prospect by the end of this week, once Corbin Carroll and Gunnar Henderson cross the 130 at bat threshold. I can’t tell you too much you haven’t already heard about Chourio other than reiterating that he’s really, really good. That kid – he just turned 19 three weeks ago – has lightning in his hands. I saw him take a 3-0 fastball off a lefty the other way, homering into the right field corner, and in his next at-bat he tripled off the center-field wall, probably missing an inside-the-park home run only because one of the umpires got in his way. I could nitpick the swing a little bit, but I don’t think it matters. His hands and wrists are so quick and so strong that he can even mishit a ball the way he got slightly under that home run and still end up with a good result.
• Milwaukee’s Felix Valerio struggled last year while playing through a sore ankle, continuing to make a ton of contact but hitting just .228/.313/.357. The 5-foot-7 infielder looked much better, hitting several balls hard in the two games I caught, including one massive home run to deep left field off right-hander Carson Seymour, as well as a loud triple off the center-field wall and a hard-hit flyout to left. He doesn’t really have a position, struggling at third base in one of the games I saw, but I do think he’s going to bounce back at the plate and hit for more power and a higher BABIP than last year.
• Giants infielder Marco Luciano didn’t play the field this spring as he came back slowly from a back injury, and in my one look at him – he didn’t play the second game – he looked very rusty, with a slower bat and trouble picking up offspeed stuff. His body looks fine, but at the very least he’ll need a few more weeks in extended spring training before he can go to Double A.
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• Patrick Bailey didn’t make an out with me in the stadium, with hits from both sides of the plate. They were all singles, nothing hit very hard, but he seemed to pick up different pitch types well, which would be a good sign given his mediocre contact rate last year in Double A.
• Both of the pitchers the Giants got back from the Mets for Darin Ruf threw in the two games I saw. Carson Seymour was the better of the two, sitting 93-95 mph with a big hammer of a slider at 85-87 mph, although it’s fringy command and the fastball looked like it was playing down from its velocity. Lefty Nick Zwack was 93-94 mph with a solid-average slider at 86-87 mph but also got hit on the fastball.
• Right-hander Landen Roupp (Giants) threw one inning to open the first game, sitting 93 mph on his sinker but working far more with a plus curveball at 77-78 mph, striking out Chourio and Tyler Black. He’s got a low release point that creates a tough attack angle for hitters, which has produced some huge strikeout rates in the minors. It sounds like he’ll be a few weeks behind as he builds back up to start.
• Back to Padres camp, right-hander Henry Williams threw his first inning in his return from Tommy John surgery. San Diego’s third-rounder in 2022 missed all of last spring and summer, and showed two pitches in his return, sitting 91-92 mph with what looked like high spin up in the zone and a very sharp changeup with great deception at 85-86 mph. The velocity isn’t there but hitters were cutting under the pitch like it was much harder. He had first-round buzz before he blew out, with premium stuff but not command and a history of elbow woes.
• Seattle right-hander Michael Morales was 91-92 mph with a four-pitch mix highlighted by a solid-average slider at 84-85 mph, still showing the great delivery scouts loved in high school when he was the Mariners’ third-round pick. He remains projectable and hasn’t filled out much if at all since he signed for an over-slot bonus of $1.5 million back in 2021.
• I caught a glimpse of Dominican shortstop Felnin Celesten, whom the Mariners signed in January for $4.7 million. Still 17 until September, Celesten looked very raw as a hitter in the one game I saw, with a long swing and just fair bat speed. It’s a great infielder’s body, though, and he had better actions at shortstop.
• Michael Arroyo also played in that game, and the shortstop shows a compact swing and looks pretty strong for his listed height of 5-foot-8 (he might be taller than that). He wasn’t great at short, however, mostly in his footwork, even on routine plays.
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• Oakland right-hander Mason Miller was 97-100 mph, again, with a slider/cutter up to 94 mph, and mostly threw strikes. It’s just a matter of health with Miller, who threw only seven innings last year due to a shoulder injury, not counting his time in the Arizona Fall League.
• Jordan Lawlar did not care for Miller’s arsenal, striking out on a slider down and then later a fastball up, although the D-Backs’ first-round pick from 2021 otherwise looked very impressive in approach and swing. He’s a big kid who’s probably moving off shortstop, but his bat might run him to the big leagues by the end of 2023.
• A couple of Rockies arms I caught – it’s been a while since Connor Staine, their fifth-round pick, pitched in games that counted, and the former Central Florida right-hander was 93-96 mph with big life in his first inning with two very sharp breaking balls. His velocity dipped to more 90-93 mph in the second inning and it’s fringy command. Lefty Joe Rock was 90-91 mph with a very long arm action and low slot that should make him tough on left-handed batters, but I didn’t see anything for righties.
• I only caught a little bit of Rockies outfielder Yanquiel Fernandez but that’s impressive bat speed. The Cuban outfielder has power and a great frame with some projection left, although he’s going to have to tighten up his pitch selection this year in High A.
• Apropos of nothing, the Angels and Rockies are among the few teams that don’t put names on minor league players’ uniforms in spring training. It saves them maybe $4,000 a year. It also makes it much harder for other teams to scout their guys, which I know is often a philosophy – like you’re hiding your own players – but I think there’s more value in having more scouts see your players more often, so that maybe some other team calls on a prospect you don’t value as highly. It seems pennywise and pound foolish.
(Top photo of Ethan Salas: John E. Moore III / Getty Images)
