The Cincinnati Reds signed left handed pitcher Jacob Constante out of the Dominican Republic as an 18-year-old in February of 2013 for $730,000. That’s a large amount of money for a player who signed later in the signing period, as most players who get larger bonuses are signed, sealed and delivered by the end of July.
When he signed he was sitting 92-94 MPH, which is above-average and bordering on plus velocity for a left hander. When you added in the movement that the pitch had it could certainly have been graded as a plus offering. He also showed a good slider that showed and a below-average change up.
Jacob Constante spent his entire first season in the Dominican Summer League where he dominated younger hitters with his raw stuff. The next year he was in Arizona with the AZL Reds and he had some more struggles, but his peripherals were good as he lowered his walk rate from the year before.In 2015 he pitched for the Billings Mustangs and was solid, but his second half was much better than the first half of his season.
This season he is in the rotation with the Dayton Dragons. The 22-year-old left hander has struggled, posting a 5.47 ERA in 49.1 innings with 28 walks and 37 strikeouts. He has allowed just one home run thanks to a very high groundball rate of 62%. The walk rate is way higher than you would like to see and his strikeout rate has dropped for the third consecutive year.
Jacob Constante Scouting Report
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Fastball | Despite throwing 92-94 MPH when he signed, and not having suffered an injury, the left hander has watched his velocity fall every year since signing. In 2016 he’s throwing in the 86-88 MPH range and will touch 90 every so often.
Slider | The pitch is still his go-to offering and is working in the mid-to-upper 70’s. It’s inconsistent, but when it’s at it’s best it’s still an above-average offering. At times though it still gets loopy instead of showing the tighter action that it shows at it’s best.
Change Up | It’s improved over the past few years, but it’s still not a pitch he uses too often. The pitch shows solid late sinking action. It’s a fringe-average offering these days.
The big issue here is that his velocity simply isn’t enough. No one seems to know why he’s lost so much velocity – he’s suffered no injury, his mechanics haven’t changed – he’s simply losing velocity every year. His control hasn’t improved as the team expected when they signed him. His saving grace right now is that he’s still generating huge groundball rates.
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