2025 Padres prospects news and notes

[Padres]

Colson Montgomery's nutty last few weeks have made for a lot of postgame interviews, to the point where it feels like he has a scheduled conversation with the White Sox beat more often than not. That's just what happens when you slug .624 after the All-Star break.

"I enjoy talking to all you guys," Montgomery said. "I like talking to a lot of people. I’m curious on what you guys think...sometimes."

But after the black box that was his early-season retreat to Arizona, repeated success has provided a better window into what the 23-year-old is thinking at the plate. In Pittsburgh, Montgomery revealed that experimenting through a host of different stances and setups with hitting director Ryan Fuller eventually laid bare a straightforward takeaway: that he sees and identifies spin best the more he stays tall in the batter's box.

Maybe striking out on a low-and-away knuckle curve in his first at-bat, and then receiving four in a row from Jack Flaherty in his third helped cue Montgomery to stay with the breaker for a go-ahead two-run single Tuesday night. Or maybe he just got a bender that stayed up in the zone after the other three were pure chase pitches.

But Montgomery's progression up to this point has already driven home that not only is player development not linear, but the night might be darkest before the dawn.

As Montgomery switched to a torpedo bat after the All-Star break, Fuller theorized that pushing the meat of the barrel closer to his hands would initiate a more compact swing path subconsciously, and hopefully drive out any urge to cast his hands out and get out and around the baseball. Fresh off ripping another bullet drive into the right field seats, Montgomery indicated that finding cues to keep him compact was the first item on the checklist when he started working with Fuller in Arizona.

"It was Day 1, first thing we kind of went to," Montgomery said. "We wanted to practice trying to keep the ball kind of low to the ground, line drives and things like that. Some of my cues in the cage, I’m trying to hit a low line drive to the shortstop, keeps me tighter to the ball. Not really a normal home run swing. I feel like a lot of the hitters can tell you if they tried doing home run swings, it’s probably not going to work."

That project further serves as a possible explanation for why Montgomery has taken to the new bat so quickly. After the initial early-season furor about torpedo bats, many players who tried it but chose to stand pat cited the difference in weight distribution feeling foreign and uncomfortable. For Montgomery, it provided what he was already looking for.

“Once I got it, I felt it was pretty natural," Montgomery said. "When I had to use a normal bat, I felt like there was too much weight at the end. It kind of made me out and around and pull-happy, I guess. When I have a Torpedo in my hand, I guess, I feel tight to the ball and can let the ball track a little bit more and I can whip it to the zone faster.

"It’s a trick on your brain. If you say that you are comfortable with some bat, you are going to be comfortable with it.”

https://soxmachine.com/2025/08/colson-m ... ded-swings

[Padres]

Spoiler alert: Heading into the weekend, Jeral Perez had been the front-runner for the next Fortnight's Finest honor on Tuesday, because he'd finally flipped the switch after a season full of fits and starts at Winston-Salem.

He came into Friday's game against Asheville hitting .387/.459/.645 with two homers, two doubles and more walks (five) than strikeouts (three) over his last nine games.

And he built upon it with his first three plate appearances on Friday, homering in his first trip ...

... and then singling his next two times up. But he attempted a steal of second after reaching in the bottom of the fourth, and ended up leaving the game due this awkward slide/fall that had him grabbing his left hip.

Perez will in all likelihood still get the nod, because that's now a .441/.500/.765 line over his last 10 games. Hopefully it doesn't come with terrible news attached.

https://soxmachine.com/2025/08/white-so ... ral_thread

[Padres]

47) Troy Melton - RHP - DET

The Good
A plus fastball and a quintet of other offerings gives Melton the versatility to be a mid-rotation starter. He has a solid feel for each of his pitches and locates them well. His splitter may be his best offering when it is all said and done.

The Bad
Melton lacks a feel for spin which leaves his breaking balls as average offerings at best.

79) Colson Montgomery - SS - CWS

The Good
Elite bat speed and plus defense are an excellent foundation for any SS prospect.

The Bad
His combination of chase and putrid contact rates (particularly outside the zone) will likely prevent Montgomery from being a consistent force.

97) Marco Dinges - C - MIL

The Good
Dinges has an ideal upward swing plane to make the most of his plus bat speed. He consistently hits the ball hard and fortifies his profile with smart swing decisions. He continues to look the part behind the plate and has posted elite pop times.

The Bad
The contact rates greatly suffer against secondaries, and he will likely have negligible speed.

Honourable Mentions:

Advanced Sluggers:

Jacob Reimer – NYM – 3B

Jacob Melton – HOU – OF

https://tjstats.ca/p/mlb-top-100-prospe ... dium=email

[Padres]

High-A
Hot

Jeral Perez, 3B, Chicago White Sox (High-A Winston-Salem): .429 (15-35), 8 R, 2B, 3 HR, 7 RBI, 5 BB, 4 K, SB.

Season Stats (High-A): .240/.311/.444, 19 HR, 9 SB.

A key prospect in the deal that shipped Michael Kopech to the Dodgers, Perez looked like he might be stalling out in High-A earlier in the season, showing pop but lacking consistency at the plate. The bat came alive during the second half, with Perez turning into the Sally League’s hottest hitter during the month of August. There is some natural contact ability and plus raw power in the profile, but Perez will need to continue to improve the quality of contact if he’s to carve out a future role in the White Sox lineup.

Complex
Not

Wilfri De La Cruz, SS, Baltimore Orioles (Rookie DSL Orioles Orange): .176 (3-17), 3 R, 5 RBI, 7 BB, 4 K, 2 SB.

Season Stats (Rookie): .265/.463/.410, 0 HR, 13 SB.

https://www.baseballprospectus.com/pros ... he-majors/

[Padres]

Jacob Melton | HOU OF

Melton shows up as the Astros top prospect, but failed to make the top 100. That sounds like a problem for the Astros system in general if they don’t even have anyone in that top 100! With 65/65 Raw Power and 55/5 Speed scouting grades, I’m already curious if he could potentially provide a nice power/speed mix.

Recalled last week on Monday, Melton has started five of seven games in center field, with one of those two non-starts coming against a left-handed starter. As a lefty, he’ll likely serve on the strong side of a platoon. Injury has limited him to just 104 Triple-A PAs this season, but he did record 443 PAs between Double-A and Triple-A last year.

Last year, he showed some power with a .173 ISO, but even more speed with 30 steals to just four caught stealings. This year in a much smaller sample size, he pushed his walk rate to a career best at Triple-A, while reducing his SwStk% into single digits for the first time. That’s a real nice pair of improvements. He also posted another 113+ maxEV, mid-double digit HR/FB rate, and an ISO that jumped above .200. His steals pace was a bit off, with just six, but a full season would have netted him around 18 home runs and 36 steals, which is intriguing.

The projection systems think he’ll kill your average, but he doesn’t whiff or strikeout too frequently, so it’s not a given. I also wouldn’t worry too much about batting average over the small sample that is the rest of the season. Go speculate here for a touch of power and some speed.

https://fantasy.fangraphs.com/speculate ... t-callups/

Kyle Karros | COL 3B

Wait, the Rockies recalled a prospect and are actually playing him regularly?! Wait, no, Karros just sat yesterday so Orlando Arcia could start. Rockies gonna Rockie. Eric Karros’ son was actually ranked just 16th amongst Rockies prospects this year and even more surprising is he made his debut this season despite us slapping him with an ETA of 2027! So he blew past his promotion expectation. Like Beavers, his scouting grades do not look like one of an appealing fantasy option. But hey, I’m always interested in any prospect that gets regular at-bats with the Rockies, as Coors Field could make mediocre prospects look good.

Between Double-A and Triple-A this year, Karros displayed excellent plate discipline, with a double digit walk rate and sub-20% strikeout rate. It’s a continuation of strong discipline, which should boost his value in OBP leagues.

Like Beavers, he also posted a pristine batted ball profile, though it was tilted more toward grounders than fly balls. Karros was able to find more holes than Beavers, as he posted a .364 BABIP and has enjoyed a history of inflated BABIP marks. The good news is that Coors Field inflates BABIP, so he could continue to be a BABIP monster, which should translate to both batting average and OBP.

You might assume that a corner infielder who is the son of Eric Karros, a player with 284 career home runs, including five 30-homer seasons, would own some serious power potential. You would be wrong. He posted just a 9.7% HR/FB rate in the minors this year and was at just 12.9% at High-A last year. He did post a 40% HardHit%, which is actually slightly higher than Beavers, but with a maxEV of only 108 MPH. It would be hard to hit a lot of homers with such a mediocre maxEV, unless he was quite adept at hitting barrels.

Since he also hasn’t been much of a fly ball guy, he hit just six home runs this year, which paced for around 12ish. That’s now what you would expect from a corner guy, but his size and plate discipline suggest to me that a power spike could eventually be in his future.

Instead of power, Karros actually owns speed. He stole one more base than he hit home runs, so he could be the rare third baseman reaching double digit home runs and steals. Overall, it actually makes him sneakily valuable if you remember his batting average could be a positive as well. The stats delivered might differ from what you would expect from a third baseman, but there is total value here assuming he doesn’t continue to get benched for Arcia.

https://fantasy.fangraphs.com/mclean-ba ... our-oh-my/

[Padres]

11. Jacob Reimer, 3B, Mets

Team: Double-A Binghamton (Eastern)
Age: 21
Why He’s Here: .471/.571/1.059 (8-for-17) 4 R, 2 2B, 1 3B, 2 HR, 5 RBIs, 3 BB, 4 SO, 1 SB

The Scoop: It’s easy to think that the Binghamton club was gutted by the promotions of Jett Williams, Cason Benge and Jonah Tong to Triple-A, but thanks to hitters like Reimer and the arrival of A.J. Ewing, the Rumble Ponies keep rolling along and are now 78-40. Reimer is hitting .308/.410/.569 this month while bouncing between first and third base. Binghamton needed a big bat to take over when Benge left for Syracuse. Reimer is doing a very solid impression so far. (JJ)

https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories ... cf60d89619

[Padres]

Jacob Reimer, 3B, New York Mets, 21, AA

Reimer started the year as hot as any prospect in High-A Brooklyn, but jumped off the bandwagon quickly as he was just okay to start his Double-A career. Blasting a home run and triple on Sunday, Reimer now has four home runs and eight extra-base hits in his last ten games.

Reimer has always had good contact skills and approach. He has run a contact rate at 78 percent or higher in every season of his career to this point. He has a strong 6’0” frame and has always had respectable exit velocities. This year, the exit velocities have taken a jump, as have the launch angles, leading to 16 home runs.

The ground ball rate has improved by 13 percentage points this year, and Reimer is pulling 50 percent of batted balls. The breakout is legit as Reimer has sustained success all season and has an .874 OPS with 48 extra base hits and 14 stolen bases.

https://www.google.com/url?q=https://el ... r2xZB7jytO

[Padres]

You can call Brooks Baldwin a lot of things -- left fielder, third baseman, Riley -- but he's not a conformist. He's returned from Triple-A Charlotte committed to sit deeper in his crouch, and is finishing off the best offensive month of his big league career (.305/.359/.542 in 20 games). Moreover, he opened the season trying a taller setup as he worked to stave off last year's issues with pulling off the ball, and found it didn't fit for him.
Baldwin in April
Baldwin in August

"I went back to something very similar to what I had always done; very similar to what I did in high school and basically what I did in college, something I'm more comfortable with," Baldwin said of his deeper crouch. "For me, it keeps my head a little bit more still. I'm still able to use my length on the upper half, but still stay connected to the ground and use my legs a little bit more."

Baldwin says it feels like the new setup makes him better suited to resist efforts to get him to expand on pitches above the strike zone, but the data makes it more of a feeling. Due to his essential nature, Baldwin being comfortable at the plate usually involves more swinging. His chase rate since being recalled at the start of July would be a top-10 mark in the sport (and it's only been higher in August), but his contact rate is up too.

Absent traditional indicators of better swing decisions, Baldwin argues that simply seeing the ball more clearly is making him better positioned to make things happen. His exit velocity (91.1 mph, up from 89., barrel rate (13.9 percent, up from 6.3), hard-hit rate (44.4 percent, up from 38.5) and even average launch angle (20.4 degrees, up from 10) all speak to someone driving the ball in the air with authority more frequently.

"I'm a little wider than I was to start the year, a lot lower, but I'm still getting basically to the same position I was at contact," Baldwin said. "It's individualized per person but that's just how my body works. Kind of spread out and stable with everything rather than trying to use more movement. I feel like when I cut down on movement, I'm able to use my hands more and the power just comes by itself."

https://soxmachine.com/2025/08/white-so ... interfered