LOS ANGELES – Through a haze of cigar smoke, next to a mix of Budweiser, Bud Light and Avissi Prosecco that had formed in a rising puddle in the middle of Dodger Stadium’s visiting clubhouse, a shirtless Walker Buehler approached a shirtless Ethan Salas and handed the youngest active player in the Beer League Basnele.
The content inside that funnel, of course, was only for the veteran Padres pitcher, who is accustomed to this celebratory exercise. Buehler, who threw the final out of the 2024 World Series as a Dodger, has already built his reputation as a standout player in October.
Salas, whose directive at the moment was simply to hold the pipeline for Buehler, has not.
Called up to the big leagues just 22 days ago, Salas was mature enough to help spark the Padres to their third postseason win Thursday night — he split Tyler Glasnow’s no-hitter with one out in the sixth inning and scored the first run, then delivered an RBI single an inning later — though not old enough to put away the Dodgers.
So the 20-year-old found other ways to get in on the fun, including an assist for Buehler.
“It feels good to be a part of it,” Salas told me, referring to his field goal in the climactic victory. “It’s great. It feels even better when you contribute.”
Ethan Salas is MLB’s youngest player at 20 years old. (Photo by Meg McLaughlin / The San Diego Union-Tribune via Getty Images)
The Padres’ top prospect began the year in Double-A, was promoted to Triple-A in late July and was called up to help with the postseason push on Sept. 2, when — at 20 years, 93 days — he became the youngest player to reach an MLB game since Ivan Rodriguez debuted for the Texas Rangers in 1991.
His manager, Craig Stammen, told me he knew Salas could handle the pressure from the moment he met him.
“You feel his maturity and his knowledge of baseball and his ability to retain information,” Stammen said. “Then, I think once we’ve grown it, you want to see it and test it in certain situations, see how it handles it.”
Ethan Salas is already making himself a key part of the Padres’ postseason push. (Getty)
Salas went hitless in his first 14 at-bats, but the Padres stuck with him in a part-time role.
They are now reaping the rewards.
Salas is slashing .381/.409/.762 over his last nine games. He tripled on Sept. 13, became the youngest catcher ever to hit two home runs in a game on Sept. 16, left the Padres with a win on Sept. 19 and struck out again Thursday in Los Angeles, helping San Diego seal a playoff spot before hosting Arizona this weekend.
“He’s built for these moments,” Padres president of baseball operations AJ Preller told me. “From the time we started discovering him and seeing him, at 16, we thought he was someone we wanted to challenge. And he’s responded.”
That Salas is here is a surprise, but the same could be said for his Padres team, which was 48-48 with the worst offense in baseball at the All-Star break.
At the time, Manny Machado was hitting .203, Fernando Tatis Jr. had five home runs and Jackson Merrill was the 12th leading hitter in the sport.
“We knew if we bought enough time, these guys would get hot,” Stammen told me. “It was just going to happen.”
But things got worse before they got better. On July 23, the Padres were 50-53. They had the fifth-worst record in the National League and a 7.4% chance of making the postseason.
Stammen, a first-year manager with the game experience to understand the ebbs and flows of a season, tried to keep faith.
His faith was justified.
“He’s responsible for a lot of this,” Preller said.
Two months later, for the fifth time in seven seasons, the Padres have punched their ticket to the playoffs.
“There were some tough moments in that first half,” admitted Preller. “Honestly, we were looking around not knowing what to think because we had so many great players in the room and they were just fighting at a level we’d never seen before.”
Tatis and Merrill eventually shook off their slow starts to emerge as superstars again. They are the only group of teammates this year to produce 25-homer, 25-steal seasons, and Tatis is the first player to hit 25 home runs in a season after going without a home run in his first 50 games.
As a team, San Diego ranks first in batting average, second in slugging and third in on-base percentage since the break. The Padres are tied with the Brewers for MLB’s best second half record (41-22).
“I kept telling the media every day, ‘They’re going to heat up. We have to be patient,'” Stammen reiterated. “That patience paid off. Finally, they did it and took our season to the next level.”
Fernando Tatis Jr. had an excellent second half. (Photo by KC Alfred/The San Diego Union-Tribune via Getty Images)
Tatis, who has the highest OPS among all eligible MLB players in the second half, put on a two-hit clinic Thursday, including an RBI single during the Padres’ quick three-run fusillade that put the game away.
The offense didn’t need to do much, considering the way Nick Pivetta and the team stepped up.
The club’s biggest concern entering October is their rotation, which was supposed to be fixed after the moves for Casey Mize and Robbie Ray at the deadline. The newcomers, however, have done little to calm the troubled area.
Mize, who had a 2.70 ERA in 16 starts for the Tigers, has a 6.64 ERA in nine starts with the Padres. Ray, who had a 3.08 ERA in 22 outings with the Giants, has a 5.02 ERA in nine starts since being traded to San Diego.
But Thursday’s playoff winner offered hope beyond staff ace Michael King, who has been the stabilizing force of the rotation all year.
There were fears Pivetta might have to miss the rest of the year after a flexor strain in his right elbow wiped out nearly five months of his season. He returned on September 7 for his first start back since April 12 and pitched five scoreless innings. He followed that with a four-inning walk, two runs and a five-inning, one-run walk before holding the Dodgers scoreless for 4.2 innings Thursday.
If Pivetta can continue to do that in October, even if he’s not particularly efficient, the Padres will get him. They have arguably the most powerful squad in the sport, ready to take on wherever it goes.
That group got another boost Thursday, as Jason Adam returned from injury and threw a scoreless frame in his first game since June 29.
Mason Miller and the bullpen is a big strength for San Diego. (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
The Padres still have something to play for in the final weekend of the season as they look to seal home field advantage for the wild-card series. That will be important, considering they are 49-29 at Petco Park and 40-41 on the road.
They will rely mostly on their usual cast of characters, but some new faces could help them avenge last year’s loss.
Ty France has been one of the team’s most consistent hitters in the middle of the lineup in a career year. Buehler brings with him the experience of pitching in 19 playoff games with a career 3.04 postseason ERA.
And Salas, who, after helping the Padres secure their first Series win at Dodger Stadium in two years, looks poised to become the youngest catcher ever to play in a postseason game next week.
As the party finally began to simmer late Thursday night, he held up a sign: First baby clinics.
“It’s a lot of fun to see him out there, in this moment, playing like that,” Preller said. “It’s a bright future. But to do it now, that’s why we raised it.”
