Padres Draft Notes: Michael Salina and Kerrington Cross
The Padres try to find some day two magic in the draft with these intriguing prospects.
The Padres made some intriguing selections on day two of the 2025 MLB Draft. It’s a day where the Padres were likely only going to be able to overslot around 2 players and were going to have to work on some senior signs. In this article, I’m covering one player who’s only 21 years old, and the other is 23 years old.
The Padres selected one of my favorite prospects in the draft in the 4th round, right-hander Michael Salina. An electric arm out of St. Bonaventure University, today I’m writing about him and breaking down his profile.
Kerrington Cross is an intriguing bat, being a key contributor to the Cincinnati Bearcats offense. As a senior, he’s not expected to get much money in his signing bonus, but he is a fun bat and he reminds me of Luke Voit in his swing. However, his background and swing are a little similar to Kevin Youkilis.
Let’s look more into their profiles using some advanced data.
Michael Salina:
Salina is a junior out of St. Bonaventure with some unreal natural arm talent. I was intrigued by Salina entering 2025 as he hit 102 MPH on the radar gun in 2024, and he did it again in 2025. Sadly, Salina suffered an elbow injury following his start vs. Tennessee in March. He had to undergo Tommy John surgery, and the Padres are the team willing to take on his rehab.
It’s only a 6’1” / 215 frame, but he has lots of strength in his lower body and creates lots of force in his delivery. He’s an athletic mover and creates 6.3’ of extension down the mound, which could be slightly undercut by Trackman V3. His delivery contains lots of forward momentum that almost carries him off the mound.
Salina’s Fastball has more of a rise/run shape, getting 17” of vertical break and around 11” of armside run. He spins it well, getting ~2400 RPM on it. It’s a higher release height (~6.3’) but the arm angle is more in the ~45° range. He only sat 95 MPH on his Trackman-tracked pitches but topped at 102 MPH on the radar gun and 98 on Trackman. It’s a rather electric pitch and generated a 36% whiff rate along with a .236 xwOBA. Feels like a 60-grade in my opinion.
Salina’s Slider looks visually depthy but sits at 86 MPH, topping out at 90 with 0” vertical break and 8” gloveside movement, sitting in the ~2500 RPM range. Some have more depth than others and resemble a two-plane shape, but overall it’s a routine slider that’s thrown fairly hard. The results on this pitch were nutty, though it was a smaller sample, generating over a 40% whiff rate and over 50% chase rate. Along with a .174 xwOBA and 55% groundball rate.
It’s only a 3-pitch mix, but it’s pretty refined. The changeup has been a work-in-progress feel-wise, but the shape is really interesting. The cambio is sitting at 90 MPH, topping out at 93 MPH with 10” vertical separation from the fastball while getting 15” armside run. He only threw 9 of them in 2025, but he also only threw 219 pitches total.
Command has been a non-problem for Salina so far in his career. His fastball has only been in zone 41% of the time, but his locations are competitive 82% of the time in total. He also only walked 6 batters in his 74 total batters faced in 2025.
Overall, I absolutely love Salina’s profile. He carried a .203 xwOBA in 2025 and an 81.7 MPH avgEV. This is also coming with a near 40% whiff rate and 43% chase rate. It’s a fun blend of contact quality and swing & miss. Some things I’d look to tweak are trying to locate the fastball up more. He’s in the bottom half of the zone 61% of the time with the heater, which, with his decent carry and hard velocity, it’s ideal to locate it up in the zone. I also expect the Padres to tweak some things with the delivery, as I can’t imagine the high-intensity delivery gives him a higher likelihood of starting. I hope Salina gets his chance to start post-Tommy John, though the velocity and shapes could be pretty fun in the bullpen.
Kerrington Cross:
The reigning Big-12 player of the year and semifinalist for the Golden Spikes Award, Cross is going down as one of the best players in the Cincinnati Bearcats’ history, while also being a top clubhouse voice for a team that reached the regional.
Cross has a 6’0” / 215-pound frame that looks physical. He’s imposing at the plate and dominated college play in his final college-eligible season.
The results were gaudy as Cross posted a 1.173 OPS while walking 18.3% of the time. It’s more of a very cautious approach (39% swing rate) than elite plate discipline, but it’s one of a couple of similarities to “Greek God of Walks” Kevin Youkilis. One of my favorite things about Cross is that he completely avoids groundballs; it’s only a 31% groundball rate, and he’s getting constant great launch angles. It’s a 21% whiff rate that gets inflated by his 30% whiff rate on changeups, which is his worst pitch type by wOBA (though it’s only a .394 wOBA). His 13% IZ-Whiff rate vs Fastballs is possibly one of his most intriguing traits, though, and he also only chased 17% of breaking balls.
Raw power isn’t really the game for Cross. His 105 MPH 90thEV is going to level out to below average with wood when you adjust for his age, but he brings some pretty good in-game power. His overall 55% Hard Hit rate and .251 ISO point to some game pop.
Defense isn’t much to write home about here. He’s not the greatest athlete in the world, but there is some sneaky speed in the profile. I haven’t seen anything that points to him moving off 3rd base, where he is currently positioned.
I enjoy the profile, and Cross should continue to rake as he enters the Padres farm system. Results-producing senior signs can always be fun, and he will likely sign for underslot money.
Overview:
I’m a pretty big fan of this Padres draft, and it’s been back-to-back years of two of my favorite arms being picked in the 4th round, with Tyson Neighbors last year and Salina this year. We likely won’t see Salina as a full go until next April-ish, but as a college arm when he gets going, it should be really fun to track through affiliate ball. I can’t wait.
Bearcats fans love Cross, and if the results transfer over at all, it should be fun to watch. A Kevin Youkilis comparison is very bold, as he’s a 3x All-Star who produced 30.2 fWAR, but Cross had a higher OBP in his senior year at Cincinnati than Youkilis did during his final year as a Bearcat, not to mention Cross being drafted 23 picks earlier than Youkilis while being a guy who isn’t toolsy and lacks raw power with wood, just like Youkilis.
It’s a pretty interesting draft class overall. Not sure how much writing material I’ll have coming from it. Maybe some more if I can learn more about preps Ty Harvey and Truitt Madonna.
Public Data: FanGraphs