Three Padres Named to NL Futures Roster
With three representatives on their way to the 2019 Futures Game, San Diego continues to prove that their elite farm system is legit.
The annual Futures Game event is an excellent way for young, talented prospects to put their talents on full display. In an all-star game setting, some of baseball’s best minor leaguers compete against each other in a competitive setting with plenty of fans watching.
With this year being the 20th anniversary of the event, SiriusXM and Major League Baseball have decided to change things up quite a bit. The teams will now be determined by league, American and National, instead of by country of origin, United States and World.
In the past five or six years, the San Diego Padres have been well-represented at this event. This year is no different, as San Diego is one of only four teams with three or more players that will participate in the 2019 Futures Game. Despite elite prospects like Fernando Tatis Jr. and Chris Paddack graduating, the Padres elite farm system continues to represent itself well.
Unlike previous years, the Padres three representatives in 2019 will all be pitchers. The system itself is loaded in the pitching department, but position players Luis Campusano and Xavier Edwards are each producing at a level that is Futures Game worthy.
With Tatis himself officially graduating from prospect status, MacKenzie Gore slides right into the top spot of San Diego’s rankings. The 20-year-old left-hander is one of the most elite pitching prospects in all of baseball, with several websites actually touting Gore as the best pitching prospect there is.
He’s dominated the California League in every way possible, posting a 7-1 record with a 1.12 ERA and 0.69 WHIP over 72 1/3 innings pitched. Gore has struck out 101 batters and only walked 17, while opponents are only batting a pitiful .138 against him. He’s undoubtedly a candidate to potentially even start the Futures Game for the National League squad, and it’s very possible that a promotion to Double-A is approaching.
Luis Patino, Gore’s teammate, will also represent San Diego at this event. Patino skyrocketed up prospects list after a dominant 2018 season with the Fort Wayne TinCaps, and despite a slow start to 2019, has continued to show why he is an elite pitching prospect. His numbers are nowhere near what they were last year, but his 3.15 ERA and 67 strikeouts over 54 1/3 innings pitched should not be overlooked. Patino is still a high-end pitching prospect with electric stuff that deserved his invite to this year’s Futures Game.
Adrian Morejon, one of the biggest enigma’s in the entire system, is the Padres’ third and final representative. Morejon might have some of the best pure stuff in all of minor league baseball, with a fastball that touches triple digits and nasty off-speed pitches, but he just can’t seem to stay healthy for a consistent stretch. His overall numbers aren’t really impressive, and his prospect status alone may have been the reason as to why Morejon received this selection.
Diego works at Prep Baseball Report as an Area Scout in Illinois and Missouri. He graduated this spring with a Bachelor Degree in Communications and played four years of college baseball, logging nearly 50 innings of work in a relief role. Diego hopes to work in an MLB front office one day and has been a Padres fan since he was six years old.