If there’s a silver lining to be found in last year’s plummet to the bottom of the American League East standings, it can be found in the annual draft, where the Blue Jays have their highest pick since 2020.
The Jays are set to make the eighth selection when the first round of the Major League Baseball draft gets underway Sunday in Atlanta. They haven’t been on the clock that early since infielder/outfielder Austin Martin was taken fifth during the pandemic-shortened season.
Picking that high is something no team wants because it means the previous year went off the rails. But once the bottom falls out, it’s incumbent on the organization to make the best of the situation by injecting high-end talent into the farm system to ensure it doesn’t happen much in the future.
This year’s draft will be overseen by Marc Tramuta, who became the Jays’ director of amateur scouting during the off-season, relacing Shane Farrell, who left the organization at the end of last year to become the director of player development for the Detroit Tigers.
Tramuta brings an impressive resumé. He was the Jays’ scout of the year in 2007 and rejoined the organization in 2023 as a special assistant in player personnel. In between, Tramuta spent 11 years with the New York Mets as a senior director of domestic and international scouting, director of amateur scouting and the assistant scouting director.
The former minor-league shortstop will now be in charge of making the third top-10 pick for the Jays since 2006.
Shapiro’s contract is believed to expire later this year while Atkins has one additional season.
“I’ve made some tweaks to certain things in how we do process or timelines, maybe adding in more player development, but that’s not criticism,” Tramuta said earlier this month. “I thought we did a tremendous job last year, and I think that showed in the first several picks, how they’ve done so far. But everybody puts their own little spin on things.”
First-round buzz
The Jays have been linked to Florida State left-hander Jamie Arnold in the latest mock drafts by ESPN and MLB Pipeline. Arnold initially was projected to go several spots higher, but there’s a chance he will fall to No. 8. The 21-year-old had one of the best swing-and-miss arms in college as he struck out 159 batters in 2024 and 119 more across 84 2/3 innings this spring. Arnold’s fastball touches 97 m.p.h. and he throws a mid-80s slider with well-above-average command.
The Athletic’s scouting expert, Keith Law, expects the Jays to go in a different direction. He has tied the team to high school shortstops JoJo Parker and Billy Carlson. Parker, whose twin brother is also expected to be selected relatively early, was Mississippi’s player of the year while Carlson, from California, is arguably the top defender in this year’s class. He’s also a line-drive hitter with good bat speed.
Here’s a closer look at some of the players who could find themselves in the three-week rumour mill.
“If you looked at some of the drafts that I had in New York, my lean would be up-the-middle players, athletic players, players that provide some versatility,” said Tramuta, who took five position players in the first round across six years with the Mets, including current big leaguers Pete Crow-Armstrong and Brett Baty, and top prospect Jett Williams.
“And if you look at our staff here, the three pitchers that we took last year, one, two, three, big physical guys, athletes, had multiple weapons … That would be kind of a broad sense of who to look for.”
Free-agent fallout
The Jays forfeited the rights to their second-round selection by signing Anthony Santander to a five-year contract. That means after picking eighth, they won’t make another selection until No. 81. That penalty also limits how much money the Jays can hand out via signing bonuses. They have $10,314,600 to spend in this year’s draft, which ranks 20th, and $6,813,600 of that is the recommended slot bonus for their top pick.
“There are going to be 73 players that come off the board or so before we pick again,” Tramuta said. “So that takes a little less time in terms of lining up the entire board because you have some sense that there will be players that will be gone … So right now, we’re working on that real top tight board of about 10 or 12 players trying to rank those up.”
Canadian content
The top Canadian available is outfielder Charles Davalan. The 21-year-old is Baseball America’s 62nd-ranked prospect in this year’s class. He spent this season in Arkansas, hitting .346 with 14 homers and 60 RBIs. MLB Pipeline projects Davalan to be a leadoff man because he rarely chases pitches outside the zone and he makes consistent contact. The native of Quebec stands just five-foot-nine but has power to all fields and has the potential to eventually become a 15-to-20-homer player.
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In the show
The Jays have four players on their active roster who were drafted and signed by the team. Closer Jeff Hoffman was the Jays’ ninth pick in 2014 before he was traded to Colorado as part of the deal for Troy Tulowitzki. Shortstop Bo Bichette, third baseman/outfielder Addison Barger and infielder/outfielder Davis Schneider are the other three. The Jays also took lefty Eric Lauer in the 17th round of 2013 draft, but he didn’t sign, and the rehabbing Alek Manoah was selected 11th in 2019.
Recent first rounders
2024 — RHP Trey Yesavage (No. 20)
2023 — SS Arjun Nimmala (No. 20)
2022 — LHP Brandon Barriera (No. 23)
2021 — RHP Gunnar Hoglund (No. 19)
2020 — SS Austin Martin (No. 5)
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