Who is Slade Cecconi? Diamondbacks' young pitching prospect makes MLB Debut

Slade Cecconi, a right-handed pitching prospect, was chosen by the Arizona Diamondbacks from Triple-A Reno to start against the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday.

According to FanGraphs and MLB Pipeline, Cecconi is the D-backs' No. 7 and No. 9 prospect, respectively.

Slade Cecconi is bringing the juice early Cecconi has struck out and allowed it through innings. - Aces

On June 24, 1999, Slade Cecconi was born in Oviedo, Florida. Cecconi played baseball for Trinity Preparatory School in Winter Park, Florida. He agreed to a $2.384 million bonus when he signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks on July 10, 2020.

Due to the pandemic's postponement of the minor league season, he did not participate in a minor league game in 2020. He was later assigned to the West League's Hillsboro Hops to start the 2021 campaign.

Coop was just in a silly goofy mood 🤪#happythanksgivng - slade_cecconi

Slade Cecconi's baseball career

The 24-year-old was selected with the No. 33 pick in the competitive balance round of the 2020 MLB Draft. After pitching in the Arizona Fall League, he advanced to Double-A Amarillo in 2022, and this past spring Slade was invited to major league camp as a non-roster player.

Back to working the night shift.. - slade_cecconi

For the 2022 season, he was sent to the Double-A Texas League's Amarillo Sod Poodles. Cecconi had a 7-6 record, a 4.37 ERA, 127 strikeouts over 129+3-3 innings, and 25 starts. Cecconi was assigned to the Triple-A Reno Aces of the Pacific Coast League to begin the 2023 campaign.

He has spent the entire season with Reno, where after 103 innings, he has a 6.38 ERA. He is walking 2.53 times and striking out 9.09 opponents per nine innings.

Officially an Arizona Diamondback!! Thank you to everyone who has helped and supported me throughout this process, can’t wait to get to work! #RattleOn @Dbacks - slade_cecconi

His ERA has been slowly dropping every month; in five starts in July, he had a 4.60 ERA with 22 strikeouts and three walks over 29.1 innings. Last time out, Cecconi pitched seven innings of two-run ball while striking out five batters.

With 2.01 home runs per nine innings this season in hitter-friendly Reno, he has had trouble with the long ball, which has significantly raised his ERA.