TORONTO – Strategically, this is going to be a different draft for the Toronto Blue Jays, whose first pick is at No. 29 and whose signing bonus pool is the seventh smallest in Major League Baseball.
Philosophically their emphasis on pitching and up the middle position players remains, but amateur scouting director Brian Parker and his staff won’t be able to work the system like they have in the past because of curtailed wiggle room.
The assigned value for the 29th pick – a compensatory selection for Melky Cabrera’s departure as a free agent to the Chicago White Sox – is $1,944,800, and the Blue Jays’ total bonus pool for the first 10 rounds is $5,411,000, giving them little opportunity to try and buy any players who may slip down the draft.
“It means you really have to be more creative in finding ways to bring talent in,” Parker says in an interview. “Obviously with the smaller pool, we’re going to have to pick our spots and we’re going to have to find ways to really make sure that we’re bringing the right person and getting the right signability.
“The way the system is set up, you’ve really got to dig and make sure you’ve got it and make sure you’re comfortable with where it is before you even pull the name and take the player. Because it does affect things, especially throughout the draft when the teams with the larger pools are able to manoeuvre things around a little bit. When you do have a smaller pool you really need to bear down and make sure you’re getting the right player – but you’re also getting him at the right price.”
No team will have as much ability to manoeuvre things around quite like the Houston Astros, who have the second and fifth selections, and five of the first 79 overall, for a bonus pool total of $17,289,200. For some perspective, consider that the largest bonus outlay by a team in a single draft is $17,005,700 by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2011, according to MLB.com.
The Blue Jays, like the Astros, have used big bonus pools in drafts past, most notably in 2012 when they went way over slot to get Matt Smoral and Anthony Alford and in ’13 when they bought lefty Jake Brentz and slugger Rowdy Tellez out of college with big bonuses later in the draft.
This year, the Blue Jays forfeited the No. 16 pick, and its $2,543,300 assigned value, when they signed free agent catcher Russell Martin to an $82-million, five-year deal in November. That’s why they don’t pick until 29.
“I know people have said a lot of things about the top of the draft, but we don’t pick up there this year. Where we are, there’s good depth, similar to the past few years,” says Parker. “Pitching is always a priority, regardless of where you pick. It’s the one area of your organization where you never have enough. The high school class, where we pick, I think there are some interesting guys, there’s good depth in the first few rounds with the pitching, both college and high school.
“As it seems to happen every year now, there are some injury guys that are out there that are affecting what’s going to happen at the top of draft, but the depth is pretty good.”
The Blue Jays selected one such injured player last year in right-hander Jeff Hoffman at No. 9, capitalizing on his slide down the draft after his Tommy John surgery, and added catcher Max Pentecost at No. 11.
Given how high in the draft they were, narrowing their focus was easier because the possibilities in front of them were far more limited. At 29, projecting how things play out is obviously far more challenging.
“You have to make sure you’ve got the background, the scouting information, the makeup, the medical information, you just have to make sure you’ve covered a larger pool of players in that first round,” says Parker. “The players that go in that part of the draft, we know who they’re going to be, but you don’t know what’s going to happen until Monday night during the draft, so you have to be prepared to go in a number of different directions.”
Under general manager Alex Anthopoulos the Blue Jays have used their first pick in the draft to take a pitcher in four out of five years. Centre-fielder D.J. Davis at No. 17 in 2012 was the exception, although they chose righty Marcus Stroman five spots later.
Their top prospect base is dominated by pitchers, but the Blue Jays won’t purposely go out of their way to balance things out.
“There are certain positions you always want to make sure you have good depth at in your system,” says Parker. “Obviously pitching is up there, catching is another position where it’s always important to make sure you have some good options. Behind the plate we’ve had a few guys the last few years, whether it’s Max Pentecost, or we took a guy Matt Morgan in the fourth (in 2014), we took the kid Dan Jansen (in 2013) two years ago that’s doing well for us.
“You always want to have up the middle players. Our focus over the last couple of years is to find two-way position players, obviously the priority is up the middle, but in general, guys that can play both ways are so valuable in this game, whether it’s in a corner, first base or centre field, when you have players that can help you offensively and defensively it changes things at the major-league level.”