Padres’ Anthony Vilar Steps Back To Leap Forward

Sometimes a player needs to take a step back to leap forward.  

That was the gist of the conversation with Anthony Vilar as he was assigned to Low-A Lake Elsinore to start 2023. The 24-year-old catcher had spent last season in High-A, but he didn’t bat an eye at the organization’s plans.  

“First and foremost, Anthony is a very mature guy and wants the opportunity to play,” Padres assistant farm director Mike Daly said. “So it was a very easy conversation. He comes from a baseball family, and he saw where the real opportunity to play was.

“Besides, where they start the year is on the organization and where they finish the year is on them.” 

The lefthanded-hitting catcher appeared to be too advanced for the California League. In 14 April games he hit .378/.509/.733 with three home runs, 12 walks and 14 strikeouts.

A middle infielder when the Padres drafted him in the 15th round in 2021 out of Miami, Vilar has taken on a leading role in helping Lake Elsinore’s young pitching staff, led by Robby Snelling and Isaiah Lowe, hit the ground running in their professional debuts.  

Vilar’s maturity, slow heartbeat, hands and quick feet at Miami all stood out as the Padres identified him as a candidate to catch in pro ball. He also possesses above-average arm strength, all of it helping him record pop times as low as 1.86 seconds on throws to second base.  

“He has the ability to go foul line to foul line,” Daly said of Vilar’s batting potential. “He has the ability to hit the ball out of the ballpark, adjust with two strikes to how he’s being pitched . . . and can move a runner.” 

To be clear, Vilar has a ways to go if he’s going to move up the organizational depth chart at catcher, topped currently by , the biggest prize from the most recent international amateur signing period.

Vilar’s hot start could result in a promotion to High-A Fort Wayne when 16-year-old phenom Ethan Salas is ready for an assignment to Lake Elsinore. Salas was catching three days a week in Arizona and collecting at-bats with an eye toward skipping Rookie-level Arizona Complex League to debut in the Cal League.

“He’s been a clear leader,” Daly said of Vilar, “on that Lake Elsinore team that’s off to a hot start.” 

FATHER FIGURES

— Triple-A El Paso righthander Anderson Espinoza was ejected after the first inning of his April 14 start after a foreign substance check. The ensuing 10-game suspension he received was the second such ban of his career. He was previously ejected following a foreign substance check in 2021 with High-A Fort Wayne.  

— Outfielder Kai Murphy, the son of Brewers bench coach Pat Murphy, who was the Padres’ interim manager after Bud Black’s firing in 2015, hit the first two home runs of his professional career at Low-A Lake Elsinore. Last summer, the 22-year-old Murphy signed as an undrafted free agent out of Arizona State, the program his father coached from 1995 to 2009.