Road to The Show™: Padres’ Lesko

Each week, MiLB.com profiles an elite prospect by chronicling the steps he's taken toward achieving his Major League dream. Here's a look at third-ranked Padres prospect Dylan Lesko. For more stories about players on The Road to The Show, click here.

Dylan Lesko seems to finding his footing in professional baseball.

In back-to-back appearances for High-A Fort Wayne, MLB Pipeline’s No. 71 overall prospect has rattled off two of the best outings of his young Minor League career, which consists of just 20 total starts so far.

Lesko earned the reputation of a first-round talent following his junior season at Buford High School in Georgia in 2021, becoming the first junior to be named Gatorade National Baseball Player of the Year. But Tommy John surgery the following year wiped out his senior season and hindered his ability to build on that reputation.

But as the 20-year-old gets more professional innings under his belt – he’ll likely surpass his 2023 total of 33 innings in one of his next two starts – Lesko is showing that he was worth the wait.

The 6-foot-2, 195-pound righty has long been lauded for his 70-grade changeup, which was viewed as the best among MLB Pipeline’s Top 100 prospects. The offering hangs in the low-80s with excellent movement that generates a lot of swing and miss. Lesko’s fastball can reach 98 mph and has carry up in the zone, and he’s still developing a 12-to-6 curveball that produces impressive spin rates.

"I’m feeling good, especially after this offseason, just having a full healthy one and getting to face some good hitters," Lesko told MLB.com in April. "Just work out, just get back to my daily routine. The confidence is going up, how I'm feeling is going up. Everything is just getting better."

The Atlanta native was a well-regarded prospect that took a big leap as a high school junior. During that year, he went 11-0 with a 0.35 ERA and 112 strikeouts over 60 innings. He committed to pitch for Vanderbilt but was selected by the Padres with the No. 15 overall pick in the 2022 Draft. While a healthy senior season certainly would have helped boost his stock, he was still the fourth pitcher off the board in 2022.

Just after the Draft, Lesko and the Padres agreed to a $3.9 million bonus, which was believed to be the largest ever for a high school hurler coming off Tommy John surgery.

Lesko continued to rehab in 2022 and made his professional debut in the Rookie-level Arizona Complex League last June, nearly 14 months after the surgery. He did not go more than two innings in his four ACL starts, during which he allowed six runs over five innings with nine strikeouts. But he was given a little more leeway after a promotion to Single-A Lake Elsinore in July.

Lesko worked up to four innings in the last two of his five starts with the Storm, during which he allowed one run and struck out 12 over eight total innings. He was promoted again in August, this time to Fort Wayne.

He made his best and longest start of the year in his penultimate regular season appearance for the TinCaps, during which he fanned nine over five one-hit innings. Lesko finished the season with a 5.45 ERA in 12 starts across three levels. He proved that the stuff was still there with his 14.18 strikeouts per nine innings. But he also issued six walks per nine innings to show he was still getting the hang of things after such a lengthy absence.

Despite the difficult numbers, Lesko also showed just how effective his changeup can be, especially against lefties, who hit just .186 with a 39 percent strikeout rate against the offering.

Lesko did not pitch in any Cactus League games, but he did pitch one inning in the Padres’ Spring Breakout contest against the Mariners.

He returned to form when he got back to Fort Wayne for the start of the regular season. But a fairly high walk rate (9.31 per nine innings through his first eight starts of the season) has led to some difficult outings and a 6.52 ERA. But he’s also shown flashes of dominance and has held opposing batters to a .160 average.

The Padres have done well to restock their farm system through the Draft and international signings. Lesko works most of his starts for the TinCaps with the 17-year-old Ethan Salas, his roommate and MLB Pipeline’s No. 6 overall prospect.