WILL FRIARS PICK MIDDLE AGAIN?

Under GM Preller, Padres have selected shortstops CFS, catchers, pitchers

The Padres have drafted a high school arm with their first pick four times in eight years under General Manager A.J. Preller. Twice, they’ve selected high school shortstops. They’ve plucked a high school center fielder with their first pick once and a college arm once.

Clearly, the Preller regime looks to build from the middle of the field out.

Pitchers, shortstops, center fielders and catchers.

Second-rounder Luis Campusano was the first catcher off the board in 2017 and the Padres spent $5.6 million of this year’s international bonus pool on Ethan Salas.

The Padres also tend to lean toward the upside of high-schoolaged talent, with Cal Quantrill as the No. 8 overall pick in 2016 representing the lone collegian selected with their first pick of a draft.

It remains to be seen if any of those trends will continue in this year’s draft — in a month — but it’s worth considering that players closer to the majors could be a tiebreaker on a draft plan that will forever be aligned toward the best player available.

The organization knows as well as anyone that its most impactful prospects are in A-ball and its Double-a and Triple-a teams, largely because of all of Preller’s trading the last few years, are predominantly comprised of players much closer to 30 than 20 years old.

That’s the lay of the land as the Padres prepare to pick 25th overall on July 9, their second back-third positioning of the Preller era.

Here’s a look at three names that experts have circled for that spot:

Baseball America: OF Chase Davis (Arizona)

“Davis is coming off a career year where he’s hit .362/.489/.742 with 21 home runs and more walks than strikeouts. He significantly improved his contact rate, which was the biggest question in his profile entering the year, and pairs production with excellent underlying batted ball data and impressive traditional tools. The Padres had a ton of heat in to see him at the Pac-12 tournament, where he went 6-for-17 (.353) with a pair of home runs and was named tournament MVP.”

Mlb.com: LHP Thomas White (Phillips Academy, Mass.)

“The two names coming up a lot in this spot are Dillon Head, the speedy high school outfielder, and White, the top lefty pitcher (of any kind) in the class, as the Padres have never shied away from upside. … There’s little question (White is) the best prep lefty in the country, one who’ll likely have to go early to … fulfill his commitment to Vanderbilt.”

ESPN: CF Dillon Head (Homewood Flossmoor HS, Ill.)

“Head is among the upside types whom GM A.J. Preller has seen play well this spring and he has a real shot to go in the top 20, so this would be a nice value as well. Head is a true top-of-the-scale 80 runner with a chance for 20 homers annually, a prospect superior — for me — to Justin Crawford, last year’s 17th pick by the Phillies and a player the Padres really liked.”

Around the farm

• El Paso (AAA): OF Taylor Kohlwey has hit seven of his eight home runs since the start of May, hitting .319/.452/.617 over that stretch. He has a .268/.382/.469 batting line for the season.

• San Antonio (AA): LHP Jackson Wolf, 24, has struck out 19 and allowed one run over his last 18 innings, winning all three decisions. The 6-foot-7 Wolf is 5-5 with a 3.35 ERA, 68 strikeouts and an 0.98 WHIP in 51 innings.

• Fort Wayne (A+): RHP Adam Mazur, last year’s second-rounder out of Iowa, is 1-0 with a 1.95 ERA, 26 strikeouts and an 0.92 WHIP over 37 innings to start his career.

• Lake Elsinore (A): LHP Austin Krob, a 12th-rounder last year out of TCU, has a 1.54 ERA, 50 strikeouts and a 1.22 WHIP in 41 innings to start the season.

• ACL Padres (R ): C Oswaldo Linares is 5-for-10 with two homers since the Arizona Complex League got underway on Monday.

• DSL Padres (R): The Padres are fielding two teams — DSL Padres Brown and DSL Padres Gold. They began their season on Monday as well.