Cleveland Guardians Top 30 Prospects: #17 Joey Cantillo

If you all will allow me, I'd like to let my homer bias show for a moment. When we broke into the top 20 with Petey Halpin I'd talked about how skill gaps among Cleveland's prospects would start to be more apparent. Not only that but from here on out my personal excitement level for each prospect is elevated significantly. It's a combination of "there's a lot of players close to contributing at the Major League level" and "Cleveland's farm is healthy enough that their 11-17 ranked prospects could make top 10 lists for other teams across the league."I left it somewhat vague for a reason, I don't think all of them would take over every system's top 10, but there are instances where I think Cleveland's number 17 could be another club's nine or 10. For now though, let's turn our attention to my 17th-ranked Guardians prospect who the club actually acquired via trade in 2020 as part of the return package for Mike Clevinger.Joey Cantillo is my 17th ranked Guardians prospect, a 6 foot 4 inches 225-pound left-handed pitcher drafted by the San Diego Padres in the 16th round of the 2017 MLB draft from high school in Hawaii. Cantillo, 23, has climbed as high as Double-A in parts of four Minor League seasons. There have been some injury concerns for Cantillo, including a shoulder injury that ended his 2022 season, but more on that later. Let's first look at his repertoire and his time as a professional so far.Cantillo arrived in Cleveland as a soft-throwing southpaw featuring a fastball that sat in the mid-to-high 80s and struggled to touch 90. The pitch played up, however, missing more bats than expected despite the lower velocity. He also features a plus curveball with a deep 12-6 shape, a plus changeup, and the cutter/slider hybrid Cleveland's development staff has worked to teach the likes of Tanner Burns and Cody Morris among others. Cantillo idolizes Los Angeles Dodgers legend Clayton Kershaw, and his mechanics are reminiscent of Kershaw's, albeit a little quicker and shorter to the plate.After joining the Guardians organization and spending two full seasons working with the coaching staff Cantillo has managed to add muscle to his frame, and with the help of some unorthodox training has raised his fastball velocity from struggling to reach 90 to sitting 91-95 and has touched 97. Read that again. Yeah. The extra velocity translated well to Cantillo's healthy 60.2 innings in 2022, maintaining full control of his arsenal the entire time. It's believed the shoulder injury that shut Cantillo down for 2022 was due to his body adjusting to throwing harder, but neither he nor the team seem overly concerned by it.[embed]https://twitter.com/Official_CGBI/status/1592561932409585665?s=20&t=zxYIfSDopBhhwtegWOh1rw[/embed]Cantillo appeared in 14 games for the Rubberducks in 2022, notching 13 starts while compiling a 4-3 record with a 1.93 ERA, 28 walks (11.4%), 87 strikeouts (35.5%), a 1.09 WHIP and 2.51 FIP. Through all of that, he held opponents to a .178 batting average against and surrendered just two home runs. In fact, even before the velocity jump, Cantillo excelled at keeping the ball in the yard allowing just seven total home runs in 242.1 professional innings, a miniscule 0.3 HR/9. Overall Cantillo has a career 2.38 ERA in 62 games (47 starts) in the Minor Leagues spanning rookie ball to Double-A.[embed]https://twitter.com/JL_Baseball/status/1537242423516360704?s=20&t=zxYIfSDopBhhwtegWOh1rw[/embed]Cantillo was my "best-kept secret" pitching prospect in the Guardians organization for a brief time, but what he flashed in 2022 is hardly a secret anymore. He can still get lost in the shuffle of the likes of Daniel Espino, Gavin Williams and Tanner Bibee, but Cantillo proved enough to the organization to be added to the club's 40-man roster this winter. Next steps for Cantillo involve competing for a spot in the Triple-A rotation during Spring Training and focusing on staying healthy for more than 60 innings. If Cantillo can avoid any setbacks he'll make headlines in the upper minors, all while just a phone call away from The Show.The List so Far:18. Juan Brito19. Nate Furman20. Petey Halpin21. Will Benson22. Doug Nikhazy23. Tanner Burns24. Joe Lampe25. Isaiah Greene26. Jake Fox27. Jhonkensy Noel28. Jack Leftwich29. Trenton Denholm30. Peyton Battenfield