Tony Santillan will be taking the mound on Sunday for the Cincinnati Reds. The 2015 2nd round draft pick will be making his Major League debut against the Colorado Rockies as he steps into the rotation to fill the spot vacated by right-handed starter Sonny Gray as he recovers from a right groin strain.
After pitching at the alternate site in 2020, the Reds promoted Tony Santillan to Triple-A Louisville this year when the minor league season began on May 4th. The recently turned 24-year-old came out of the gate with 4.0 innings of 1-unearned run baseball, no walks, and he struck out seven batters against Columbus. He hasn’t really looked back since. In his last start he faced off against the St. Paul Saints and set a career high as he struck out 13 batters in the game over 7.0 innings with two runs allowed. On his second to last pitch of the game, pitch 110, he hit 98 MPH with his fastball after sitting in the 95-97 MPH range all game.
On the season he’s made six starts for the Bats and he’s posted a 1-3 record with a 2.51 ERA. In his 32.1 innings pitched he’s allowed just 23 hits – 5 home runs – and walked 12 batters to go along with 45 strikeouts of the 131 hitters that he’s faced. His 45 strikeouts currently lead the Triple-A East.
Tony Santillan Scouting Report
Fastball | The pitch has been working in the 94-96 MPH range this season and he’s touched 98 at times.
Slider | A plus offering, the pitch works in the mid-to-upper 80’s.
Change Up | An inconsistent pitch that works in the mid-to-upper 80’s. At times it’s a quality offering, but at other times it can be a below-average pitch.
In the past we’ve seen Tony Santillan battle with consistency. In 2018 he took a big step forward, particularly with his control. But in 2019 he battled through some injuries while pitching in Double-A Chattanooga and never found a rhythm. This year he’s resembled a better version of the guy he was in 2018 when he truly breaking out.
Video from the Louisville Bats
What to expect
You never know what you’re going to get until you get it – and that’s particularly true when guys are coming up from the minor leagues. Sometimes things go just as you would have hoped for, but sometimes they don’t.
If Tony Santillan shows up and looks like the guy that should be expected based on what he’s done in the minor leagues this season, look for a pitcher who is mostly fastball and slider with a few change ups mixed in. He tends to throw strikes, but it’s more in the zone than commanding the strikezone.
While Santillan does tends to be more of a fly ball than groundball pitcher, it’s not extreme. The one area that has been extreme this season has been his splits. He’s dominated right-handed hitters this year, holding them to a .147/.205/.221 line across 73 plate appearances this year. Lefties have been an interesting split. He’s struck out an impressive 35% of the ones he’s faced this year. But he’s also walked 12% of the lefties he’s faced and while they haven’t made a lot of contact, when they have, it’s been for plenty of power as they are hitting .255/.345/.608 against him in 58 plate appearances this season.
What to expect?….how about a no hitter.
He is going to pitch….do his best…and be at the mercy of only getting 1 run if support because they had 11 yesterday…..pattern
I like that his fastball is at 95-96. What I really like is that he can rear back and hit 98 when he needs too. That shows me he is pitching and not throwing. Doesnt need to show the other team his “stuff” until he needs to punch somebody out. I hope he does well because this team needs its prospects to start showing up. This team has had trouble growing it’s own pitching but with Greene,lodolo,Mahle, Santillan , Guitterez and hopefully others to come , they can turn the corner.
It takes a lot of effort to do anything that’s meaningful, and that certainly applies to making it to a major league team. I wish Santillan well in his debut.
What to expect?
IF HE DOES WELL TODAY, folks on here will say he should have been up the whole time, and this organization doesn’t know what they’re doing… because the commentators on Redleg Nation know better.
IF HE GETS SHELLED TODAY….
This organization doesn’t know what they’re doing and can’t develop talent… because the commentators on Redleg Nation know better.
He’s not pitching today. So there’s that.
And also this is going to be the last time I ask – you need to use a different user name. Using player names is not allowed.
And if that’s my name???
#2…. when did you say it before? First I’ve seen it after 20 posts
#3 …. where are all the rules posted?
The odds that it’s your name are slim and none.
The rules have been posted since long before I took over. The Guidelines are here and have been for 7.5 years – https://www.redlegnation.com/about/ (in the navigation bar under “site info”). The identification section is relevant here – not necessarily that anyone believes you are actually trying to claim to be Corky Miller, the former big leaguer and current Reds catching coordinator in the farm system, but it’s confusing to people who may think that you are (you’d be surprised by how many emails we get about things from people who believe we are actually the Cincinnati Reds website).
You can tell just how old these rules are given that whoever wrote them mentions AOL and AT&T Worldnet as being problematic email address providers that could lead to your comments being flagged as spam. These rules aren’t new.
#2 – I’ve seen it at least once or twice
#3 – Doesn’t really matter if/where they are posted. It’s Doug’s site and he let you know the ground rules.
You beat me to it.
Actually been using this account for years, before you took over the site. I just don’t post very often.
I just enjoy the comments and rarely read the articles. That said I have never bashed a single player or broken any other of the long list of “guidelines.”
I’ve seen plenty of threats to others for posts you just don’t like. So since you just want everyone to agree with you, or tell you how wonderful you are… I’ll stop coming to the Doug Gray fan club.
Threats over posts I just don’t like? Yeah, if they involve cursing or excessive, unnecessary negativity, yeah I’m going to chime in and say stop doing that. Both things violate the site commenting guidelines that have been posted for at least the last 7.5 years (maybe longer but they were on a different page that no longer exists because that one was then created by whoever was in charge of that at the time).
Also, if you had used an actual email address, I would have simply emailed you about the name. But since you don’t, I can’t do that and had to reply to your comments about it multiple times hoping that you would see it.
Sidenote: I am wonderful. The amount of people that tell me that are far outnumbered by the people who tell me I’m a moron. I need to look into this fanclub, though. I can make a mean chocolate chip cookie to bring to the meetings.
Wait a minute… So now you’re telling me he isnt the real Corky Miller and that you have meetings and chocolate chip cookies? Always the last to know..
Hope he spins a gem!
I still dont understand why they didnt call up another player for yesterday and todays game. Was a sensible reason ever given anywhere that i missed?
I thought they called up Warren for the bullpen when Gray went down, Am i mistaken?
They did. But they also played with 25 guys on the roster yesterday for no good reason. Could have called up a reliever given that the bullpen sucks and lost their only reliable reliever to the IL yesterday.
If we use player number 26 we are in trouble anyway.
I say bring Greene up next STL series. Let him plink about a dozen of them with 105 heaters. That should even things up a bit.
Of all the terrible ideas I read on here…I really like this one best I think. I would definitely buy tickets for this event.
Nick Howard has been a beast in Nooga, why is it not getting a look for the Red’s bullpen?
Protocol this year doesn’t allow direct from AA
Probably because he hasnt had alot of success and the Reds are going to bring him along slowly . AA ball is aling way from the majors. I’m just glad he is competing and doing well.
I agree about AA being along way away from the MLB. I think he should get promoted to AAA. If he were young, I’d have a different perspective, but he’s a 28 never made it before project. Let’s see if he adapts to AAA, or if it’s time to move onto a better prospect for the Reds to develop.
And the jump to AA let alone finding success there is considered the most difficult in the minors. That with as pointed out, a careful approach. Honestly, I’m just happy for his success.
Doug:
No need to comment on this and I am not trying to tell you how to run your business but I suggest you should charge a one payment fee ($10/season?) for everyone to have the ability to post on this site. There are 3 articles per day that covers each game and probably about 200 posts on average. Your content is well worth it and it is disappointing that you have to spend your time policing that “Corky” guy and others while also giving a free ride to all the other people who have no interest in minor league paid content. I have no other option (that I can find) to contribute to your effort. If anyone can’t agree to pay that, then they either aren’t interested in posting or just as cheap as the ownership of this team. I state that this is solely my opinion and if there is backlash to this proposal, then I’ll stop posting and leave the site if necessary to keep the integrity of RLN intact. This site is so much better than the others which are completely unprofessional or just self-serving BL refuse, if you know what I mean.
Signed;
DataDumpster
(because the team could do so much better without him as the manager.)