With the minor league season in the rearview mirror, it is worth highlighting several of the minor leagues’ best performers in the Padres minor league system. Our sojourn through the system continues at the High-A level, with the Padres’ High-A affiliate Fort Wayne TinCaps. 

These awards are based on performance with the TinCaps, as our system-wide awards will be coming soon.

MVP/Hitter of the Year – Braedon Karpathios

Karpathios entered the 2025 season with not much fanfare from the prospect evaluator world after a strong season in which he helped lead the Storm to a California League Finals berth. EVT ranked Karpathios at No. 28 on the pre-season Top 30, but 2025 really saw Karpatihos put his name on the map in Fort Wayne. Spending 103 games with the TinCaps, the former UDFA signee hit .254 with a .370 OBP, which led the team among players with a minimum of 60 games played. Among TinCaps players who remained in the Padres organization at the end of the season, his .780 OPS and 125 wRC+ led the team.

Karpathios continued to show improvements at the plate, leaning into his pull-side power with a career-high 40.3% pull rate on balls in play. Karpathios still frequented the opposite field, as he had a 33.9% opposite-field percentage. Being able to take the ball to all fields with authority was one of the biggest developments for the Pennsylvania-born Karpathios. His game is not just predicated on the swings, as he maintained an OBP north of .350 every month he was a TinCap. Karpathios set a career-high in home runs with 15, and his 15% walk rate allowed him to remain an above-average hitter despite striking out 27.3% of the time in High-A. Karpathios is also off to a strong start in the Arizona Fall League as of this article’s publication, with an .857 OPS in seven games. Coming up on his first season of Rule 5 eligibility, Karpathios is set to open 2026 at Double-A after a late season promotion. 

Big time opposite field power from Braedon Karpathios, who clubbed his 10th home run of the season! https://t.co/2bhrO6gBWH

— Diego Garcia (@StatNerd_Base) July 9, 2025

Pitcher of the Year – Miguel Mendez

This young right-hander certainly had himself a meteoric rise. 12 months ago, Mendez appeared to the outsider as another pitcher with a blistering fastball but shaky command. Entering his Rule 5 eligible season, Mendez put all the pieces together. After three starts at Single-A, Mendez saw himself promoted to the TinCaps. What came next was arguably the best stretch of pitching in the Padres farm out of a starting pitcher. Mendez spent all of 12 games and 61.1 innings in Fort Wayne, but the results were astonishing. Mendez posted a 1.32 ERA. 3.33 FIP, 28.6% K rate, and held batters to a .178 average. Mendez’s high-90s fastball and wipeout slider certainly paved the way for his success, as he struck out six or more batters in nine of his 12 starts as a TinCap.

Mendez earned himself a Midwest League All-Star nod after the season with this performance, with his magnum opus being his entire July. Across four starts, Mendez pitched 24 innings, allowing two unearned runs on ten hits. Mendez did not allow a single earned run all month, striking out 28 against just six walks. Mendez is a lock to be added to the 40-man after his dominant season, and is set to open the 2026 season back at Double-A, where a strong start to the season could see his number get the call to the big leagues.

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Miguel Mendez is the July Midwest League Pitcher of the Month, not allowing an earned run in 24 innings pitched

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— Fort Wayne TinCaps (@TinCaps) August 6, 2025

Reliever of the Year – Garrett Hawkins

There’s a reason Mendez’s dominant stretch was “arguably the best stretch of pitching in the Padres farm out of a starting pitcher”. Garrett Hawkins’ 2025 season can best be described with words such as dominant, unhittable, lights-out, etc. To put it simply, Hawkins delivered the longest scoreless streak the minor leagues has seen in almost a decade. From April 27 to August 9, Hawkins did not allow a run in 38 innings of work across 29 appearances. He walked six and struck out 51 during the scoreless streak.

Across his entire TinCaps tenure in 2025, Hawkins posted a 1.43 ERA, 2.00 FIP, and struck out 37% of batters faced against an 8% walk rate. Opponents at High-A hit .116 against the right-hander, and he also earned a Midwest League All-Star nod after the season. Another arm who is a lock to be on the 40-man, Hawkins could see his named called early in the 2026 season to get big outs at the MLB level. 

What a year for Hawk ?

Congrats to 2025 TinCap Garrett Hawkins on being named the @Padres Minor League Pitcher of the Year https://t.co/R82AjeKJtd

— Fort Wayne TinCaps (@TinCaps) September 28, 2025

Diego Garcia

A born and raised San Diegan, Diego Garcia is a lifetime Padres fan and self-proclaimed baseball nerd. Diego wrote about baseball on his own site between 2021-22 before joining the East Village Times team in 2024. He also posts baseball content on his YouTube channel “Stat Nerd Baseball”, creating content around trades, hypotheticals, player analyses, the San Diego Padres, and MLB as a whole.

A 2024 graduate of San Diego State, Diego aims to grow as a writer and content creator in the baseball community.