Marino Santy – Pic by Stephanie Lynn
One of the bright spots on the Myrtle Beach pitching staff last year was lefty Marino Santy. The 21-year-old lefty out of Santo Domingo in the Dominican threw 75 innings as both a reliever and a starter for the Pelicans. He struck out 100 batters and had a 3.12 ERA. Yet, not many people are talking about him, but they should.
Santy began 2023 in the bullpen and flashed a plus curve right off the bat. For the month of April he had a 2.25 ERA. In four appearances, over a total of 12 innings, he struck out 17 and opponents only hit .143 against him. When May came around, Santy found himself in the rotation.
It was not the smoothest of transitions.
Santy had a 4.63 ERA in 11.2 innings in May. He struck out 17, but he also walked 11. As well opponents only hit .214 against him. Most of that damage came in just four innings where he gave up six runs. The rest of the month was great!
In June, things got a little better with a 4.26 ERA but he did not begin to put things together until July when things began to click. He had a 3.09 ERA in July and his batting average against it was a miniscule .077. Yes, you read that right! He had two consecutive starts in which he did not allow a hit. If he had not given up four runs in 2.2 innings in his first start of the month, he probably would’ve been pitcher of the month.
Still, the Pelicans did skip a start with him as they did manage his innings quite a bit down the stretch. In August. Santy got in 13.2 winnings worth of work with a 2.63 ERA.
September was purely righteous as he made two starts that saw him get in seven innings of work while striking out 12 batters. He did not allow run in either start as he gave up just five hits in those seven frames.
As with any pitcher transitioning to throwing over the course of a full season, the Cubs did carefully manage his workload to get him to 75 innings, which is more than he threw in his first two years combined. Santy should be all set for 100 innings this year at South Bend. It’s going to be a competitive spring training as there is a little backlog of pitching between South Bend and Tennessee. He may end up piggybacking to begin the year before he gets his own rotation spot.
What makes Santy so special is he is so hard to hit. He just has the nastiest curveball And it might be the nastiest in the system. He will be 22 in March and I’ll be curious to see whether the Cubs keep him as a starter or turn him into a power arm out of the bullpen to get him to move a little faster. With a dearth of left-handed relievers in the system, Santi could raise his stock quite a bit in just one summer. However, the Cubs could be willing to let this starter thing play out this summer and then go from there.
