CHICAGO – Jacksonville University baseball pitcher Tyler Santana signed a free agent contract with the Chicago Cubs, the team announced on Wednesday.
 
Santana, a five-year member of the program, joins the Cubs organization as an undrafted free agent and becomes the 12th former Dolphin currently active in professional baseball.
 
After electing to return for his fifth season after the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign, Santana turned in arguably his best season as a Dolphin. Anchoring the rotation on Friday nights, he started a team-high 15 games. Some of his best performances came down the stretch in helping JU to its run to an ASUN Championship and an NCAA Regional berth. He fired eight innings of three-hit, one-run baseball to lead the way to a 2-1 win over Liberty in the ASUN Baseball Championship, then he appeared for an inning in relief on one day of rest in the Championship Final to close out the victory. He earned Tournament MVP honors for his efforts.
 
His first career complete game came in 2021 in a 1-0 shutout of UCF at home in which he piled up a career-best 10 strikeouts, earning him ASUN Pitcher of the Week honors. He also posted a CG in the NCAA Regional against #1 seed Old Dominion, compiling nine Ks in that outing.
 
He was named ASUN Pitcher of the Week after his first career start as a sophomore in 2018, striking out seven and allowing only one run on two hits in a win over #22 West Virginia. He went on to win 10 games that year, becoming the Dolphins first double-digit game winner on the mound since 2006.
 
Santana set several records at JU in his time in the Green and Gold, and is the all-time leader in career games started (50), strikeouts (285) and is second all-time in innings pitched (328.1).
 
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