Toronto Blue Jays Alex Anthopoulos general manager isn’t afraid to make a risky move when it comes to using his first-round draft picks.
Last year, he took Jeff Hoffman, one of the most talented pitchers in the draft with the ninth overall selection. The 6’4″ right-hander threw pure filth, while touching the high 90’s with his fastball. The issue? Hoffman was coming off a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow that required Tommy John surgery which required him to miss the entire 2014 season. Hoffman had made his debut this season, and his fastball has lit up the radar gun to the tune of 99 MPH.
In 2011 things didn’t work out as planned. AA took high school righty Tyler Beede with the 21st overall pick. According to ESPN, before the draft, Beede sent out a letter to every MLB scout in New England and said not to contact him – he was going to play with Vanderbilt. He told ESPN’s Brendan Hall “I thought we made teams well aware, well before the draft,” Beede said. “The letter I signed was serious. We really honored that commitment, Vanderbilt is opportunity that’s very important to me, and something I’m taking seriously. It was going to take a lot to get me away from that education.” It turned out things worked out for the Blue Jays, as they used the compensatory pick to draft Marcus Stroman 21st overall the following year.
He was similarly spurned in 2013, when he used the 10th overall pick to draft on high school righty (sense a theme?) on now Giants draft pick Phil Bickford. It was bizarre he wasn’t signed because Bickford seemed intent on signing with the Blue Jays, but it might have been a holdover draft pick, ensuring the Blue Jays would get a similar pick in the draft a year later. As Andrew Stoeten from AndrewStoeten.com noted, there seems to be something bizarre about the whole thing. Either way, they missed out on a hell of player.
In 2010, he swung and nailed three of his first-round picks. Aaron Sanchez, the 34th overall selection, has turned into one of the best young pitchers in the game. He’s having a great first season in the Blue Jays rotation. Noah Syndergaard may be even better than Sanchez. The Blue Jays shipped him to the Mets in the R.A. Dickey trade, one that they may regret.
The Alex Anthopoulos modus operandi seems to be drafting young pitchers. Out of his 16 first-round picks over the last four drafts, he’s taken 11 pitchers – 10 of whom are right-handed.
So who did the Blue Jays select with their 29th overall selection with their 2015 first-round pick? Another right-handed pitcher, Missouri State’s Jon Harris. Jim Callis seemed shocked he went as low as he did. Here’s what FanGraphs wrote about him:
“Harris comes with an ideal pitcher’s body, measuring in at a listed 6-foot-4 and 190 pounds. With long arms, sloped shoulders, and a lean build, the right hander is plenty projectable with the frame to easily carry another 20 pounds.”
“Harris may not have the blazing fastball or devastating, GIF-friendly breaking ball that demands a lot of attention, but he does offer clubs with a relatively-polished, high-floor option. If he continues to pound the strike zone and demonstrate the same above-average ability to command his four pitch mix, Harris has a good shot to be a 3rd/4th starter at maturity.”
The Blue Jays would be more than happy to develop him into a solid middle of the rotation player.
This move is less of a risk than we’re used too from AA, but it looks like a shrewd move that can pay big dividends for the club going forward.
