Padres Organization Named Best Farm System by Baseball America

Baseball America named the San Diego Padres as the best farm system in baseball for their deep-rooted rising talent. 

MLB Pipeline recognized the Padres as the top farm system in MLB this spring, jumping from No. 3 overall to No. 1. The Padres have four of the top 25 prospects and nine of the top 100, per Baseball America.

Here’s how they rank:

• #2 Fernando Tatis Jr., SS (San Antonio Missions)
• #21 MacKenzie Gore, LHP (Fort Wayne TinCaps)
• #24 Adrian Morejon, LHP (Lake Elsinore Storm)
• #25 Francisco Mejía, C (Columbus Clippers & El Paso)
• #30 Luis Urias, 2B (El Paso Chihuahuas)
• #59 Chris Paddack, RHP (San Antonio Missions)
• #70 Logan Allen, LHP (San Antonio Missions)
• #73 Michel Baez, RHP (San Antonio Missions)
• #83 Josh Naylor, 1B (San Antonio Missions)

If you’re a Padres fan, you have to be excited about this, especially since this list doesn’t name other trending prospects that have made noise for the organization this year, like RHP Luis Patiño (4-3, 2.19 ERA) with Lake Elsinore, or Missions outfielder Buddy Reed (56 RBIs, 23 doubles and 12 home runs this season).

Baseball America wrote this about the Padres:

“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. 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.”

The Chihuahuas have seen continued success out of second baseman Luis Urias, who is just 21 years old. Urias is batting .273/.383/.415 on the season, and ranks among the best of the PCL leaderboards in runs (68), hits (106) and doubles (23). For the month of August along, Urias has hit one-or-more in six of seven games.

After acquiring Mejía, the former Cleveland Indians prospect has flourished with El Paso. He’s batting .341/.417/.463 and has 14 hits in 12 games played with the Chihuahuas. It remains unclear what position the Padres organization will utilize Mejía, but he’s shown exceptional promise with the organization.

San Diego has the most top 100 prospects of any team, with Tampa Bay at No. 2 and Toronto, who has the No. 1 prospect in Vladimir Guerrero Jr., at No. 3, according to Baseball America.