Wellington Aracena Prospect Report
Wellington Aracena is a 6'3", 180 pound 20 year old right handed pitcher out of the DR. He signed with the Mets in 2022 just after his 17th birthday as an Undrafted Free Agent. Aracena mainly uses his three pitch arsenal of his 4-seam, cutter, and slider (but he has added a changeup and curveball that he is currently working on). In 2024 he put up 40 2/3 innings across single A and rookie ball. He had a 27% K rate and a 20% walk rate with a 55% thrown strike rate. He had a 34% whiff rate and 25% chase rate, but most impressively his opposing batters had a .262 xwOBA, .205 xSLG and he ranked in the 88th percentile of exit velos averaging 82 mph with a hard hit rate of 28%. Aracena had a subpar ERA at 7.30, but I don't think that is the full story.
His overall stuff+ was at 104 with his 4-seam being at 110. Since then in 2025 he has made a lot of adjustments. His fastball velocity increased about 4-5 mph since 2023 where he sits around 97 and tops out at 101. He also increased his cutter’s velo from 87 to 93 mph as well as his slider from 85 to 88 mph. He also added a curveball and changeup to his arsenal, but only uses them around 7 and 3 percent of the time respectively.
His command looks better jumping up to over 60% of his pitches being strikes. Through 55 2/3 innings in single A he is striking out batters 32% of the time, while only walking them 14% of them. This is a massive jump in production from last season and continues to show it as he brings in a 38% whiff rate and 28% chase rate. He is also holding his opponents to a xwOBA of .242 and a xSLG of .214. Opposing batters are averaging 86 mph off the bat with a 27% hard hit rate and a .497 OPS all while pitching to a 2.75 ERA. His stuff plus jumped to an average of 106 with his fastball being at 106 and cutter at 105 ( his most used pitches this year).
The movement on his pitches is beautiful, with 4 inches of armside run on his 4 seam, 2 inches of gloveside on his cutter, 3.6 inches of gloveside run on his slider, and 13 inches of armside run on his changeup. His curveball has 8 inches of induced break and 2800 rpm.
Wellington Aracena controls the tempo well and loves to keep a fast pace, everything he does is fast. He loves to throw hard with maximum effort and keep batters on their toes. One big problem I see with Aracena is his command, but another is his release point. He ranges from 44 to 81 degrees in release angle, averaging at 64 degrees. This could be a huge problem as he move up in the pipeline and sees better competition, batters will catch on. His release point for all of his pitches are very spread out and will lead to him tipping his pitches if he continues to do so.
If he can control his pitches better and tighten up his release point I think Aracena can be a good big league pitcher; whether in the bullpen or as a starter. I've seen a big jump in production and pitch quality from Aracena and hope he can continue this. As he grows into his frame more, I expect him to increase his velocity a little and be able to control his pitches better. His pitches are absolutely electric, I just need to see him be able to control them and put it together.
Wellington Full Game Pitching Video 06/21/2025:
5 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 8 K, 2 BB