Top prospects start together; reliever hit in face; Bryan Hoeing’s progress; Sean Reynolds in a boot
PHOENIX — The Padres are no longer an organization whose biggest stars are in the minor leagues.
The future is no longer the thing that matters most. They are built for now.
But there is always building going on. A team can never stop evolving and thinking about what is next.
Sunday, with every regular player staying back in Peoria, what might be on the horizon in 2026 took center stage. Shortstop Leo De Vries and catcher Ethan Salas, the team’s top two prospects, started a spring training game for the first time.
And they did it together.
“Today is an exciting day for the organization,” manager Mike Shildt said Sunday morning. “It’s time for those guys to go start to take those next steps in their journey to get here permanently.
The left-handed-hitting Salas played five innings behind the plate in the Padres’ 8-3 loss to the Dodgers. He doubled in the first of his two at-bats, a drive off the center field wall against veteran reliever Giovanny Gallegos, a right-hander in Dodgers camp on a minor-league deal.
De Vries, a switch-hitter, was 0-for-3. He did make a fine play running to his left to field a grounder and throw out Dodgers lead-off hitter Mookie Betts in the first inning.
“The biggest thing is they were on the road and were facing a lot of everyday big leaguers against a club that has been competitive,” Shildt said. “They just fit right in, looked like they belonged. That’s a starting point.”
Salas and De Vries have played together before, first at the team’s complex in the Dominican Republic and most recently in the Arizona Fall League this past offseason.
But this had some significance.
“Exciting, exciting,” De Vries said in Spanish. “We talked a lot about this when we were in the Dominican — how we’d feel when we could play together in the big leagues, God willing, and now we’re here doing it.”
DeVries, who turned 18 in October, had an .803 OPS in 75 games at low-A Lake Elsinore in 2024 and is in his first major league camp. Salas, who will be 19 in June, had a .599 OPS at Single-A Fort Wayne last season. This is his second big-league spring training.
They could be paired again in Double-A this season, and the Padres believe they could debut by next season.
