Padres minor leagues: MacKenzie Gore promoted to Double-A San Antonio

Despite MacKenzie Gore’s recent tumble down the prospect rankings, he remains one of the top stories in the San Diego Padres farm system. If his command can improve, he is capable of earning back his high prospect rankings.

Making his first start in over two months, MacKenzie Gore took the mound in the Arizona Complex League on August 19. He finished his short stint with ACL Padres with a 1.65 ERA and 1.04 WHIP after three games with 22 strikeouts in 16⅓ innings.

Gore, the Padres’ fourth-ranked prospect, continued his climb back Sunday, allowing three runs on three hits with four walks and five strikeouts in five innings in his first start for High Single-A Fort Wayne.

The former No. 3 overall draft pick started the year in Triple-A El Paso, but spend two months on the injured list, as AJ Cassavell at MLB.com described it, “while he reworked his mechanics and allowed his blister issues time to heal.”

Blisters can be one of the most frustrating injuries for a young pitcher trying to make his way up through the organization. But if those are behind him, the 22-year-old is back on the climb, with Gore earning a promotion this week.

Luis Campusano

After ups and downs, there still have been high level performances in El Paso by Luis Campusano. The 22-year-old catcher elevated an already impressive season with an August in which he slashed .373/.458/.765, slugging six home runs in only 51 at-bats.

Robert Hassell III

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With the Lake Elsinore Storm (Low-A West), there’s nobody in the Padres organization that can light up a box score quite like 20-year-old Robert Hassell III. Through July, the speedy centerfielder slashed an impressive .309/.406/.450 while swiping 26 bags in 32 attempts. He upped that to .378/.448/.608 before getting promoted to High-A Fort Wayne in August. He left Low-A West with a 17.2-percent strikeout rate, establishing himself as one of the premier prospects in the organization.

If he keeps it up, Hassell might start at an even higher level. The outfielder, drafted eighth overall in 2020, is hitting .226/.314/.581 in seven games in High-A, including a three-home-run game last Wednesday against Great Lakes.

Robert Hassell is Padres’ third-ranked prospect and up to No. 46 in MLB Pipeline’s ranking of all minor league prospects.

Notable Padres prospects

• Joshua Mears has hit 11 home runs since July 1. He has an OPS is around 1.200 in that span. He is batting .244/.368/.529 with 17 homers and 48 RBI in 71 games in Low-A Lake Elsinore.
• Brandon Valenzuela is batting .300/.481/.300 since being promoted to Fort Wayne.
• Infielder Euribiel Angeles had and impressive .343/.397/.461 line in Lake Elsinore, and in six games now with Fort Wayne has nine hits with one home run and four runs batted in.