A sharp upward swing on a frequently damaged arm.
Jonathan Santucci, a left-hander from Duke, was chosen 46th overall by the Mets with their second-round selection in the 2024 draft.
You won’t be very impressed by Santucci’s college numbers after taking a brief look at them. Outside of the Cape, he has never thrown more than 58 innings in a season, had an ERA below 3.4, or a BB/9 below 4.4. In his last season in the ACC, he had unusually severe walk issues (5.6 BB/9). Over his collegiate career, he also missed time due to rib, back, and elbow problems, so it’s obvious that he has serious control and injury concerns.
Another lefty with intriguing analytics and eye-popping strikeout totals is Santucci. Despite the aforementioned issues, he was able to succeed since he never recorded a K/9 that was below ten during his time in college. Santucci is a left-hander that resembles Chris Sale. He works from a sidearm stance and has a fastball that was incredibly flat in the mid-1990s. He also has a changeup and a tight slider. All of those pitches will be above average on his best days, and the mechanics are cleaner than you would think.
This is a significant swing, and most likely a wise one. While Santucci has intriguing qualities that the Mets can use in their revised pitching development pipeline, it is also possible that he will fade quickly and end up as a #2 starter. At 37th on MLB Pipeline, 37th on Baseball Prospect, 36th on Prospect Live, and 50th at Fangraphs, Santucci registered.
