Jarlin Susana looked every bit like the arm the Nationals have been waiting on in his Arizona Fall League debut.
The 6-foot-6 right-hander opened the Salt River Rafters’ season against the Glendale Desert Dogs and flashed the same overpowering stuff that has made him one of the most electric young pitchers in the system. He also showed the other side of the package: the early-command hiccup that has followed him for much of the past two seasons.
Susana, MLB’s No. 66 prospect and Washington’s No. 4 prospect, was loose at the start and paid for it. In his first inning, he needed 26 pitches to get through the frame, only 12 of them strikes. He threw five straight balls, issued two walks and still managed to punch out two hitters.
Once he settled in, though, the outing turned into a reminder of why the Nationals are not looking at him as a bullpen-only option. Over the rest of his 3 1/3-inning start, Susana needed just 29 pitches, with 21 going for strikes. He allowed one hit, walked two overall and struck out four.
“I felt good,” Susana said. “I was a little uncomfortable at the beginning with the heat, but everything went well.
“It happens at the beginning, first inning of the Fall League. I had to readjust and started throwing strikes after that.
It was mental. I just think about what I’m doing wrong and then I fix it on the mound.”
The fastball was exactly what you’d expect from Susana. He mixed in sinkers with his four-seamer and averaged about 101.6 mph with the heater.
Of his 36 fastballs, all but one came in at least 100 mph, and the pitch topped out at 103.8 mph, according to Statcast. He generated five swings and misses with the pitch, picked up three called strikes and got two of his strikeouts with the fastball.
Susana wasn’t just leaning on power, either. He also turned to a slider 19 times, and that pitch brought four whiffs, four called strikes and his other two strikeouts. The breaker sat around 86 mph with a spin rate close to 2,900 rpm.
“I felt good with [the slider],” he said. “I felt like it was good in the zone. Sometimes I throw it just to find my fastball.”
For a pitcher who did not throw a competitive pitch this year until Aug. 11, the ability to settle down after that rough opening inning matters. It was only the second time all year he pitched into the fourth inning, and it followed two scoreless frames in the Triple-A National Championship Game exactly one week earlier.
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