2026 Dynasty Baseball Prospects: Daily Write-Up Series #105 Jonathan Santucci

We’re 82 days from Opening Day, and the 2026 Dynasty Baseball Prospects: Daily Write-Up series lands on a pitcher who blends polish with upside. Coming in at #105 is Jonathan Santucci, a left-hander whose mix of athleticism, pitchability, and developing stuff gives him a starter’s look. Santucci may not have the loudest raw tools in the system, but his ability to repeat his delivery, miss bats, and limit damage puts him on a steady upward path. As the list tightens, he profiles as a higher-probability arm with room to grow heading into 2026.

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Daily Baseball Write-Up Series #105 Jonathan Santucci

The Mets keep finding ways to stockpile interesting arms, and Jonathan Santucci looks like the next right-hander to climb the ladder. After a full 2025 run split between High-A and Double-A, he checked the boxes you want to see from a young starter: missing bats, limiting free passes, and keeping the ball in the yard. It wasn’t loud in a headline-grabbing way, but it was steady, efficient, and very “startery”, the kind of season that ages well as he advances.

Across 117.2 innings this year, Santucci posted a 3.06 ERA and 1.16 WHIP with 138 strikeouts (10.56 K/9) against a 3.14 BB/9. The skills-based markers back it up: a 3.12 FIP and sub-3.00 xFIP suggest the run prevention wasn’t smoke and mirrors, and a 16.4% swinging-strike rate is real bat-missing juice for a starter. He beat league norms across the board, ERA, WHIP, K/9, and even HR/9 (0.69), which is exactly what you want from a 22-year-old handling the upper minors. We don’t have public Stuff+ under the hood at these levels, but the whiffs plus the FIP/xFIP blend paint an above-average “stuff” picture.

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On feel and shape, Santucci works like a modern Mets arm: the fastball plays in the zone with enough life to get swing-and-miss when he elevates, and his primary breaker flashes as the out pitch with depth to finish at-bats. The changeup has come along enough to keep lefties honest, and his strike-throwing is trending in the right direction. A 3.0 K/BB is more “solid” than “surgical,” but paired with bat-missing traits and a low home-run rate, it’s the bones of a mid-rotation blueprint if the command takes one more half-step. The best part? He held his stuff and execution across a starter’s workload, which is often the first hurdle for arms at this stage.

There aren’t glaring red flags here, but there are honest development checkpoints. He’ll need to keep tightening fastball command to avoid deep counts against more advanced bats, and Double-A lineups will force him to land the changeup more consistently. That said, the indicators all trended the right way in 2025: fewer freebies, strong whiff rates, and no fluky batted-ball red flags show up in the profile. With an ETA sitting around 2027, he’s pacing like a patient, sustainable riser rather than a flash-in-the-pan.

Fantasy Outlook

In Dynasty, Santucci belongs on the add-and-hold list before the industry pushes him there. The combination of a 16.4% SwStr, sub-3.20 FIP, and a stable 10.5 K/9 gives him mid-rotation upside with a chance to beat that if the command ticks up. For Roto, his profile reads like bankable strikeouts with ratio help; the 1.16 WHIP and 0.69 HR/9 are exactly the levers you want as he moves to the high minors. In Points, the 3.0 K/BB and low homer damage keep the weekly floor healthy even when the strikeout totals don’t pop. He’s not likely to rocket to Queens tomorrow, but if you can afford a 12–18 month runway, this is the kind of arm that sneaks into SP3/4 value with real staying power. Stock up.

Expecting Jonathan Santucci (@DukeBASE) to really explode on both sides of the ball this season. Starter profile, smooth and repeatable operation, already 2 plus pitches (SL/CH) that had an absurd miss rate of > 50%! Will also man RF, has a 60-arm.

Had a great fall offensively. pic.twitter.com/aKwryQk8Gg

— Peter Flaherty III (@PeterGFlaherty) January 2, 2023

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