Signed as an international at the age of 16 out of Venezuela, the San Diego Padres catching ‘future’ is finally part of the ‘now’ as Ethan Salas made his MLB debut on Wednesday afternoon at Great American Ball Park.
Penciled in as starting catcher and batting sixth, Salas took his first MLB at bat in the first inning against Reds lefty starter Brandon Williamson, taking the first pitch low and a way before giving a middle cutter a ride to straight-away center field 390 feet for the final out of the inning. At 20 years and 93 days old, Salas became the youngest catcher to make his Majors debut since Hall of Famer Ivan Rodriguez did so as at 19 years, 309 days old during the 1991 season.
After a Tuesday that was dominated by travel, including a delay that made it so he didn’t arrive before the game, Salas was first shown on the PadresTV broadcast during the third inning greeting his teammates in the dugout wearing the number 8 in brown and gold. After the game he spoke about what his mindset is after his first call-up to the Majors.
“I’m up here just to be me and keep helping the team win, just trying to be the same guy every single day like we’ve been saying all year and trying to help where I can — nothing changes. Just gonna keep playing my game and try to be myself every single day,” Salas said after the Padres 4-3 loss on Tuesday night.
Ranked as the No. 1 prospect in the San Diego system and No. 23 in MLB, Salas had been a part of Spring Training dating back to 2023, but the climb to ‘The Show’ featured several bumps along the way. There were concerns about his hitting in High-A ball, and then a stress reaction in his lower back during the 2025 season limited him to just 10 games with Double A San Antonio.
This season Salas has dispelled concerns by slashing a combined .296/.374/.448 with 19 doubles, 10 home runs and 61 RBI with a 47/58 walk-to-strikeout ratio in 96 games between Double A San Antonio and Triple A El Paso. Perhaps more impressively, in his 24 games with El Paso he slashed .326/.410/.539 with 11 extra base hits (six doubles, two triples, three home runs) with 24 RBI and a 14/10 walk-to-strikeout ratio in just 24 games.
“I think just playing games, playing more baseball, enjoying the game more, finding these little things in the game where you kind of just go into flow-state, and you just find a way to enjoy the game every single day and I think that’s brought a lot of success,” Salas said on Tuesday.
The Padres are currently facing the Cincinnati Reds in their final game of a six-game road trip.
This story will be updated.