ANGRY MIKE: 2025 PROSPECT REPORT: JONATHAN SANTUCCI

ANGRY MIKE 

Jonathan Santucci was Stearns’ 2nd ever player drafted, signing for a bonus slightly over $2 Million. Santucci’s bonus ranks among the Top 10 in franchise history for starting pitchers, and is the third highest bonus awarded to pitchers drafted outside the first round, only J.T. Ginn and Matt Allan received higher bonuses. Santucci was the “ACE” of Duke’s staff and was widely seen as a first round talent, because of a plus fastball-slider combo that made him a premier strikeout artist among the college ranks. His fastball and slider were both considered 60+ scouting grade pitches, but he fell to the Mets in the second round because of his medical history and command issues stemming from high walk rates.

As is the case with most college pitchers, Santucci’s first assignment was at Brooklyn, where he struggled initially, but was quickly able to turn things around.

FIRST 6 STARTS:

21 IP | 19 ER | 33 Hits | 8 BB | 21 K | 8.14 ERA

NEXT 12 STARTS: 

60 IP | 10 ER | 35 Hits | 22 BB | 70 K | 1.50 ERA | 0.95 WHIP

Those 12 starts including a stellar debut at Double-A Binghamton, tossing 6 dominant innings, allowing only 2 hits and 2 earned runs, to go with 8 strikeouts and only 1 walk.

Jonathan Santucci officially arrived. 

Santucci’s quick ascension to Binghamton signaled the medical concerns and control issues that caused him to drop in the MLB Draft were behind him. Santucci and Zach Thornton are the best left-handed starters in the Mets system, and before Thornton’s abdominal injury, combined with Jonah Tong and Jack Wenninger to form the deepest rotation in the Minors. Outside of two rough outings, Santucci continued to dominate hitters, and flashed the elite potential that once rendered him a top 15 potential draft pick. 

2025 HIGHLIGHTS:

• -> 8 Starts -> surrendered 3 hits or fewer + 5+ IP + 5+ strikeouts
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• -> 18 outings recorded 5+ strikeouts
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• -> 14 outings recorded 6+ strikeouts
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• -> 16 of 19 final outings were successful performances
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• -> 4 Quality starts despite being on a very strict pitch count
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• -> Only allowed a total of 21 ER across his final 19 outings
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• -> 4 Outings allowed 3 ER
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• -> 6 Outings allowed 1 ER
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• -> 9 Outings allowed 0 ER
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-> 3 so-so starts from final 19 starts:

11 IP | 10 ER | 13 Hits | 6 BB | 15 K | 8.18 ERA 

-> Other 16 starts from final 19 starts:

85.2 IP | 11 ER | 39 Hits | 27 BB | 109 K | 1.16 ERA | 0.78 WHIP

That is Jonah Tong level dominance across 85+ innings at High-A and Double-A, which should more than justify Santucci’s place among the MLB’s Top 50 overall prospects.

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• -> 85.2 IP -> dominant 89% for the final 96.2 IP for the year.
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• -> 97.2 IP -> dominant 83% for a total of 117.2 IP of 2025

-> Statistics from 19 Outings -> allowed 3 ER or less

97.2 IP | 23 ER | 52 Hits | 30 BB | 116 K | 2.13 ERA | 0.84 WHIP 

-> Statistics from So-So Outings:

20 IP | 17 ER | 43 Hits | 11 BB | 123 K | 2.13 ERA 

These numbers are just as dominant as Payton Tolle’s, Noah Schultz’, or Thomas White’s from last season, all of whom are ranked among MLB Top 100 Prospects lists. Tolle doesn’t even have a second pitch that is a legit 60-65 grade offering. Santucci’s exclusion from Top 100 lists, along with Ewing, Reimer, Pena, and Thornton shows how those lists have become closer to Amazon’s List of Bestsellers for books, where publishers simply pay to be ranked.

2026 OUTLOOK:

Santucci has nothing left to prove at AA, and should start 2026 in Syracuse, which could be the MiLB’s version of the “Dream Team”. He will be one of the “headliners” in a rotation full of “headliners”, probably slotting behind Jonah Tong & Zach Thornton, two starters who nearly threw perfect games last season. With the projected star-studded lineup, look for Santucci to have the benefit of pitching with a lead early and often. With a trio of power arms also projected to anchor the Syracuse bullpen, Santucci and others should rack up wins at a record pace.

Now that we know Santucci is an impact talent, the Mets will look to refine some of the rough edges and insert upgrades into his pitching arsenal. These two factors might be the only things that prevent Santucci from putting up dominant numbers again, because AAA is where you want prospects to harness their command and arsenal before jumping on that puddle-jumper to Queens. 

Pitch count efficiency, inducing weak contact, and limiting non-competitive pitches are a few things all pitching prospects need to refine prior to hitting the MLB, and Santucci is no different. Adding a sweeper to compliment his nasty slider, a sinker, or a cutter would also be excellent complementary pitches to his mid 90s fastball that are adept at inducing weak contact. He’s got the lethal components of his arsenal established, now it’s time to upgrade the rest of his arsenal so he can navigate through MLB lineups three times, to do that, you have to be able to induce weak contact by attacking hitters in the zone.

The ceiling for Santucci remains extremely high, I could care less what “Main Street” says, had he been drafted by the Dodgers or Red Sox he’d already be ranked among the Top 50. Santucci continued to pitch better and didn’t show any ill effects from logging a career high in innings pitched. He’s another former 2-way player like Nolan McLean and Carson Benge, who has the potential to drastically improve his future value now that he’s logging multiple years fully committed to pitching.

The Mets have multiple starters potentially vacating rotation spots after next season, and Sean Manea will be gone after the 2027 season, opening multiple vacancies for left-handed starters in the near future. As much as I would love to have Tarik Skubal head the rotation, it doesn’t hurt to have multiple high-upside lefties like Santucci and Thornton as a contingency plan.