Davidi on Jays: How Toronto landed Hutchison

After rocketing through the minor leagues, Toronto's Drew Hutchison will make his major league debut Saturday in Kansas City against the Royals. To set you up for tonight, here's a look back at Shi Davidi column from January on the Blue Jays agressive pursuit of the 21-year-old while others backed away...

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TORONTO - In theory, draft-day steals like Drew Hutchison should no longer be possible under baseball's new collective bargaining agreement.

The new slotting system and cap on signing bonuses agreed upon by owners and the players union is designed to prevent top-level talent from slipping down to the lower rounds over signability concerns, the way the 21-year-old from Lakeland, Fla., did in 2009.

Armed with a scholarship to pitch and play shortstop for Stetson University in DeLand, Fla., and a high asking price to give it up, Hutchison was repeatedly passed over until the 15th round, where the Toronto Blue Jays picked him as both a roll of the dice and fallback option should their early picks not sign.

When negotiations with 2009 supplemental first-rounder James Paxton and second-rounder Jake Eliopoulos collapsed, the money intended for them instead went to others, including $400,000 to Hutchison, making him an extraordinary value skillset-wise as the 460th overall pick.

"He obviously was a first three or four round talent but there were other players we selected, we get into the fifth and sixth rounds we don't take him there because you don't know if you can sign him for sure, suddenly he became unsignable for the round he was in and he drifted into the 15th," explained Blue Jays assistant GM Tony LaCava. "We had some guys we didn't sign up top so we redirected some money to that round, and we drafted him with the idea he's not going to sign for typical 15th round money."

Under the new system, the thinking is the penalties for exceeding the slot are so onerous it's unlikely teams will be willing to go over, meaning players will want to be drafted as high as possible in order to maximize their earning potential.

Someone like Hutchison, for instance, would likely lose thousands by signalling that he'd be a tough sign, so if that player intends to go pro, he'd need to make his intentions clear or risk lowering his bonus ceiling. At least that's how the new system should work.

"We're still getting our head around the rules," said LaCava, "but now it appears the top players will go early and the talent will get distributed the way the draft was intended to distribute it when it started."

Either way, the Blue Jays are more than happy to have Hutchison and other picks they similarly stockpiled over the past three years in the fold.

Both GM Alex Anthopoulos and manager John Farrell recently pointed to Hutchison as someone who could surprise in spring training, and as things currently stand, he's the closest member of the next wave of Blue Jays pitching prospects, a group that also includes Chad Jenkins and Deck McGuire, to breaking through.

Though Anthopoulos listed Ricky Romero, Brandon Morrow, Brett Cecil, Henderson Alvarez and Dustin McGowan as his starting five if the season were to begin today during a recent appearance on Prime Time Sports, Hutchison will get a long look this spring.

And if the training camp possibilities created by that excite him, he's certainly not showing it publicly.

"I think there are always opportunities to be had, and if there are no opportunities, you're always trying to create opportunities for yourself," he said after a day of work at the club's minicamp in Toronto. "I think (spring training) will be the same, going out there performing and competing.

"That's what I always focus on, competing."

The competitive streak that fuels Hutchison is one of his prime talents, helping him climb three minor-league rungs last season and close out the season helping the New Hampshire Fisher Cats win the double-A Eastern League championship.

He was a combined 14-5 in 28 games with a 2.53 ERA, 1.038 WHIP and 10.3 K/9 for low-A Lansing, high-A Dunedin and New Hampshire last season, dominating each step along the way.

Though his stuff improved drastically through added strength and weight to his 6-2 frame - he pitched at 165 pounds but LaCava says, "He's starting to look like a guy you can put some innings on," - Fisher Cats manager Sal Fasano feels it's Hutchison's mentality on the mound that really makes the difference.

"To me, he's one of the best competitors that we have," Fasano said in an interview last September. "He's got good stuff, there's no doubt about his stuff, but he really likes to compete. And when he gets a chance to win, he really knows how to finish it."

The praise is the type Hutchison enjoys most.

"It's very humbling because that's something I take big pride in, the way I compete and the way I go about my business," he says. "Stuff's not always enough, you've got to have heart and really compete and I really enjoy competing."

Still, stuff matters too and his repertoire of a power sinker pushing into the 93-94 range, nasty slider and changeup to keep lefties off balance is all moving into the plus range, to use the scouting parlance.

Already fairly refined for a high school pitcher when he was drafted, Hutchison's improved strength has given his pitches more teeth, like switching from a hand saw to a chain saw.

"We had all hoped for that, we felt like he was projectable," says LaCava. "But now we're starting to see that, and last year it came to fruition."

Asked what was keeping him from the big-leagues, LaCava replied, "experience." Hutchison has just two years of professional baseball under his belt, and as the handling of Brett Lawrie last season showed, the Blue Jays intend to be conservative with their prospects.

How that affects Hutchison's timeline will be closely watched in the months ahead. Regardless, it seems now that his arrival in the big-leagues is more a question of when then if during 2012, all the more reason his decision to give up his dreams of playing shortstop at college to pitch full-time was the right one.

"At that point I was further along as a pitcher," says Hutchison. "I'd say I was a very good fielder, my whole was better than any one part, but pitching was definitely my future. For a while I wanted to be a shortstop, but I kind of figured it out and saw what would be better.

"Thankfully it's worked out."

Shi Davidi is the MLB Insider for sportsnet.ca. Come back to read his insight and opinion regularly.