18 BF, 73 pitches, 64% strikes
Aracena’s introduction to A ball at the end of last season caught my eye enough to throw him out as my Mets’ B‑Side choice for 2025. At the time, a teenager touching 100 mph with the micro-sized archive sample showing something other than an arm with the ballooned walk rates he put up previously. Last night was Aracena’s best showing as a pro, marking the deepest he’d gone into a game, the most pitches thrown, the highest strike% of 2025, and a career high 10 strikeouts. I imagine he’d not struck out 8 batters in a row before either. Here’s his work as a pro and said outing:
Aracena’s arsenal can blend to the point Savant has a hard time. The one changeup said to be thrown was not a changeup, although I did spy a try at something looking splitter-esque (50 sec mark) that got marked an 88 mph cutter, which is off. Looking at his Savant sample, he may be trying to develop an off-speed pitch, but we digress.
Aracena gives me some early Justin Martinez vibes with a lively fastball seeming to have natural cut to it, and there were/are times Savant had/has a hard time discerning between the two. The cutter and slider may blend as well. But there’s more distinction showing of late. You can spy a distinct sign for a cutter, and the shapes and speeds between it, firmer four-seamer, and slower slider show more to the eye than last season. Here’s Aracena’s pitch mix according to Savant, 2024 first, followed by this season:
The cutter and curveball look like the two offerings taking the biggest strides here. I had questioned if any sort of spin game would ever happen, and he’s flashing a feel for it. There was very little feel in our small 2024 look. He may have spiked every attempt at a curveball then. Now he’s showing vertical depth to the firm curveball, even sitting hitters down with it. This has happened relatively quickly, and he’s getting great results of late:
Wondering if the cutter usage has been up like it was this outing, here’s the pitch mix over his last three:
Another rare starting (or piggybacking-type) 0%er who sits high 90s, there’s at least an interesting watchlist guy here. The obvious money would be on Aracena relieving long term, but strides are being made, and the Mets, understandably so, seem into giving length to Aracena’s outings a go. This young, electric arm has cut a chunk of the mustang out of his game, flashing sophistication to the tools and attack. Aracena’s still a bit feral, but more results like last night, and he’s going to get deep leaguers taking a speculative stab at a low/no cost, high-hopes payoff here. The way Met’s arms are taking steps forward these days, it will be fun to see how advanced young Wellington can get. He’s learned things over the last 8 months and should have plenty of 2025 developmental innings ahead.
Return to muddylooks.com home