Padres Prospects: Luis Patino ranked among 10 best RHP in baseball

MLB.com ranks San Diego Padres right-handed pitching prospect Luis  Patino as one of the best up-and-coming arms in all of baseball.

It’s no secret to San Diego Padres fans that Luis Patino is a rising star in this game. Many believe he’ll make his Major League debut during the 2020 season.

As MLB Pipeline prepares to release it’s updated list of the Top 100 prospects in baseball, they announced their Top 10 right-handed pitching prospects.

As you might imagine, Patino made the list, the only question was how high would he be ranked. And it may not have been as high as Padres fans hoped.

They have him ranked as the eighth best right-handed pitching prospect in baseball.

He finished 2019 ranked as the 30th best prospect in all of baseball, so it’s hard to imagine there being seven other RHP ahead him. But going into 2019 he didn’t even make this list, so it’s definitely a big accomplishment for the 20 year old.

The Top 10 list looks like this:

1. Casey Mize (Tigers)

2. Nate Pearson (Blue Jays)

3. Forrest Whitley (Astros)

4. Michael Kopech (White Sox)

5. Sixto Sanchez (Marlins)

6. Dustin May (Dodgers)

7. Matt Manning (Tigers)

8. Luis Patino (Padres)

9. Spencer Howard (Phillies)

10. Grayson Rodriguez (Orioles)

What’s interesting is that MLB Pipeline expects the top seven on this list to graduate during the 2020 season, which means Patino could potentially top this list next offseason.

But we certainly won’t be upset if Patino graduates from being a prospect in 2020 and starts dominating for the Padres.

In 2019 he made 17 starts in High-A and finished with a 2.69 ERA in 87 innings pitched with 113 strikeouts, a WHIP of 1.09, a K/9 of 11.7, and a BB/9 of 3.5.

He made 2 additional starts at Double-A and gave up just 1 earned run in 7.2 innings with 10 strikeouts.

Most likely he’ll start 2020 in Double-A, but the Padres have shown in the past they’re not afraid to hold prospects back because of service time. If Patino shows he’s ready, he’ll be up in 2020.

MLB Pipeline will be revealing the Top 10 at each position over the next couple of weeks. On Wednesday, January 15 they’ll be announcing the Top 10 left-handed pitchers, so expect another post then as I expect one of our guys to be at the top.