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With Ethan Salas ready to take over behind the dish in San Diego, it’s not surprising that the Padres are getting calls on their other depth pieces behind the plate. What remains unclear is whether or not the Padres have any interest in dealing from that point of strength, or if perhaps they plan on keeping three catchers and rotating Salas and Campusano through the designated hitter spot in the lineup when they aren’t catching, which they did in the NLDS against the Brewers.

Campusano also singled. The 27-year-old continued his strong campaign at the plate by taking Paul Blackburn deep in the bottom of the 10th to give the Padres a much-needed win in their quest to clinch one of the final postseason berths in the National League. He’s been limited to just 56 games, but in those contests he’s now hit six homers, driven in 25 runs and slashed .283/.364/.465. You can do a heck of a lot worse than that.

Freddy Fermin has now started eight of 12 games behind the plate, with Campusano catching four times and DHing once during that span. Campusano is out-OPSing Fermin .904 to .568, but Fermin’s defense matters more to Craig Stammen. The Padres have gone 36-26 with Fermin starting.

Campusano’s two doubles both came at great times for the Padres here. His first brought home two runs with the bases loaded in a tie game in the fifth and knocked out Guardians’ starter Gavin Williams. Then, after the Guardians scratched across a run in the sixth, Campusano’s next two-bagger gave the Padres another insurance run. He lost two months of his season to injury, but has been highly productive otherwise with a .317 batting average and .935 OPS in 145 plate appearances.

The Brewers got one in the top of the 11th, but it wasn’t enough. It initially looked like Jackson Merrill hit the game winner with one out and runners on first and third in the bottom of the inning, but right fielder Luis Lara made a fantastic leaping catch to turn it into a sac fly. After a stolen base put the winning run on second, Campusano hit a low liner to right for a clean single. Lara’s throw home seemed to be in time to retire the runner, but Gary Sánchez jumped to catch the ball when it really didn’t seem like he needed to and then couldn’t get the tag down in time. It gave the Padres a three-game sweep with two one-run victories and an 11-2 blowout.

The Padres still won’t give Campusano DH time, but at least he’s starting at catcher more frequently than Freddy Fermin right now. He’s batting .311/.410/.513 in 139 plate appearances.

Campusano was scratched from the Padres’ lineup on Sunday due to abdominal soreness, but it looks like it was only a minor issue and he’s doing much better after a few days off. He’ll start behind the dish and bat ninth for the Padres on Friday evening against Royals’ right-hander Seth Lugo.

Campusano is available off the bench, so this is all precautionary, and not related to the oblique injury that shelved him in late June. The 27-year-old should be considered day-to-day, with a good chance to return after the All-Star break.

Campusano is 5-for-11 with three walks since coming off the IL on Friday. He’ll stay plenty busy behind the plate for the Padres while Freddy Fermin is out, but he also might deserve some DH time once Fermin returns; he’s batting .317/.403/.619 with four homers in 72 plate appearances on the season.

As one Padres’ catcher gets healthy, they lose Freddy Fermin (head) to the injured list on Friday. Campusano had been shelved since early May due to a fractured left big toe. Prior to landing on the injured list, the 27-year-old backstop was hitting .288/.362/.596 with three homers and 10 RBI.

Campusano suffered a fractured big toe while fouling a pitch off himself on May 5. He’ll replace Rodolfo Durán as Freddy Fermin’s backup once healthy.

The Padres had been taking it day-to-day with Campusano, but they finally decided it was best to sit him down for a week and let the injury heal rather than to continue to wait for him and play shorthanded. Rodolfo Duran was promoted from Triple-A El Paso to take his spot on the active roster.

Padres manager Craig Stammen told reporters Campusano is banged up after fouling a ball off his foot during Tuesday’s game against the Giants. He’s questionable for Thursday’s series opener against the Cardinals.

Campusano took Jaden Hill for a ride with a solo shot in the seventh inning. That’s the second homemr of the campaign for the backstop, and he is already up to six doubles to go with the roundtrippers. IT’s very early, but Campusano has played well in his limited time with a slash of .333/.385/.667 in his 36 at-bats.

The Padres went out and got Nick Castellanos, Miguel Andujar and Ty France in part because they didn’t want to look at Campusano as more than their backup catcher. Campusano, though, still might well wind up as their best option as a DH against lefties. He’s 6-for-17 with a homer and four doubles in the early going. He’s second on the team in extra-base hits and 11th in at-bats, with one-third as many as the top three.

Campusano hasn’t played since Monday, but he’ll be in the lineup with Freddy Fermin getting the day off. Ferming has gone just 1-for-14 with four strikeouts to start the season, which may be opening the door for Campusano to get more at-bats.

He’ll get $900,000, according to The Athletic’s Dennis Lin. It sure seems to us like Campusano is a player who would have benefitted from accepting the non-tender and taking his chances elsewhere. After all, the Padres gave him all of 21 major league plate appearances last season and wouldn’t put him behind the plate even once. Campusano’s glove is a major issue, but he did hit .336/.441/.595 in 105 games for Triple-A El Paso last season. At least he’s out of options now, so if the Padres decide against carrying him, he’ll go on waivers and find out if someone else wants him.