{"id":673540,"date":"2026-04-11T20:54:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T20:54:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/673540\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T20:54:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T20:54:23","slug":"d-backs-add-untapped-potential-with-former-phillies-pitching-prospect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/673540\/","title":{"rendered":"D-backs Add Untapped Potential with Former Phillies Pitching Prospect"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6g\">The Arizona Diamondbacks have made another addition to their minor league ranks.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6j\">According to the D-backs&#8217; transaction log page on MLB.com, Arizona has signed right-handed pitcher Gustavo De La Cruz to a minor league contract, backdated to an April 9 signing date.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6m\">De La Cruz is just 19 years old, and spent his time with the Phillies organization in their Dominican Summer League club. He is now set to join Arizona, likely in the same region of the organization, though that is not yet clear.<\/p>\n<p>Diamondbacks sign former Phillies prospect Gustavo De La Cruz<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/01knyz8w0qyh06na2ar4.jpg\" alt=\"Arizona Diamondbacks spring training cap at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick near Scottsdale on Feb. 20, 2024.\" title=\"Arizona Diamondbacks spring training cap at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick near Scottsdale on Feb. 20, 2024.\" width=\"3000\" height=\"1687\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"6z\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Arizona Diamondbacks spring training cap at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick near Scottsdale on Feb. 20, 2024. | Rob Schumacher\/The Republic \/ USA TODAY NETWORK<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"73\">The Phillies signed De La Cruz as a 17-year-old back in 2024 out of the Dominican Republic. He&#8217;s only pitched 21.1 innings in the DSL thus far in his young career, making four appearances in 2024 and 11 in 2025. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"76\">The 6-foot-3, 165-pound righty has mostly been used as a reliever, but he also did make three starts during the 2025 season. He <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/player\/gustavo-de-la-cruz-828552?stats=career-r-pitching-minors&amp;year=2026\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">owns a 7.17 ERA<\/a> in a very limited sample size due to an immense walk problem. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"79\">Though De La Cruz has 21 strikeouts in his 21.1 career innings, he&#8217;s also issued an astounding 40 walks in that span. He&#8217;s only given up 16 hits (and zero homers) in his limited time in the DSL, but command is clearly an area that needs extreme development.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7c\">As is often the case, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/diamondbacks\/onsi\/arizona-diamondbacks-prospects\/d-backs-sign-ruben-gallego-headline-huge-international-class\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">young international free agents<\/a> can occasionally become eventual hidden gems, though that is nothing of a guarantee. The Diamondbacks clearly saw something in De La Cruz&#8217;s abilities that they felt worthy of taking a flier on.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7f\">Regardless of talent, there is usually an extremely lengthy development pathway for players who are signed as teenagers. There have been exceptional success stories, of course, but results are not realized until years down the road, for the most part. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7i\">It may not end up being a move that amounts to anything, but there may be some untapped potential in De La Cruz. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7l\">It&#8217;s difficult to find exact numbers for De La Cruz in terms of velocity or arsenal, but the D-backs have recently begun to target players with more of an emphasis on velocity and movement in their pitching development \u2014 an<a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/mlb\/diamondbacks\/onsi\/arizona-diamondbacks-news\/d-backs-major-change-pitching-strategy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"> organization-wide shift<\/a> in their approach to internal pitching needs.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7o\">With a command problem like De La Cruz, it&#8217;s likely his stuff is of the high-velocity variety, though radar gun readings can sometimes change in either direction as players develop through the lowest levels of the minors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Arizona Diamondbacks have made another addition to their minor league ranks. According to the D-backs&#8217; transaction log&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2398],"tags":[5,4,415,414,71,4222],"class_list":{"0":"post-673540","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-nationals","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-nationals","11":"tag-washington","12":"tag-washington-nationals","13":"tag-washingtonnationals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116388068132426280","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}