\n<\/p>\n
Joniel Hernandez<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The San Diego Padres have a long history of signing top international prospects. Catcher Ethan Salas signed through 2023, and shortstop Leo De Vries signed through 2024. Senior shortstop Adrian Morejon was a 2016 signee, part of the Padres’ largest and most expensive rookie class.<\/p>\n
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The 2026 registration window opened Jan. 15 and closes on Dec. 15. The Padres have $5.94 million available to them to sign players. The total amount spent so far is not yet publicly known but their two biggest bonuses, $1.4 million to Cuban Joniel Hernandez and $1 million to Mexican LHP Diego Serna, were a good start.<\/p>\n
Both players are ranked in the top 100, according to Baseball America, and are joined by Curacao shortstop Timothy Mogen, who signed for $600,00. All three had previous deals with the organization and the announcements came after the official window opened.<\/p>\n
#31 Hernandez, 16, is a combination arm and sprinter. He has good bat speed and can have above average power. If he doesn’t stick at shortstop, he has the skills to re-profile in center field.<\/p>\n
#45 Serna, 16, could be the best left tackle in the class. He has a starting profile and is already 6-foot-3 and 205 pounds. He throws a mid-90s fastball, a plus-slider and an improved changeup thanks to his extensive experience in Mexico.<\/p>\n
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#76 Mogen, 17, is a shortstop from Aruba with plus-speed and a compact arm and could develop power as he fills out his 6-foot-4, 170-pound frame. He has good communication skills and a high baseball IQ.<\/p>\n
Other players signed in the first 24 hours include:<\/p>\n
RHP Joel Duarte, 17, ($150,000) of Venezuela has been practicing as a shortstop but was converted to throwing recently with a plus-arm. At 6-foot-2 and 185 pounds, he started with a fastball in the mid-90s and has reached 98 mph.<\/p>\n
Catcher Jhoneiker Leon is a Venezuelan with a strong arm and added power as a hitter.<\/p>\n
RHP Jordan Perez ($300,000) is a Cuban with the tools to start. He is currently showing a low-90s fastball and a good curveball.<\/p>\n
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LHP Joel Gonzalez is out of Panama and Osmy Osorio is from Venezuela. There are no current scouting reports for any of these players.<\/p>\n
Jeff Sanders of San Diego Union-Tribune<\/em> report with the above signatories, but not confirmed by the group.<\/p>\n Expect more players to sign in the next year. All international players must be 16 before signing and 17 by September 1 of the following year. All must be registered with MLB before signing. All players signed before the summer will be part of a team that will begin their professional careers as part of the Padres international team that lives and trains at their facility in the Dominican Republic.<\/p>\n The Dominican Summer League is home to several of the Padres’ top prospects and last year featured the No. 9 prospect David Coronil, an outfielder who spent his rookie season as part of the DSL Padres Gold team, and No. 17 which will be with Jhoan De La Cruz. Cruz, a shortstop and second baseman, spent his rookie season playing alongside Coronil in the Gold infield.<\/p>\n Some DSL players play more than just their rookie season in the Dominican, but the most developed players transfer stateside to begin their US careers with Lake Elsinore.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Joniel Hernandez The San Diego Padres have a long history of signing top international prospects. Catcher Ethan Salas signed through 2023, and shortstop Leo De Vries signed through 2024. Senior shortstop Adrian Morejon was a 2016 signee, part of the Padres’ largest and most expensive rookie class. Advertisement The 2026 registration window opened Jan. 15 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2919"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2921,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2919\/revisions\/2921"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}