TORONTO – The Toronto Blue Jays appear to have played it straight on the second day of the baseball draft Friday, avoiding the senior picks they’ve used the past couple of years to create signing bonus pool room to spend on early or later round value plays.
Amateur scouting director Brian Parker selected three high-schoolers, four college juniors and one junior college player in rounds 3-10, and while he said the team might grab a few players “deemed unsignable” during the final 30 rounds Saturday, he admits the lack of seniors taken will make it tougher to get them under contract.
“I think it does,” said Parker, who has a total signing bonus pool of $9,458,500 to work with. “Each draft is different and each round is different. If you’re able to get a guy that you like, then you go ahead and get the player. Some years you have a philosophy and maybe you take a guy in the third or fourth round that you’re going to pay and you need to save some money.
“This year we didn’t have to do that, we were able to scout and select a player each round that we valued in that area.”
On Thursday the Blue Jays picked right-hander Jeff Hoffman with the ninth pick, catcher Max Pentecost at No. 11 and high-school right-hander Sean Reid-Foley in the second round at No. 49.
Hoffman, considered a top three talent, fell to the Blue Jays with little surprise because he underwent Tommy John surgery last month, but Reid-Foley slipping out of the first round, according to Parker, “was unexpected and we’re very happy about it.”
Though Reid-Foley has a commitment to Florida State University, Parker said the Blue Jays “feel good about where everything is with him, and hopefully we can get some things moving forward with some of these guys and get going.”
“He’s a guy we’re very excited about,” he continued. “We had no idea he’d be there where we picked him, we scouted him as a first-round kind of talent this year and we thought he’d be going in the first round. We’re ecstatic that he was sitting there at 49.”
The Blue Jays were also happy to select high schooler Nick Wells with their third pick who’s “already shown a plus curveball, and is a young athletic, projectable lefty.”
Like Hoffman and Reid-Foley, Wells fits the pitching mould the Blue Jays focused in on this year.
“I like guys who use their fastballs to get outs,” said Parker. “Part of that is being able to command the fastball – fastball effectiveness is a term I use a lot – and it’s something that combines everything, command, life on the pitch and everything. Guys that can really pitch with their fastball and get outs with their fastball, it’s an advantage for them.”
The Blue Jays added another catcher in the fourth round in Matt Morgan, a strong defender Parker believes has a chance to be “a two-way player.” The same goes with fifth-rounder Lane Thomas, a high school outfielder who “has played some shortstop, great makeup, athleticism and we like the bat.”
The Blue Jays selected their first Canadian player with their 10th-round pick, grabbing right-hander Jordan Romano of Markham, Ont., from Oral Roberts University.
“It’s a young power arm that has some ability with a breaking ball,” said Parker. “He’s a good sized kid, he’s 6-6, and it’s a good athletic arm that has two pitches. … We valued in him in that area, that part of the draft.”
As for his plans on Saturday, Parker said: “We’re going to see what’s out there. There are some guys that we like that are maybe deemed unsignable, maybe we take a shot at a few of those guys in case we have some money at the end. You’re still looking for the same type of thing, getting athletes and getting pitchers with good frames and stuff.”
