While Salas’ defensive acumen draws rave reviews from evaluators and pitchers alike, his bat was significantly challenged this season at High-A. More than four years younger than the average player on the Midwest League circuit, Salas fell into an offensive malaise that lingered into the summer. All told, he hit just .206 with a .598 OPS, even as there were positive developments such as his strikeout rate dropping to just above 20 percent.
The biggest difference was that last season with Single-A Lake Elsinore, when Salas hit the ball in the air, it went over the fence at a 16.1 percent clip. Despite posting a nearly identical 40.8 percent fly-ball rate this year (40.9 with Lake Elsinore in ‘23), just 3.1 percent of those balls went for homers in the notoriously brisk early-season temps of the Midwest League.
“I went out to San Diego and worked with some of the guys — fixed some things,” Salas said of his in-season reset. “I stayed a little taller, stayed a little less in my legs and used my leverage more. … And putting up competitive at-bats, I think I wasn’t doing so much of that. It was inconsistent more in the beginning of the year and then toward the end, it was really good.”
