The San Diego Padres have a catcher problem. Many assume Ethan Salas will be the future franchise backstop, and that still may be true. In the short term, is fellow prospect Brandon Valenzuela more ready to step in to help the team in 2025?

It has been a long time since the Padres last had a true “franchise” catcher. You need to go back to 2018 and Austin Hedges to find the last time the Padres had a catcher provide at least 2.0 fWAR in a single season. Even then, Hedges struggled mightily at the plate.

Luis Campusano initially looked to be the guy of the present and future, with a strong finish to 2023. Unfortunately, the bottom dropped out in 2024, and he eventually lost his starting job. San Diego demoted him to Triple-A not long after. His hitting disappeared, and his defense was never great to begin with. Now, it doesn’t appear the Padres have Campusano in their long-term plans at catcher.

Last year, they struck gold with Kyle Higashioka (17 HR, 103 OPS+). He signed with the Rangers and has struggled in Texas since. San Diego turned to the veteran combination of Elias Diaz and Martin Maldonado this year. The results are disastrous.

Neither of those two are hitting. Diaz has an OPS of .650 and an OPS+ of 83. Maldonado is much worse, at .513 and 44, respectively.

The result is San Diego having one of the worst group of catchers in the entire league. Among MLB teams, the Padres’ catchers as a group rank 26th in wRC+, 27th in OPS, and 24th in fWAR. There are basically 26-plus teams with a better catching situation than the Padres right now.

If the Padres want to make a deep postseason run, they simply need more from the catching position. A.J. Preller might need to get on the phone and swing a deal for a viable backstop currently on someone else’s team.

Ethan Salas is obviously the Prince That Was Promised, being the No. 29-ranked prospect in all of baseball and the fourth-best catching prospect. Yet, he is still just 18 years old. Not only that, but he is hurt now and out until at least the middle of the summer. Before that, he had a paltry .544 OPS in 10 games in Double-A to start the year. He is nowhere near ready to join the big league club.

In the meantime, where can the Padres turn for a boost?

What about another catching prospect in the organization that is a full six years older than Salas?

Brandon Valenzuela signed with San Diego out of Mexico as an amateur free agent in 2017. The prospect experts never were nearly as high on Valenzuela as they are on Salas. Valenzuela enters his eighth year toiling in the Padres’ system. The fact that he has already been subjected to the Rule 5 Draft twice and went unpicked says volumes.

However, it looks like things are coming together more for the Mexican backstop.

One of the main things going in his favor is he is a switch hitter. After several seasons where he struggled at the plate, he is hitting well in Double-A thus far in 2025. In 34 games so far, he is batting .289 with five homers, an .830 OPS, and 140 wRC+. The high wRC+ suggests he is hitting much better than average for that level.

Plate discipline is also an area where he has improved. After hovering between a 23 and 25 percent strikeout rate for the majority of his minor league career, he sits at 21.9 percent so far this year. Defensively, while not stellar, he is praised for his framing and ability to work with a pitching staff.

Brandon Valenzuela Hits a bomb straight dead center! the Wolf is a pitchers park, this is not easy! pic.twitter.com/N2N9oJbvnR

— Friars On The Farm (@Friarsonthefarm) April 6, 2025

He even spent a few weeks in Triple-A last year to end the season, but looked overmatched (.195 average, 31 wRC+). Still, he looks different at the plate now, even from last year. He is throwing out would-be base stealers at a 35 percent clip as well, a bump up from last year.

Why don’t the Padres give the 24-year-old a shot?

Normally, a move like this would require the Padres to open up space on their 40-man roster. That would mean putting someone new on the 60-day injured list or designating someone for assignment. As it stands now, the Padres do have an opening on their 40-man roster, and they could add Valenzuela without a giant headache.

If they were to call up Valenzuela, that likely would spell the end for Maldonado. Although his hitting stats are putrid, he draws high praise from the pitching staff. His veteran leadership and handling of the pitching staff are hard to quantify into stats. If things don’t go well with Valenzuela and they need another veteran backstop, the bridge with Maldonado is burned at that point.

This move could go under the “what could it hurt?” category. Valenzuela is unlikely the long-term solution, given Salas’ status with the organization. This might be his shot to make his MLB debut and either create some trade value or carve out a role for himself in the organization moving forward.

Nick Lee

Native of Escondido, CA. Lived in San Diego area for 20 years. Padres fan since childhood (mid-90s). I have been writing since 2014. I currently live near Seattle, WA and am married to a Seattle sports girl. I wore #19 on my high school baseball team for Tony Gwynn. I am a stats and sports history nerd. I attended BYU on the Idaho campus. I also love Star Wars.