Padres could unlock a towering 22-year-old prospect if they solve one frustrating issue

The Padres don’t have the luxury of treating prospects like background noise anymore. Not after years of living in “win-now” mode and watching the farm system get thinned out by deadline swings. And definitely not with the big-league roster constantly flirting between dangerous and one injury away from annoying.

So when Baseball America tags Ryan Wideman as the Padres’ No. 8 prospect, it matters even if he’s starting 2026 in Low-A Lake Elsinore. The organization needs more players who can actually become something, not just names that fill out minor-league box scores.

Ryan Wideman offers a refreshing kind of upside the Padres badly need to manufacture again

Wideman is the kind of prospect scouts love to talk themselves into. He’s 6-foot-5, 204 pounds, a legit tool mix: some power, decent contact, speed that plays on the bases, and enough athleticism to play anywhere in the outfield. Add an above-average arm, and you can see the outline of a modern outfielder the Padres could actually use in a couple years.

However, Wideman chases a lot. That “penchant for chasing at the plate” is the kind of flaw that turns a toolbox prospect into a forever-project. It doesn’t matter how loud the tools are if the at-bats are constantly ending on pitches he can’t damage. And the Padres already have that kind of prospect with Tirso Ornelas.

The good news is this is also one of the most fixable problems in player development. It’s not like asking a guy to magically add five ticks of exit velocity or learn shortstop at 22. Pitch recognition, swing decisions, and zone discipline can improve when an org commits to it — and when a player buys in.

This feels like a perfect “prove it” development moment for the Padres. If Wideman is starting in Lake Elsinore, the mission should be simple to get him living in counts where his power and speed can actually show up instead of getting neutralized by soft stuff off the plate.

Because if Wideman takes even a modest step forward in recognition, the whole profile changes fast. And for a Padres organization that needs to start manufacturing its own answers again, that would be the best kind of “unlock.”