Though in the midst of a rebuild, the Toronto Blue Jays have some elite talent that should break through quickly.
We are in our third offseason at Call to the Pen of putting together top 10 prospect lists for every organization in baseball. Today’s list is the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Process
Our team prospect lists are compiled by Benjamin Chase, who has spent time doing plenty of watching via MiLB.tv of every organization in baseball along with talking to a very wide array of scouts who have seen players in person to hone his own opinion on players. That allows for a wide coverage on players from the Dominican Summer League all the way to the major leagues.
These lists are the opinion of Ben, and his process is heavily weighted on his own view, but also on trusted views of others. Typically, each system’s list of 10 is peeled down from a consideration list of 50-75 players. There will be some weight given to a player who is closer to the major leagues, but often these opinions will be different than some of the “major” lists out there. Feel free to comment at the end of the list with any questions you may have!
With that out of the way, let’s dig into today’s list:
Toronto Blue Jays system review
Blue Jays list for 2017
Blue Jays list for 2018
Blue Jays 2018 minors all-stars
After sitting in an odd position for a couple of seasons, where there was enough talent to compete but not enough to really break through to that upper echelon of competing for a World Series title, the Toronto Blue Jays chose to tear things down. Out went star names like Josh Donaldson and Troy Tulowitzki who had struggled to produce on the field for the last two seasons.
In comes a wave of young prospects that will quickly energize the Jays fan base. Already one of the top prospects on the list got his first taste of the big leagues, and he showed so well that the team was comfortable moving veteran Russell Martin to open up the catching position. Add in the top prospect in the game along with multiple prospects in the top 100, and the Blue Jays are set up well, it would appear.
However, what should really excite Toronto Blue Jays fans is that among many I’ve spoken with, and in my own personal opinion, the lower levels (below full-season ball) of the Toronto system are among the 2-3 most talented collections of players at that level of any organization in baseball.
Let’s start with the countdown, starting with a player that fell outside of the top 10, but was picked up in 2018 via the draft or international signing and is worthy of extra attention going into 2019…