Padres News: Graham Pauley and Robby Snelling Named Friars Prospects of the Year by MLB

The future looks bright in San Diego.

In order for MLB teams to find success over time, they need to navigate the fine line between prioritizing winning in the present, and also building up their farm system for the future. It can be a difficult thing for any organization to do, but the better clubs find a way to manage things effectively.

For the San Diego Padres, they are presented with this same problem but have done things well in recent years. The Padres are in a win-now mode, but they also understand that having a solid farm system will allow them to replenish parts of their roster with cheap talent as well.

Two members of the San Diego farm system were named as the team's prospects of the year, and it’s quite an honor for them. Multi-faceted infielder Graham Pauley and left-handed pitcher Robbie Snelling were the two to win the honor, and it was well deserved.

Pauley was drafted out of Duke in 2022, and he moved around multiple levels of the San Diego organization. It was a breakout year for him, and he was the only player in the Padres farm system to put together a 20-20 season. He hit 23 home runs and stole 22 bases across multiple levels.

“He also led the organization’s full-season qualifiers with his .308 average, .538 slugging percentage, .931 OPS, 152 wRC+, 148 hits, 60 extra-base hits and 259 total bases.”

Per MLB.com

Snelling also had a breakout year, posting an ERA below 2.00 over 100 innings. Like Pauley, he moved across multiple levels of the San Diego organization and should be a key piece moving forward.

“In fact, he didn’t have an ERA higher than 2.34 at any of those three affiliates. He fanned 118 batters and walked only 34 over his 22 starts.”

Per MLB.com

Both players performed very effectively for the Padres in 2023, and they should be part of this team moving forward if they keep up this level of production.