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Ethan Salas, the 17-year-old San Diego Padres catching prospect, completed his Double-A debut in memorable fashion on Tuesday night, securing a win for the San Antonio Missions over the Amarillo Sod Poodles on a walk-off double in extra innings. 

Here's a look at Salas' double, which served as his first hit at the level:

The Padres surprisingly promoted Salas to Double-A on Sunday. The move came as a shocker for a few reasons: foremost, Salas is the youngest player at the level, having only turned 17 back in June. He's also in the midst of his first professional season, and he hadn't spent long at the High-A level. (In nine games there, he had hit .200/.243/.229.)

Still, the Padres clearly have a lot of faith in Salas' makeup and ability to handle what most evaluators consider to be the most difficult minor-league level as part of a prospect's journey to the majors. Perhaps this should've been foreseeable, given the Padres had Salas participating in big-league exhibition games as a 16-year-old back in the spring.

Salas is, at the risk of stating the obvious, one of the most promising young prospects in all of baseball. Evaluators have been struck by how polished he is behind the plate, and have seen enough from him offensively to think he could grow into an average or better hitter from the left side at the big-league level. That's a promising combination, and one that could make him a star in time.

Given how aggressive the Padres have been with Salas, we feel obligated to note that San Diego's youngest position player since the beginning of the Wild Card Era (1995) is Fernando Tatis Jr. The Padres brought up Tatis almost three months after he celebrated his 20th birthday. Salas, for reference, will not turn 20 until June 1, 2026. We suspect he'll long be in the majors by then.