Padres' New Top 30 Prospects Includes Seven 2024 Draft Picks

Maren Angus-Coombs | Aug 15, 2024

Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports

After the San Diego Padres traded away 12 of their top 21 prospects, MLB Pipeline had to shake up its list of the Padres' top 30 prospects.

The Padres’ new top 30 was released on Tuesday and includes seven players selected in last month’s amateur draft.

Catcher Ethan Salas remains the club's top prospect and is followed by shortstop Leodalis De Vries. The two teenagers are also the only two Padres prospect ranked in Pipeline's top 100.

The seven players new to the rankings were all selected at this year's draft:

No. 3: Kash Mayfield, LHP (first round)
No. 4: Boston Bateman, LHP (second round)
No. 6: Kavares Tears, OF (fourth round)
No. 10: Kale Fountain, 3B (fifth round)
No. 14: Cobb Hightower, SS (third round)
No. 15: Tyson Neighbors, RHP (fourth round)
No. 25: Clark Candiotti, RHP (Draft, fourth round)

Mayfield marked the ninth straight year the Padres have used a first-round pick on a high school player.

“We go into it, it’s best player available,” Padres general manager A.J. Preller said. “I think, a little bit maybe in the industry right now, it seems to be pretty heavy on the college side. So that’s opened us up to some players on the high school side that we’ve really liked.”

The new Top 100 Prospects list is out and features a dozen 2024 Draft picks.

Complete list: https://t.co/brrhUFnPEW pic.twitter.com/RHnl48Xcfp

— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) August 14, 2024

Bateman and Fountain were also high school products, Bateman from Southern California and Fountain from Nebraska.

Bateman is a hard-throwing, 6-foot-8 left-handed pitcher while Fountain rewrote the Nebraska high school record books setting the home run record in his junior season.

Tears hit .324 with 20 homers and 62 runs batted in as a redshirt sophomore. He bided his time at the University of Tennessee and it paid off becoming an early MLB Draft pick.

Hightower was ranked as the No. 2 shortstop in North Carolina in the Class of 2024. He was a University of North Carolina commit.

Neighbors played three seasons with Kansas State. During his junior season, he finished with a 3.96 ERA, a 1-2 record, nine saves in 38.2 innings pitched with 61 strikeouts.

Candiotti picked up Pac-12 All-Conference and Pac-12 All-Tournament Team honors after going 7-4 with two complete games, a 3.39 ERA, and a team-leading 103 strikeouts across 16 starts.

For the Padres to feel comfortable trading away the talent they had, they had to be comfortable with the talent coming in. Preller's actions proved that between the deadline and the draft.