The Toronto Blue Jays called up outfielder Anthony Alford on Friday. What kind of player is he, and what can Jays fans expect?
Player Profile
The Toronto Blue Jays selected Anthony Alford in the third round of the 2012 draft out of high school in Mississippi. A strong commitment to playing college football led to many teams passing on Alford, in spite of his immense raw tools.
Alford started his college football career at Southern Mississippi, ending up at the University of Mississippi before he finally decided to concentrate full-time on baseball in 2015.
He opened his draft season with a brief five-game audition with the Blue Jays GCL team. He returned there in 2013 for a six-game period, each just a bit of game action before he had to get to fall practice for football. Combined between the two seasons, he hit .200/.340/.375 with two doubles, a triple, a home run and six stolen bases over 50 plate appearances, with a 16 percent walk rate and 20 percent strikeout rate.
In 2014, Alford made the move to the advanced rookie Appalachian League, and the Blue Jays got him to their Midwest League team in Lansing after just nine games of advanced rookie ball. In total, he had 60 plate appearances, hitting .259/.333/.389 with two home runs and five stolen bases, posting an 8.33 percent walk rate and a 35 percent strikeout rate.
After the 2014 football season, Alford knew that he was making the move to full-time baseball in 2015, and the Blue Jays had him attend the Australian League over the winter, where Alford hit .298/.398/.421 with three home runs and seven stolen bases in 36 games, posting an 11.18 percent walk rate and 29.61 percent strikeout rate.
Alford’s first full season was a mixed bag of bright spots and raw tools still needing refinement as he opened with low-A Lansing in the Midwest League and finished the year with Dunedin in the high-A Florida State League.
His totals on the year were .298/.398/.421 with 25 doubles, seven triples, four home runs and 27 stolen bases, posting a 13.76 percent walk rate and a 22.38 percent strikeout rate.
His big first season got notice by the national prospect rankers as well. Alford jumped all the way to the #25 overall prospect in Baseball America’s offseason list, #42 in MLB Pipeline’s list and #44 in Baseball Prospectus’ list.
Alford spent his entire 2016 in Dunedin, due to a mix of injury and poor performance. His final line on the season was .236/.344/.378 with nine home runs and 18 stolen bases. He also posted a 13.22 percent walk rate and 29.18 percent strikeout rate.
Toronto sent Alford to the Arizona Fall League, where he performed much better, hitting .253/.349/.440 over 23 games with three home runs and eight stolen bases, posting a 12.79 percent walk rate and 27.91 percent strikeout rate.
His struggles backed off his rankings, though he still made the three national lists, ranking #59 with BA, #70 with Pipeline and #93 with BA coming into the 2017 season.
Alford was ranked #59 in the Call to the Pen Top 125 in January with one of the highest variances in opinion from scouts I talked to of any player on the list.
In 2017, Alford has done nothing but rake. With AA New Hampshire, he’s hit .325/.411/.455, posting three home runs and nine stolen bases, with an 11.35 percent walk rate and 17.02 percent strikeout rate in 33 games before his promotion.
Next: Alford's scouting report