Padres cut ties with former top prospect after years of injury setbacks

The San Diego Padres have closed the book on right-handed pitcher Luis Patiño, a name that once carried as much excitement as any pitching prospect in baseball. Once billed as a future ace, Patiño’s career has instead become a sobering reminder of just how fragile pitching talent can be.

San Diego signed Patiño out of Colombia in 2016 as a hard-throwing teenager with raw stuff and high potential. By 2019, he had blossomed into one of MLB Pipeline’s top-30 overall prospects, drawing comparisons to frontline starters with his electric fastball-slider mix. Padres fans dreamed of him joining the rotation as the next homegrown star.

Padres cut ties with Luis Patiño, once a prized top prospect

And for a brief moment, he did. In the shortened 2020 season, Patiño broke through as a 20-year-old, making his major league debut. His numbers finished at a 5.19 ERA over 17 ⅓ innings with 21 strikeouts. However fans still saw promise. 

But that flash would be the peak. Patiño was traded to the Tampa Bay Rays as part of the blockbuster deal for Blake Snell, and from there, the setbacks piled up. Injuries became a constant shadow. After bouncing between the Rays and White Sox, and eventually landing back with the Padres in 2025, Patiño underwent Tommy John surgery in 2024, the latest and most devastating chapter of his stop-and-go career.

Sadly, he never made it back to a big-league mound in San Diego. Now, still at 25 years old, the Padres have officially cut ties, ending a once-promising reunion before it ever had a chance to take off.

For Padres fans, the move stings more for what could have been than what actually was. Patiño represented a dream of homegrown dominance, a pitcher who had the talent to headline a rotation but whose body simply wouldn’t cooperate. 

Whether another team takes a chance on him or not, Patiño’s story in San Diego is over.  One that started with hope, flashed with promise, and ended with a whimper.

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