Jonathan Santucci comes from a family of amateur baseball players, but he is the only Santucci to have gone pro. His father, Steven, attended Assumption College and played baseball there from 1991-1993 and his cousin, Nick, attended Rollins College and played on their baseball team for six seasons, from 2017 until 2022. Jonathan attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, where he hit .322 over the course of his three-year varsity career and showed a great deal of promise on the mound. One of the highest regarded prospects in the state of Massachusetts, he went undrafted in the 2021 MLB Draft and honored his commitment to Duke University.
Overview
Name: Jonathan Santucci
Position: LHP
Born: 12/28/2002 (Age 23 season in 2026)
Height: 6’2”
Weight: 205 lbs.
Bats/Throws: L/L
Acquired: 2024 MLB Draft, 2nd Round (Duke University)
2025 Stats: 15 G (13 GS), 67.2 IP, 62 H, 29 R, 26 ER (3.46 ERA), 23 BB, 75 K, .313 BABIP (High-A) / 10 G (10 GS), 50.0 IP, 33 H, 22 R, 14 ER (2.52 ERA), 18 BB, 63 K, .277 BABIP (Double-A)
The summer after graduating from high school, he played in the Futures Collegiate League, appearing in two games for the Worcester Bravehearts as a reliever and going 5-27 at the plate. That fall, he went on to attend Duke, and that spring, the left-hander appeared in 20 games for the Blue Devils, starting as a middle reliever but eventually transitioning and establishing himself as a weekend starting pitcher as the months went on. On the season, the left-hander posted a 4.17 ERA in 41.0 innings, allowing 32 hits, walking 20, and striking out 58.
He played in the Cape Cod Baseball League that summer, posting a 3.65 ERA for the Harwich Mariners in 24.2 innings, with 20 hits allowed, 10 walks, and 28 strikeouts. He wasn’t able to keep that momentum going in 2023, as an elbow injury limited the amount of time he was able to spend on the mound in his sophomore season back at Duke. The southpaw started seven games for the Blue Devils before having his season end prematurely in March due to bone chips in his elbow. All in all, he posted a 4.30 ERA in 29.1 innings, allowing 27 hits, walking 16, and striking out 50. Fortunately for him, the injury was not Tommy John-related, but rather, an olecranon- the bony hinge tip of the elbow- fracture and he had surgery to have a screw inserted into his elbow to allow the bone to fuse back together properly.
When the left-hander returned to the mound in 2024, he made up for lost time, throwing 17 scoreless innings to begin the season, scattering 10 hits, walking 7, and striking out 31. He eventually came back to earth, and then in mid-May, sustained a rib-injury on his non-throwing side just prior to starting a game against Georgia Tech. He was originally only expected to miss a week or two, but Santucci missed roughly a month, returning to the mound in the NCAA Regionals, throwing two innings against Oral Roberts University on June 1st. The 40-20 Blue Devils had their season end the next day, finalizing Santucci’s season: in 58.0 innings, the left-hander posted a 3.41 ERA with 40 hits allowed, 36 walks, and 90 strikeouts.
The Mets selected the southpaw in the second round of the 2024 MLB Draft and signed him for $2,031,700, the exact slot value of the 46th overall pick. He was assigned to the FCL Mets in early August as a roster formality but did not pitch for them. He instead made his professional debut in 2025, pitching for the High-A Brooklyn Cyclones. Appearing in 15 games for the Cyclones, making 13 starts, Santucci posted a 3.46 ERA in 67.2 innings, allowing 62 hits, walking 23, and striking out 75. He was promoted to Double-A Binghamton in mid-July and ended his season there, posting a 2.52 ERA in 50.0 innings over 10 starts, allowing 33 hits, walking 18, and striking out 63. All in all, the left-hander posted a cumulative 3.06 ERA in 117.2 innings, scattering 95 hits, walking 41, and striking out 138, his strikeout total fourth in the system.
The 6’2”, 205-pound left-hander has a solid frame for pitching. The left-hander throws from a low-three-quarters arm slot, almost exclusively working from the stretch, incorporating a leg kick and long arm action through the back.
His fastball sits in the low-to-mid-90s, topping out as high as 97 MPH on stadium radar guns. Additionally, the pitch comes at batters from a flat approach angle, giving the pitch rising life, especially when thrown up in the zone.
His primary secondary pitch is his slider, a tight, two-plane pitch with gyroscopic break that sits in the low-to-mid-80s. Santucci can throw the pitch effectively to both sides of the plate and uses the pitch against left-handed batters and right-handed batters equally, though it has shown more effectiveness against left-handed batters. The pitch was his main strikeout pitch in college, and the pitch has retained its swing-and-miss qualifies as a professional.
His changeup sits in the mid-to-high-80s and features a bit of armside fade and vertical tumble. He generally does not use the pitch much, more or less reserving it for the second or third time through an order, and the fact that it tunnels well with his fastball and he does not telegraph it makes the pitch even more dangerous.
The left-hander recently added a developing curveball to his repertoire, and the addition of this new high-70s-to-low-80s pitch gives him a four-pitch mix. The pitch is still a work in progress and is not currently a true weapon, instead a strike stealer to catcher batters off-guard.
Command has long since been an issue for the left-hander, and all of his pitches play down when he has starts where he isn’t able to locate his pitches. Coming into the season, Santucci airmailed his fastball and bounced his secondaries with alarming regularity, making him inefficient as well. While some of his command issues stem from the movement in his pitches, almost unbelievably for a highly-regarded college pitching prospect who was drafted fairly high in his respective draft, some his command issues have come down to simply needing to throw more and learn how to repeat his mechanics and release points better; Santucci was primarily an outfielder during his high school baseball days, and after transitioning to being a pitcher full-time while at Duke, he still only threw 128.1 innings in total, supplemented by another 26.2 in collegiate summer leagues. While pitching for Brooklyn, manager Gilbert Gomez observed that Santucci had to do more on-the-job learning than most pitches his age and level and was pleased with how the left-hander began recognizing and self-correcting issues during his tenure with the Cyclones.
While he did not show any issues over the course of 2025, health may be an issue for Santucci over the course of his professional career. While his 2024 rib injury was seemingly random and has not been problematic since, the elbow issue he sustained and had surgically fixed in 2023 may have a recurring impact on his career given the location of the injury.
2026 Mets Top 25 Prospect List
13) Elian Peña
14) Zach Thornton
15) Nick Morabito
16) R.J. Gordon
17) Chris Suero
18) Dylan Ross
19) Ryan Lambert
20) Antonio Jimenez
21) Edward Lantigua
22) Eli Serrano III
23) Randy Guzman
24) Daiverson Gutierrez
25) Boston Baro
