2020 Draft Recap: Jays Edition

The usual 40-round Major League Baseball draft that we are so accustomed to was trimmed to five rounds over two days, concluding Thursday night, and was forced to do so in a virtual manner due to the on-going coronavirus complications. The historic, shortened event did not fall short in contributing to some irregular and what seemed at times to be impulsive selections made by teams. One thing is for sure and that is you can almost always count on Major League Baseball for delivering an unpredictable draft in one way or another and Wednesday night proved the Toronto Blue Jays may have been the direct beneficiary of that fact. With arguably the steal of the draft, the Blue Jays selected Austin Martin of Vanderbilt University with the No. 5 pick at the amateur draft on Wednesday.

The versatile Martin, who was ranked #2 on the MLB Prospect List, was served on a golden platter for Ross Atkins and the Toronto Blue Jays at number five Wednesday night. He was announced on draft night as a shortstop, but he has seen significant playing time at second base, as well as centre field in his time at Vanderbilt. The versatility of this youngster in the field is certainly of intrigue to the Blue Jays but on top of that, some scouts are calling him the best pure hitter of the draft. Not to take anything away from the definitive hitting skills of Spencer Torkelson and the Detroit Tigers pick at number one, but the combination of Martins defensive versatility, plate discipline, contact skills, and emerging power make him destined to be a high-end talent in the big leagues.

The 21-year-old batted .368/.474/.532 in his college career at Vanderbilt that saw him take 85 walks, further proving his discipline at the plate. Martin will join, hopefully in the very near future, other coveted young and up-and-coming stars on the Blue Jays like Vlad Guerrero Jr., Cavan Biggio, and Bo Bichette which shows the promise this team possesses moving forward. Turns out Austin and the latter, Bichette, were former teammates growing up, Martin expressed in an interview following his selection on Wednesday night.

“I’m excited about being drafted by the Jays,” Martin said. “What a lot of people don’t know is I’m a former teammate of Bo Bichette when we were younger. It will be cool to get up there with him again.”

For newly appointed Blue Jays head of scouting, Shane Farrell, Wednesdays’ opening round was definitely not one he could have predicted. “We were a little surprised,” Farrell admitted to reporters on Wednesday night. “It really started to shake up at Picks 2 and 3, but we were certainly prepared to make that selection. We identified Austin as high-end talent and we were fortunate enough for him to be still available when we picked.”

Once Martin dropped to number five and the Blue Jays were on the clock, the real key to selecting the star from Vanderbilt became about money. At number five, the suggested bonus for a player is $6.18 million but because Martin was projected to go number two overall he was expecting a much larger bonus in the region of $7.79 million. The Jays, having just over $9.7 million to work with and four picks remaining, had to ultimately decide if

the Scott Boras client was the right choice given the circumstances. I, along with Jays fans, am glad Farrell and GM Ross Atkins pulled the trigger and selected the best player available at position five regardless of allocated funds. In regards to the potential development of that situation, Atkins was quoted as saying, “We were prepared for that. We had worked through that scenario and we felt very good about making the selection. “We were extremely happy that Austin was there”.

After Day 1 of the 2020 Major League Baseball draft, the Toronto Blue Jays could have put their feet up, let the rest of the draft play out without a care in the world after selecting Austin Martin, and still feel like they just won the lottery. Clearly that was not the case as Farrell and Atkins showed up Thursday and bolstered their young, prospect pool by selecting four other college players. It was no shock that many teams like the Blue Jays chose more college players to high-school players with the lack of knowledge/film on the youngsters due to the sudden virus outbreak. The Jays were able to pick C.J. Van Eyk with their second pick at #42, followed by Trent Palmer at #77, Nick Frasso at #106, and Zach Britton at #136 (No, not the former Orioles closer!).

The selection of right-handed pitcher C.J. Van Eyk out of Florida State is somewhat of an underrated pick as many scouts had him potentially going Wednesday in the opening round. The former New York Mets 2017 draft pick has tremendous spin rates, a stat in modern day baseball team’s love, which allowed him to generate a lot of strikeouts in his three years at FSU without having an overpowering fastball. Following Van Eyk, the Blue Jays selected right-hander Trent Palmer out of Jacksonville. Palmer seems like he is just finding his stride as a pitcher and with a couple years in the Jays system he would be poised to join the major league club. The Blue Jays continued to bolster their pitching prospects list with their fourth round pick of Nick Frasso, another right-hander pitcher, out of Loyola Marymount. I feel like this pick at 106 is a great snag for Toronto if Frasso can avoid any more injury setbacks. Before the shutdown, he suffered an elbow/forearm injury which greatly depleted his draft stock, he was originally slated to go in the second round. With their final pick, the Blue Jays added Zach Britton of Louisville which should help add a solid outfield prospect to a thin list in Toronto.

Drafting Austin Martin alone would have made this draft for the Jays an overly successful one, but the ability to add key arms to an already long list of players waiting to make that jump to the big leagues should stir up some chatter in The Six. It’s too bad we can’t see these guys play right away with the sport on hiatus but at least it’s a glimmer of hope into the potential this team has this year and beyond. With Commissioner Rob Manfred saying Wednesday that there is a 100% chance of big league ball this year, it’s exciting to think about what this young, gritty team can accomplish in what will ultimately end up being a significantly shortened season. The draft undoubtedly gave Blue Jays fans something to be excited about with the organization improving immensely this week, but will it be enough to compete with the powerhouses in the AL East?