SAN DIEGO — It had been 676 days since Joe Musgrove last pitched at Petco Park, so San Diego Padres manager Craig Stammen spent part of his Sunday watching a screen in his office. Musgrove, making a rehab start in Triple A, threw 53 pitches and held mid-90s velocity into the fourth inning. Even in Reno, Nev., the veteran right-hander didn’t appear all that far away.Neither did Ethan Salas, the 20-year-old catcher.“He makes it look really easy, which means he’s pretty darn good at it,” Stammen said.As Musgrove nears his long-awaited return from Tommy John surgery, the Padres might be approaching a key decision involving their top prospect. Salas celebrated his birthday 72 days ago. The last time someone so young caught a big-league game, Ivan Rodriguez was a rookie with the 1991 Texas Rangers.Now in a three-way tie for a wild-card spot, the surging Padres do not have an obvious need for catching help. Luis Campusano, who returned last month from toe and oblique injuries, is batting .311 with a .923 OPS in 119 at-bats. Freddy Fermin, who missed time earlier this season because of a concussion and a head contusion, has hit safely in 14 consecutive starts and is second in the majors in runners caught stealing. Rodolfo Durán, another catcher on the 40-man roster, has been a competent backup.“We went from thin at catching,” Stammen said, “to a really strong catching group.”On top of that, it would be a risk to throw Salas into a playoff race. Yet, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity so they could speak candidly about the team’s thinking, the Padres will consider calling him up in the near future.A debut this month or next, when big-league rosters expand, would not be ahead of the club’s original schedule. In 2023, soon after Salas caught a Venezuelan winter-ball game as a 16-year-old, the Padres signed him for $5.6 million. People throughout the organization predicted he would reach the majors within two years.Then came the hyper-aggressive promotions, the precocious performance, the offensive struggles, the season-erasing back injury … and this year’s revitalization. Salas has re-established himself as the best catching prospect in baseball. He entered Wednesday hitting .291/.366/.445 across two levels, including .325/.396/.625 over his first 10 games with Triple-A El Paso.