Ethan Salas

Signed with the San Diego Padres as an international free agent on Jan. 15, 2023 as a 16-year-old out of Venezuela... was born in Florida but moved with his family to Venezuela... signed with the Padres for $5.6 million, taking nearly all of the organization’s $5,825,500 base signing pool... was ranked as MLB Pipeline’s No. 1 international prospect for 2023... began the 2023 season ranked as San Diego's No. 3 prospect... his brother, Jose Salas, signed with the Marlins for $2.8 million in July 2019 and was later traded to the Twins in January 2023... backstop made his professional debut at age 16 on May 30, 2023 with Single-A Lake Elsinore, becoming just the third player since 2018 to play in Single-A in their age-17 seasons, joining fellow San Diego prospect Samuel Zavala and Angels outfielder Nelson Rada... ranked as the No. 86 overall prospect in baseball and the No. 9 catcher according to MLB.com as of his debut in May 2023, but moved up to No. 5 overall by August when he was 17

2023

Made his Padres debut with Lake Elsinore on 5/30 and reached base three times in the Storm's 3-1 win against Visalia... Padres promoted him to High-A Fort Wayne on Aug. 8, 2023 and he made his Midwest League debut a day later at Lansing... ranked by MLB.com as the No. 5 overall prospect in baseball and the top catching prospect after MLB's post-Draft rankings update in August