The Pittsburgh Pirates have promoted relief pitching prospect Edgar Santana from Altoona to Indianapolis. This continues the rapid progression for the right-hander, who started the year in Bradenton, and now finds himself one step away from the majors. This continues a rapid rise, as he went from Morgantown to West Virginia last year, and was pitching in the DSL in 2014.
Santana put up a 2.83 ERA in 41.1 innings with Altoona, along with a 39:11 K/BB ratio. This came after he had an 0.81 ERA in 22.1 innings in Bradenton, with a 20:2 K/BB ratio. He got off to a slower start in Altoona, with two bad outings in his first four appearances, giving up seven earned runs in 3.2 innings in those games. Since that last bad outing, he had a 1.65 ERA, giving up just six earned runs in 32.2 innings over his next 17 appearances, along with a 31:5 K/BB ratio. He finished his time in Altoona with 12.2 consecutive shutout innings, striking out 12 and walking two in the process.
There’s a reason Santana has been putting up great numbers and getting aggressively promoted. He sits 93-96 MPH with his fastball, showing a lot of movement on the pitch. He pairs that with a nasty slider, giving him two plus pitches, and making him a high upside reliever. Santana got off to a late start in his career, making his debut at the age of 22 in the DSL. The rapid rise through the system has made up for the late start, and now he finds himself in Triple-A at age 24, with a chance to make the majors in the next year, and possibly this year as a September call-up if he does well enough in Indianapolis.
Santana was rated the number 36 prospect in the system in our mid-season top 50 update. He’s expected to join the Indians tonight in Columbus.
