The Cincinnati Reds just announced that they’ve claimed right handed pitcher Abel De Los Santos from the Washington Nationals. He’s been added to the 40-man roster and has been optioned to Double-A Pensacola.
Abel De Los Santos is a 23-year-old reliever who has spent time in both the Texas Rangers and Washington Nationals organizations. He joined the Nationals in December of 2014 when he was traded, along with another player, for Ross Detwiler.
In 2015 he made his Major League debut with the Nationals, pitching in two games. He threw 1.2 innings, walking one batter and striking out three. According to BrooksBaseball, he averaged 94.6 MPH on his fastball (topping out at 96.7) while also mixing in a change up, slider and curveball.
This season he’s split time between Double-A Harrisburg and Triple-A Syracuse. He’s posted a 3.67 ERA between the two stops in 34.1 innings pitched. On the good side of things he’s allowed just two home runs this year and he’s struck out 39 batters.
On the flip side of things, he’s walked 23 batters this season. He’s never really struggled with the strikezone before 2016, so it’s possibly a blip on the radar. With that said, since the start of the Arizona Fall League last October, he’s walked 13.5% of the batters that he’s faced (26 of 192).
The other concern is that he’s been a pretty extreme fly ball pitcher this year and for his career he’s given up a high rate of fly balls as well. Couple the home ballpark with a guy who walks a lot of batters and it’s not a good combination. The fly ball issue is less of a worry if he can get back to the guy he was concerning the walks before this season began, but it’s something to keep an eye on in the long run.
Abel De Los Santos Scouting Report
Just a quick, non-detailed scouting report: His fastball works in the low 90’s most night, but can touch 97 every so often. He’s got some deception working for him. He leans on his curveball more than his other offspeed pitches and it’s working in the mid-to-upper 70’s and is mostly an average offering. In my limited viewing of a few outings just now on MiLB.tv, it looks very hittable at times, but was a stronger offering at other times. He also shows a slider and a change up, though neither pitch really shows up too often.