The San Diego Padres have built up the deepest farm system in the game. Will they begin to see that system bear fruit in 2019?
We are in our third offseason at Call to the Pen of putting together top 10 prospect lists for every organization in baseball. Today’s list is the San Diego Padres.
The Process
Our team prospect lists are compiled by Benjamin Chase, who has spent time doing plenty of watching via MiLB.tv of every organization in baseball along with talking to a very wide array of scouts who have seen players in person to hone his own opinion on players. That allows for a wide coverage on players from the Dominican Summer League all the way to the major leagues.
These lists are the opinion of Ben, and his process is heavily weighted on his own view, but also on trusted views of others. Typically, each system’s list of 10 is peeled down from a consideration list of 50-75 players. There will be some weight given to a player who is closer to the major leagues, but often these opinions will be different than some of the “major” lists out there. Feel free to comment at the end of the list with any questions you may have!
With that out of the way, let’s dig into today’s list:
San Diego Padres system review
Padres list for 2017
Padres list for 2018
Padres 2018 minor league top performers
So, this is it. This is the top banana, the alpha dog, the prime enchilada, all of those things. The San Diego Padres have spent funds in the international market and drafted well over the last few seasons to build up one of the best and deepest farm systems of recent memory. Right now, there’s not even really a debate with the Padres as the top farm system.
As such, this list was probably my most difficult to decide. In all seriousness, the player I put #10 was probably the guy I’d have about #20 if I were to put true value rankings on the prospects, but I also wanted to take the opportunity to highlight a prospect that I truly believe in within a tremendous farm system.
After seeing over 800 plate appearances and over 500 innings go to rookies in 2018, the San Diego Padres expect to see both of those numbers go up in 2019 as they begin to harvest some of the fruits from this amazing farm system. In other words, if you’re a minor league fan, enjoy the chance to see these guys while you can as they’re not long for the minor leagues!
Let’s start with the countdown, starting with a player that fell outside of the top 10, but was picked up in 2018 via the draft or international signing and is worthy of extra attention going into 2019…