Baseball America Crowns Padres As №1 Farm System
San Diego claims 9 of BA’s top 100 prospects
By Justin Lafferty
As the Padres On Deck start knocking on the door of Petco Park, they’re turning some heads along the way.
After MLB Pipeline named the Padres the best farm system in the game this spring, Baseball America followed suit and put the future Friars in the top spot, as well.
Baseball America released its latest organizational rankings this week, with the Padres at №1.
Led by №2 overall prospect Fernando Tatis Jr., the Padres have 4 of the publication’s top 25 prospects and 9 of the top 100.
Here’s how our prospects rank:
2. Tatis Jr., SS
21. MacKenzie Gore, LHP
24. Adrian Morejon, LHP
25. Francisco Mejía, C
30. Luis Urias, 2B
59. Chris Paddack, RHP
70. Logan Allen, LHP
73. Michel Baez, RHP
83. Josh Naylor, 1B
The Padres’ system is so deep, BA’s top 100 list doesn’t even take into account prospects who have made serious strides this season, such as 18-year-old RHP Luis Patiño and 23-year-old outfielder Buddy Reed.
“It’s hard to find many weaknesses in a system loaded in pitching at nearly all levels, that has an elite shortstop prospect who played in Double-A this season as well as a smattering of talented hitters at nearly all levels of the minors,” writes Baseball America. “The Padres have the kind of prospect depth that should help them weather the attrition that always occurs when a loaded system switches from accumulating talent to producing big league wins. Beyond the eight prospects in the Top 100, there are another wave of prospects who could crack next year’s Top 100 (Luis Patiño, Jacob Nix, Anderson Espinoza, Austin Allen, Buddy Reed, Xavier Edwards and others). Now, Padres general manager A.J. Preller’s biggest task is sorting out which prospects are keepers and which ones should be traded to speed the big league club’s rebuild.”
Mejía, the newest addition to the Padres’ wealth of minor league talent, is already making his presence known in AAA El Paso.
The Padres have risen from №3 to №1 in Baseball America’s rankings, and have the most top 100 prospects of any team. Tampa Bay ranks №2 and Toronto, which has №1 overall prospect Vladimir Guerrero Jr., comes in at №3.
