Blue Jays aiming to apply last year’s developmental lessons to new minor-league season

The Toronto Blue Jays separated their pitching prospects into three buckets ahead of the 2023 minor-league season — one for starters, one for bulk arms and one for relievers — and set development plans for them accordingly.

Driving organizational thinking in taking such an approach was “trying to be targeted about the way they work and what they're focused on to what their future major-league value could be,” says farm director Joe Sclafani. “Learned some things last year. Excited to roll out a few more this year. Every year we spend most of the off-season re-evaluating where we're at with those things and see if we can refine our processes to get better.”

One point that came up during those conversations was about how pitchers can move themselves between buckets. All-star closer Jordan Romano, for instance, was drafted as a closer out of Oral Roberts, converted to a starter after Tommy John surgery and spent three years in minor-league rotations before returning to the bullpen in 2019, which turbo-charged his ascent. Bowden Francis has bounced between roles in both the majors and the minors. Getting each person in the right bucket really matters.

Everyone is on their own trajectory, of course, making the calculations behind how much runway to give someone in a given role particularly complex. This year, that’s been further complicated by new Major League Baseball roster rules cutting three players from each level of the domestic farm system.

To help structure the evaluations, then, “we came up with a form where we're considering different areas,” says Sclafani. “How do you hold your stuff? Performance is part of it. How is the monitoring data coming back? There are a ton of different inputs that we're factoring. But the shortest, cleanest answer is if you pitch well in that role and show that you can get through a lineup once, then we'll see about one-plus and hopefully if you keep doing well, then you can get to a spot where it's like, yeah, this guy needs to start.”

Right-hander Devereaux Harrison is Exhibit A on that front, a ninth-round pick out of California State University, Long Beach in 2022 who was a reliever and part-time outfielder at school. The Blue Jays weren’t sure how big a workload he could handle so he began last season in the bullpen with the advanced-A Vancouver Canadians, made an emergency start when promotions created need, impressed in the role and won a spot in the rotation.

Harrison’s progress earned him an invite to big-league spring training this year as well as a promotion to double-A New Hampshire.

“He hadn't thrown a ton, so we didn't really know how his body would hold up,” says Sclafani. “We started there and we told him we'll evaluate things as we go. He showed that he can do it, did really well and hasn't looked back.”

Harrison’s progression was one reminder from the Blue Jays system last year of why talent evaluators must always keep an open mind on players.

Another came from Davis Schneider.

A 28^th-round pick in 2017 — the draft is only 20 rounds, now — he got stuck in the lower levels of the system early, nearly hit a wall during the pandemic shutdown but began making progress toward the end of the 2021 season, eventually breaking through last year and making an instant impact.

Sclafani says “it's an interesting question” as to whether there are wider lessons to be drawn from him for player-development staff. One conclusion is to slow the churn rate on players that “do things the right way, check all the boxes, intangible pieces, work hard, are a good teammate” and pair that “with at least one thing they do really well.”

“We have a tendency, generally, to focus on things that can get better, which is a good thing. I just think you need a good balance of it,” adds Sclafani. “Schneids was elite at a couple things and that's why he was able to stick around. Sometimes it just takes a little longer to click. So it's just a good reminder that, don't pull the trigger too quickly on some things and now, especially with the new roster rules, we should be a bit more drastic or have some more urgency because the runway of opportunity is just smaller.”

Here's a look at four farm teams in action with the minor-league season just underway:

Triple-A Buffalo Bisons

Notables – LHP Ricky Tiedemann; RHP Yariel Rodriguez; 1B Spencer Horwitz; 2B Orelvis Martinez; 3B/RF Addison Barger; 3B/1B Damiano Palmegiani; SS Leo Jimenez; CF Nathan Lukes; RF Will Robertson; RHP Chad Dallas; RHP Connor Cooke; RHP Hagen Danner; LHP Mason Fluharty; LHP Brendon Little; RHP Zach Pop

Outlook – The Bisons are deep in both prospect talent and big-league depth players, and veteran manager Casey Candaele will have his hands full managing a number of players who will rightfully believe they should be in the big-leagues.

Both short term and long term, the progress of Rodriguez, a veteran Cuban who needs to push through workload issues after a year off transitioning to North America, and top-100 prospects Tiedemann and Martinez are the biggest leverage points.

Tiedemann showed flashes of how dominant he can be during spring training, but the Blue Jays are working with him on “how to come up with plans and execute those plans, how to navigate when he doesn't have his best stuff, how to get through those days,” says Sclafani. “His stuff is so good. The maturity is off the charts. He's open and asking questions. It's harping on, ‘We're trying to help prepare you to have success in the big-leagues, No. 1 get there, but also to sustain that success while you're there.’”

Martinez will mostly play second base this year with focuses on his defensive work and continuing to show the improved pitch selection he showed last season. “He’s growing up in front of our eyes,” says Sclafani. “Everyone forgets, he's still pretty young (22) in the grand scheme of things, individual growth, maturity, figuring out how to be on his own. The way he carried himself this spring training, there’s a difference to it.”

Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats

Notables – RF Alan Roden; SS Josh Kasevich; LHP Adam Macko; RHP Devereaux Harrison; RHP Trent Palmer; RHP C.J. Van Eyk; C Zach Britton; C Phil Clarke; INF Cade Doughty (currently working his way up after being slowed in spring by a shoulder injury)

Outlook – Manager Cesar Martin graduated a number of players to Buffalo’s core last year and Roden, one of his most interesting players, may not be with the Fisher Cats for very long.

The 24-year-old’s stock rose quickly a year ago, his high-IQ, strong plate discipline and elite contact pushing him upward. He made some changes to his set up in the box over the winter and is working with the Blue Jays to do more damage.

“Everything else has been so good, that’s the next thing to get to,” says Sclafani. “He's such a strong kid, one of the strongest in our system, so it's figuring out how to tap into that. And he's bought in. At baseline, he's going to be able to give you a professional at-bat, put the bat on the ball and give himself a chance. Learning when to take those chances early, which pitches can he drive, that's something that he was locked on last year. You saw some of the strides and it's going to continue to be a point of emphasis moving forward. But there are so many good things that he does, I'm excited to see what he's able to do this year.”

Kasevich shares some similarities to Roden in his pitch selection and contact ability at the plate, pairing those talents with fielding skills that make him “the best the defender we have at short in the system,” according to Sclafani.

But like Roden, Kasevich is also seeking ways to drive the ball more.

“Incredible worker, physical specimen. There's more in there. He knows it,” says Sclafani. “Both those guys are pretty cerebral. So figuring out how to sync up their bodies better to tap into the strength and leverage that they already have is going to be a point of emphasis.”

Advanced-A Vancouver Canadians

Notables – RHP Kendry Rojas; RHP Chris McElvain; OF Jace Bohrofen; CF Dasan Brown; OF Jaden Rudd

Outlook – Manager Brent Lavallee of North Delta, B.C., whose staff again includes 2024 Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Ashley Stephenson, led the Canadians to a 77-54 mark and Northwest League championship last season, but won’t have the same talent this year.

Brown, from Oakville, Ont., returns, trying to lock in an approach at the plate that will fully leverage his plus baserunning and defence, while flanking him will be Bohrofen, a 2023 sixth-rounder out of Arkansas with big-time power but also holes to cover.

“He's a big kid. He's got real juice. When he gets one, it goes. And he's got power to all fields,” says Sclafani. “But there’s some swing and miss in there.”

On the pitching side McElvain, the return from Cincinnati for Santiago Espinal, is a 23-year-old the Blue Jays are putting into the starter bucket as they work with a fastball, slider and changeup repertoire that intrigued them. Rojas, 21, is in his fourth year of pitching and the Blue Jays want to see if he’s ready to further up his workload after logging 84 innings last year.

“He's not super young in terms of age but as a pitcher he is,” says Sclafani. “So it’s continuing to consolidate the routines, get that into a good place, last year felt like it was pretty successful, stayed healthy, pitched through the year. Stuff has ticked up a little bit again in spring training. Hopefully we'll see it. Last year he had trends of his velo dipping throughout the course of a game and at the start of the year to the end of the year, so trying to figure out what he needs to do to maintain that velocity.”

Low-A Dunedin Blue Jays

Notables – SS Arjun Nimmala; LHP Brandon Barriera; RHP Landon Maroudis; RHP Jauron Watts-Brown; CF Yhoangel Aponte; SS Manuel Beltre; 3B Tucker Toman

Outlook – After much internal debate, manager Jose Mayorga ended up with 2023 first-rounder Nimmala, third-rounder Watts-Brown and fourth-rounder Maroudis on his roster after each showed well during spring training.

A pending loss looms, though, as Barriera walked off the mound 21 pitches into his season-debut with an elbow injury. He underwent an MRI earlier this week and is currently seeking a second opinion, an indicator that the damage is significant.

Absent Barriera, the gifted Nimmala will be a key player to watch after a spring showing so impressive, that plans to start him in the Florida Complex League were shelved and he was pushed upwards despite being only 18.

“To his credit, he put himself in that position,” says Sclafani.

The same applies to Maroudis, whose velocity jumped over the winter, and whose fastball sat 94.5 m.p.h. and was up to 96.4 m.p.h. while throwing four perfect innings last Sunday. He paired the heater with a slider that got four whiffs and a curveball that got three.