Eulogio Santana was growing frustrated with his only son. It had been more than two years since Edgar Santana graduated high school with honors, earning a partial college scholarship. The plan was for Edgar to become a teacher after spending three years at the university, but he was still unemployed and living with his parents in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.
"I spent two years doing nothing," Edgar recalled. Nothing other than learning how to play baseball. Shortly after completing high school, Santana's cousin, Victor Familia, suggested he try to play the sport. Santana was always supremely athletic at 6-foot-2 with the build of a baseball player.
And he threw hard. Training for young ballplayers in the D.R. typically begins in pre-teen years and many sign at 16 or 17 years old. Eulogio and Santana's mother, Altgracia, knew their son had little chance of even getting signed. Thus began Santana's unprecedented journey from stay-at-home post-high school grad to major league reliever. Now equipped with a high 90s fastball and wipeout slider, Santana has become irreplaceable in the Pirates' bullpen, and he's repaying his parents' faith one pitch at a time.
"They gave me everything I needed," Santana told DKPIttsburghSports.com. "They believed in me."
Eulogio and Altgracia both worked as housekeepers in Puerto Plata, a resort town and trading port located on the northeast coast of the Dominican Republic. They had three children — two girls and one boy — and encouraged each to take their education seriously.
That was never a problem for Edgar and they hoped he would study to become a teacher, yet he wasn't so sure he wanted to stand in front of a classroom for the rest of his life. Baseball was his chance for so much more. He wanted to make enough money so neither of his parents had to clean again. His mother, who worked for a wealthy family, would often feel sick from the cleaning products she used every day.
Edgar was 19 years old the first time he gave pitching a try, and his raw athleticism caught the attention of Nelson Calvo, a trainer of young ballplayers in the region. Calvo showed Santana a four-seam fastball grip, handed him the ball and pulled out a radar gun. The first pitch was 85 mph.
Calvo agreed to teach Santana how to pitch. The two worked together for months and slowly Santana's velocity crept up. Calvo also taught him how to throw a curveball, although Santana could never throw it for a strike. Then came the tryouts. First with the Yankees, then the Nationals and Astros. He had seven total tryouts with the Yankees.
Santana was ready to quit when Calvo contacted Juan Mercado, a scout for the Pirates. Mercado signed Santana following a tryout, but with one catch: Santana had only a few months in the Dominican Summer League to prove himself. If he didn't develop quickly enough, the Pirates would release him.
"You saw the athletic ability right when he showed up," Gera Alvarez, then the Pirates' DSL manager and now the manager for High-A Bradenton, said in a phone interview. "But you saw the chip on his shoulder. The kid had a different mentality than everyone else. That's what stood out, maybe more so than his arm strength. He wanted to prove he could do it."
Santana's career was in jeopardy before it even got started. He suffered a shoulder injury days before the season began, preventing him from pitching the first two weeks of the season. With over 60 teenagers on the roster — many with higher signing bonuses and upside, at least in scouts' eyes — playing time was hard to come by, even if Santana was healthy.
Once the shoulder healed, it was time to teach him how to pitch. Jairo Cuevas, the pitching coach at the Pirates' Dominican academy, told Santana to ditch the curveball and showed him how to throw a slider. Santana agreed to give it a try but he couldn't throw the pitch for a strike.
"'Are you sure this is such a good idea?'" Santana recalled asking Cuevas. His fastball was intriguing but he still couldn't get into a game. So, Santana called Mercado to express his frustrations. Mercado then phoned Alvarez to encourage him to at least give Santana a look. After all, Santana was already 22 and this would be his only summer in the academy.
"They kind of forgot about me a little bit," Santana said. "I knew I was older than everyone else. ... They just think about how they’re young and have time, ‘I can do this, I can do that.’ I couldn't have that same mentality. I knew I had to do something different because I didn’t have that same opportunity."
Santana pitched only twice during the first three weeks of the season, not allowing a run or a hit. His break came when Luis Silverio, the Pirates' senior advisor for Latin American operations, flew to the D.R. and asked to see Santana pitch. Santana entered with one on and one out in the seventh, and proceeded to strike out two batters while pitching 1 2/3 scoreless innings.
Although Santana threw only nine more times that summer, he finished with 11 strikeouts to three walks, while better commanding his overwhelming fastball. It earned him a visa to the United States, too. Santana was told he'd be headed to Bradenton the following spring, rather than sitting in a classroom preparing for another career.
"Edgar was fortunate enough to get that opportunity," Alvarez said. "I know talking to him down in the D.R., he was kind of worried. Being an older sign, not pitching as much in the D.R. I remember encouraging him and telling him to stay in there. We have a plan in there. The opportunity to come over to the states and showing off what he had. That’s when he started impressing people."
Santana posted a 1.08 WHIP with 48 strikeouts to nine walks between short-season and low-A West Virginia in 2015 and climbed three levels the following season, finishing with 16 innings at Triple-A. His slider was regarded as one of the best breaking pitches in the Pirates' system.
He was then named an All-Star in the Arizona Fall League after throwing 13 2/3 scoreless innings and captured the attention of the major league staff at spring training in 2017. Santana made his major league debut against the Marlins last June, striking out two batters and allowing one run in one inning.
Although he was returned to Triple-A July 3, he finished the regular season on the Pirates' 25-man roster, stranding all six of his inherited runners while holding right-handers to a .154 batting average. Still, Santana thought he lacked confidence during those 18 innings in the big leagues. He was timid on the mound, fearful every pitch would result in a home run. He got his mojo back where his baseball career began — on a ball field back in Puerto Plata.
"I just don’t worry anymore," he said. "I play a little softball in the offseason, and it’s supposed to be easy to hit because the ball is so big. Sometimes I swing and miss or I hit fly balls. One time, I said to myself, 'Come on, man, it’s hard to hit even when it’s a softball, so stop giving too much credit to the hitters.'"
He's no longer afraid to throw his fastball up in the zone, or to challenge hitters with his slider. Santana, now 26, is among Clint Hurdle's most trusted late-inning relievers and has not allowed an earned run in nine innings this month. He has a 3.14 ERA and 1.00 WHIP with 39 strikeouts — 31 by his slider alone — to five walks in 43 innings.
"He doesn’t have a lot of experiences to draw back to like maybe some other relievers do," Hurdle said. "We have some young men out there who don’t, but him in particular. He started pitching so late and he moved through our organization rather quickly. It’s not like he closed anywhere for an entire year, or pitched in those kind of innings he’s getting here anywhere."
Santana has proven to himself he belongs. More important to him, he's making enough to support his family. His mother is no longer working as a housekeeper. Instead, she's following her son's unprecedented career.
"I don’t know what I would have done if this didn't happen," Santana said. "Probably the same as my dad. Housekeeping or something. Now, I can provide for them."
