Jonathan Santucci added another honor to a breakout season after the Mets' top pitching prospect led all of Minor League Baseball in strikeouts.
Jonathan Santucci has another accomplishment to add to a breakout season that has pushed him toward the top of the New York Mets farm system.
The left-hander was named a 2026 Double-A Eastern League All-Star on Monday after a dominant run with the Binghamton Rumble Ponies.
And that wasn't the only distinction Santucci earned this year.
The 23-year-old finished the season with 163 strikeouts between Double-A Binghamton and Triple-A Syracuse, the most of any pitcher in Minor League Baseball.
Santucci made 19 starts for Binghamton before his July 28 promotion to Syracuse, posting a 3.57 ERA with 120 strikeouts in 90 2/3 innings. Opponents hit just .213 against him.
At the time of his promotion, Santucci led the Eastern League in strikeouts and opponent batting average while ranking third in ERA and WHIP.
He continued missing bats after reaching Triple-A, recording another 43 strikeouts over 34 1/3 innings in eight starts.
There were some growing pains. Santucci posted a 5.24 ERA and walked 21 batters with Syracuse. But his ability to generate strikeouts followed him to the highest level of the minors.
Overall, Santucci finished with a 4.03 ERA over 125 innings across the two levels.
His strikeout crown also continued an impressive run for Mets pitching prospects.
Jonah Tong led all minor-league pitchers with 179 strikeouts last season before eventually reaching the majors. Tong is now back in the Mets' rotation after spending much of this season with Syracuse.
Santucci, a second-round pick out of Duke in the 2024 MLB Draft, has followed a similar climb through the organization.
The Mets named him their Minor League Pitcher of the Year earlier this month, and MLB Pipeline now ranks him as the organization's No. 2 prospect.
Santucci was among the prospects highlighted recently as new talent reshaped the organization's upper minor-league affiliates.
Now he finishes 2026 with an Eastern League All-Star selection, an organizational Pitcher of the Year award and more strikeouts than any pitcher in the minor leagues.
The next question is how soon that rise could take him to Citi Field.
