Toronto Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro says his club’s farm system is better than it was two years ago, but still largely a work in progress.
“Not where it needs to be,” Shapiro told MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand in a recent Q&A. “I think we’re really excited about what’s happening at [high Class A], at Dunedin, the Florida State League and below. Still concerned about Double-A and Triple-A, the depth of prospects there.”
Shapiro said he would rank Toronto’s farm “probably in the upper half, maybe closing in on the upper third” of all MLB organizations and highlighted the success of top prospects Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who both began the season in Lansing before advancing to Dunedin.
“You don’t just need two guys, you need waves of guys,” said Shapiro. “And behind them, you need another wave of guys. I feel like that’s coming. It’s probably two to four years away that it’s going to get here, but when it comes, what we’ve continued to execute on whether it’s [assistant GM] Andrew Tinnish leading us in international, we’ve got waves of guys coming.
“I’m encouraged by that.”
Bichette is hitting .368/.430/.566 with a .996 OPS across the two levels this season, while Guerrero has posted a .325/.427/.486 slash line to go along with a .912 OPS. They are unlikely to be featured among Toronto’s September call-ups, however.
Instead, hitting prospects such as Teoscar Hernandez and Danny Jansen, along with pitchers Leonel Campos and Carlos Ramirez appear more likely to see time with the Blue Jays in the season’s final month.
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