The Padres traded their top two pitching prospects at the deadline to bolster what many thought was the best bullpen in the postseason. Of course, both Robby Snelling and Dylan Lesko were struggling with their assignments at Double-A San Antonio and high Single-A Fort Wayne, respectively, and the Padres were confident that they had already begun to backfill the organization with intriguing arms.

They’d already used their top two picks on two left-handed high school pitchers.

The top arm from the 2024 international window was making giant gains in Peoria.

Five months later, that trio headlines the starting pitching depth in the Padres’ farm system.

1   |   LHP Kash Mayfield

• Opening day age: 20
• How acquired: 1st round in 2024 (Elk City High, Okla.)
• Height / Weight: 6-foot-4 / 200 pounds
• Bats / Throws: Left / Left
• 2024 team(s): Did not pitch
• Need to know: The 2023 Gatorade player of the year for Oklahoma, Mayfield opted to skip the summer showcase circuit to build strength and he returned to action in the spring with a fastball that jumped from the high 80s to the mid-90s and as high as 97 mph. His slider and change-up also grade out above average. Mayfield allowed four hits during the entirety of his senior year, just one earned run and piled up 115 strikeouts over 44 innings in leading Elk City to the state semifinals. The Padres signed Mayfield for $3.44 million as the No. 25 overall pick to keep him from his commitment to Oklahoma State and then let him spend his first summer in pro ball working with staff at the Padres’ Peoria complex. He’ll make his professional debut in 2025.

2   |   LHP Boston Bateman

• Opening day age: 19
• How acquired: 2nd round in 2024 (Camarillo High)
• Height / Weight: 6-foot-8 / 240 pounds
• Bats / Throws: Right / Left
• 2024 team(s): Did not pitch
• Need to know: With long hair and an oversized frame, Bateman has a fitting nickname in “Sasquatch.” The results as a high schooler only add to that aura as he struck out 130 batters over 64⅓ innings (0.54 ERA) before the Padres went over slot to sign him for $2.5 million as the 52nd overall pick. Like Mayfield, Bateman, a LSU recruit, was held out of the Arizona Complex League after the draft but did in back-field games and in the fall instructional league. Bateman pairs a mid-90s fastball with a high-spin curve, a low-80s slider and a changeup.

3   |   RHP Humberto Cruz

• Opening day age: 18
• How acquired: Signed as an international amateur in February 2024 (Mexico)
• Height / Weight: 6-foot-1 / 170 pounds
• Bats / Throws: Right / Right
• 2024 team(s): ACL Padres (R)
• 2024 stats: 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 2 strikeouts, 1 walk, 1.00 WHIP, .143 opponent average, 2 innings (2 starts)
• Need to know: Because the Padres signed Xander Bogaerts as a luxury tax offender, they had to trade 2023 12th-rounder Blake Dickerson to the Tigers for the $750,000 needed to sign Cruz in the 2024 international window. Cruz sat in the low 90s before signing, but jumped to 97 mph once he got to work with the Padres in Peoria. A slider and a change-up round out his three-pitch mix. He started two games in the Arizona Complex League over the summer, but will begin to stretch his legs in 2025. The Padres are aggressive with their promotions, so it would not be a surprise to see Mayfield, Bateman and Cruz in Lake Elsinore’s rotation at some point next season, if not at the start of the year.

4   |   RHP Victor Lizarraga

• Opening day age: 21
• How acquired: Signed as an international amateur in March 2021 (Mexico)
• Height / Weight: 6-foot-3 / 180 pounds
• Bats / Throws: Right / Right
• 2024 team(s): San Antonio (AA)
• 2024 stats: 5-6, 4.03 ERA, 102 strikeouts, 42 walks, 1.26 WHIP, .226 opponent average, 95 innings (21 starts)
• Need to know: He signed for $1 million as Mexico’s top pitching prospect in the spring of 2021, debuted in the rookie-level Arizona Complex League that summer and has made steady progress up the chain. He won two road playoff games as an 18-year-old en route to helping low Single-A Lake Elsinore (3.43 ERA) win a California League title in 2022, moved to Fort Wayne (4.09 ERA) the next year and pitched all of 2024 in the Texas League as a 21-year-old. Lizarraga’s guile and pitch-ability have outweighed his pure stuff as a prospect to date, but the Padres believe more velocity will come as he grows into his 6-foot-3 frame. For now, the fastball sits 90-94 mph. He also throws a slider, a curve and a changeup.

5   |   RHP Isaiah Lowe

• Opening day age: 21
• How acquired: 11th round in 2022 (Combine Academy, N.C.)
• Height / Weight: 6-foot-1 / 220 pounds
• Bats / Throws: Right / Right
• 2024 team(s): Lake Elsinore (A), Fort Wayne (A+)
• 2024 stats: 7-6, 3.33 ERA, 111 strikeouts, 46 walks, 1.30 WHIP, .232 opponent average, 105⅓ innings (24 games, 20 starts)
• Need to know: Lowe was committed to Wake Forest when the Padres gave him fifth-round money ($400,000) to start his professional career. Shoulder woes dogged him the first year-plus in the organization, but Lowe went wire-to-wire in 2024, earning a promotion to the high Single-A Midwest League before the end of the year. Lowe held his own with Fort Wayne (4.05 ERA), but his walk rate ticked up from 3.63 per nine innings to 4.59 per nine at the higher level. Lowe boasts a mid-90s fastball, a slider and a change-up. He’ll likely return to Fort Wayne to start 2025.

6   |   RHP Braden Nett

• Opening day age: 22
• How acquired: Signed as an undrafted free agent in August 2022
• Height / Weight: 6-foot-3 / 185 pounds
• Bats / Throws: Right / Right
• 2024 team(s): Fort Wayne (A+), San Antonio (AA)
• 2024 stats: 5-2, 3.88 ERA, 73 strikeouts, 40 walks, 1.42 WHIP, .218 opponent average, 65 innings (20 games, 19 starts)
• Need to know: Nett did not pitch in college and threw just 16⅔ innings in the MLB Draft League when the Padres signed him for $10,000 as an undrafted free agent. Including his time in the Arizona Fall League and this winter in Puerto Rico, Nett has thrown just 156 ⅔ innings over the last four years. So he’s raw and in need of refinement (6.8 walks per nine innings), but the ceiling of the total package is intriguing. He has an athletic delivery, can touch 98 mph with the fastball and has a sweeper that could develop into an above-average pitch. He rarely uses his change-up. Nett made one start to finish 2024 at San Antonio (4⅔ IP, 1 R, 5 BBs, 3 Ks), so he’ll return to the Texas League to start 2025.

7   |   RHP Henry Baez

• Opening day age: 22
• How acquired: Signed as an international amateur in July 2019 (Dominican Republic)
• Height / Weight: 6-foot-3 / 175 pounds
• Bats / Throws: Right / Right
• 2024 team(s): Fort Wayne (A+), San Antonio (AA)
• 2024 stats: 7-4, 2.99 ERA, 109 strikeouts, 40 walks, 1.09 WHIP, .212 opponent average, 126⅓ innings (26 starts)
• Need to know: A $125,000 signee in 2019, Baez lost his first professional season to the pandemic, spent 2021 in the Dominican Summer League and the 2022 campaign in the Arizona Complex League. His breakout arrived in 2023, when he finished with the third-lowest ERA (3.24) in the California League. Baez finished that year in the Midwest League with a 7.20 ERA over four starts, returned there to begin 2024 (2.95 ERA) and posted a 3.06 ERA over nine starts in the Texas League. His strikeout rate dropped from 9.2 per nine innings at Fort Wayne to 5.6 per nine in his first taste of Double-A ball. But Baez still led all Padres minor league pitchers in ERA and WHIP in forcing the team to protect him from next week’s Rule 5 draft. He pairs a fastball that tops out a 97 mph with a slider and a change-up.

8   |   RHP Ryan Bergert

• Opening day age: 25
• How acquired: 6th round in 2021 (West Virginia)
• Height / Weight: 6-foot-1 / 210 pounds
• Bats / Throws: Right / Right
• 2024 team(s): San Antonio (AA)
• 2024 stats: 2-10, 4.78 ERA, 87 strikeouts, 33 walks, 1.35 WHIP, .268 opponent average, 98 innings (23 starts)
• Need to know: Tommy John surgery cost Bergert his junior season, but the Padres believed enough in his upside to sign him for $500,000, nearly double the recommended bonus for the 190th overall pick. Bergert struggled his first full year back in action (5.84 ERA), but shaved more than three runs off that number in 2023 in earning an invite to big-league camp. He endured a miserable first half (6.26 ERA), but posted a 3.21 ERA over his final 11 starts, enough to convince the Padres to add him to the 40-man roster to protect him from next week’s Rule 5 draft. Bergert has a classic, four-pitch mix with a mid-90s fastball.

Others to know: LHP Jagger Haynes (A+), LHP Austin Krob (AA), RHP Sam Whiting (AA), LHP Miguel Cienfuegos (AA), RHP Ethan Routzahn (AAA), LHP Fernando Sanchez (A+), RHP Enmanuel Pinales (A+), RHP Jose Luis Reyes (A+), RHP Kannon Kemp (R), RHP Clark Candiotti (R), LHP Luis Gutierrez (A), RHP Miguel Mendez (A), RHP Carson Montgomery (A).