Padres Prospects: Luis Campusano ranks as fourth-best catching prospect

The San Diego Padres continue to see their prospects ranked highly in MLB Pipeline’s updated rankings with Luis Campusano among the best catchers

MLB Pipeline continues to put out their Top 10 prospect list for each position and the San Diego Padres continue to make each list.

On Tuesday it was Luis Patino being ranked the eighth best right-handed pitching prospect, and then on Wednesday MacKenzie Gore was ranked the best left-handed pitching prospect.

As we move to the catcher position, Luis Campusano ranks as the fourth best catching prospect in all of baseball.

There have been a lot of rumors this offseason about the Padres possibly trading a catcher, and they already traded one in Austin Allen who was moved for Jurickson Profar.

And the reason for that could be that they view Campusano as the catcher of the future.

The 5-foot-10 right-handed catcher was taken in the second round of the 2017 MLB Draft by the Padres.

That year he hit .269/.344/.388 in 134 Rookie League at-bats with 4 home runs.

In 2018 he played 70 games in Single-A Fort Wayne and hit .288/.345/.365 with 3 home runs in 260 at-bats before his season ended due to a concussion from a foul ball.

But this past season as a 20-year-old he really broke out in High-A by hitting .325/.369/.509 with 15 home runs and 81 RBI in 110 games and 422 at-bats.

In an article on Baseball America he contributed the power surge to a change in his swing that allows him to “launch balls a little bit more.”

San Diego sent him to the Arizona Fall League after the 2019 season but he played in just four games.

Before the uptick in offense he was already viewed as an above-average defender behind the plate.

He’s probably still at least a year away from making his big league debut. Campusano will likely start 2020 in Double-A and if he continues to show the same progress he displayed at High-A he’ll shoot up prospect boards even more and we could see him to start 2021.

MLB Pipeline will release their first base, second base, and third base rankings next, which the Padres probably won’t be a part of. But they finish with shortstop and outfield where we could see a couple of Padres prospects pop up again.