TinCaps ace Joey Cantillo, who leads the Midwest League in strikeouts and ERA, was promoted today to the High-A Lake Elsinore Storm, taking the place of former TinCap Luis Patino, who was moved to Double-A.

Cantillo has been the best pitcher in the Midwest League since early May. After a couple of tough early season starts, which he said were, "two times where I had never struggled like that before ever in my life", the 19-year-old left-hander began one of the hottest pitching stretches of any TinCap in recent memory. He did not give up more than three runs in any of his last 15 starts with the TinCaps.

In those 15 starts since May 3, Cantillo is 9-1 with a 1.25 ERA and 109 strikeouts with only 18 walks. Overall this season, despite those two rough outings in April, he has a 1.93 ERA with a 128 strikeouts. It hasn't been smoke and mirrors to get there, either. His Fielding Independent Pitching (FIP, a stat that is designed to be the same scale as ERA but take luck out of the equation) is 2.16, the best in the league by more than 3/4 of a run.

“That's the kind of pitcher I can be,” Cantillo said in June, when his hot streak was already in full swing. “More people are seeing what I can do when I'm throwing the ball over the plate and I'm clear-minded and my stuff can take over.

“As good as it's been, I don't think I've always necessarily had my best stuff. There's so much room for improvement.”

Cantillo, a 2017 16th-round pick from Honolulu, Hawaii, won the Midwest League Pitcher of the Week Award three times, the first TinCap to ever win it three times in the same season. He was also the league's Player of the Month in June after posting an absurd 0.36 ERA in four starts with 30 strikeouts and one walk in 25 innings.

The lefty ended his TinCaps tenure on a high note, tossing six no-hit innings against the West Michigan Whitecaps in his final start in Fort Wayne on Sunday. He picked up his third straight victory in that start and the TinCaps will miss being able to almost always pencil in a win when he took the mound.

In his time with Fort Wayne, Cantillo developed his curveball into an out pitch and is now much more confident throwing it with authority than he was at the beginning of the season. He also hit 94 mph with his fastball for the first time, which had been a goal of his. He'll get a few starts with Lake Elsinore before the season comes to a close and then likely open the season there in 2020.

To fill Cantillo's spot on the roster, the Padres are sending 22-year-old right-hander Dylan Coleman to Fort Wayne from rookie ball. Coleman was assigned to Fort Wayne out of college in 2018 and pitched well in 13 appearances, but struggled mightily early this season in Lake Elsinore. He hit 97 mph in college and was 95-96 mph with regularity with the TinCaps, but lost a ton of velocity early this season for unknown reasons.

The 6-foot-5, 215-pound Coleman seems to have found his fastball again in the lower level and struck out 26 there in 19 innings while posting a 2.37 ERA. He'll likely be a reliever with the TinCaps.

dsinn@jg.net