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Welcome to the Blue Jays top 30 list for another year. There has been a lot of turnover from last year to this year's list. There are just 12 players who are repeating on the list. Seven players were traded, Gabriel Moreno, Gunnar Hoglund, Kevin Smith, Zach Logue, Jordan Groshans, Samad Taylor and Josh Palacios. That means eleven players were dropped. That is a lot of poor performances. Hope remains for many of those who have been dropped, they just need to find something in their game, just like Davis Schneider did this year. Speaking of Davis Schneider.....

30. Davis Schneider | UT

Photo from csplusbaseball.ca

Year Age Team AB 2B 3B HR BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG
2022 23 VAN 157
10
1
8
29
50
6
1
.229
.355
.459
2022 23 NH 166
8
3
6
22
46
10
0
.283
.368
.476
2022 23 BUF 60
4
0
2
14
20
1
1
.233
.387
.400

There are rollercoaster seasons and then there is Davis Schneider's 2022 season. It was a season of marked contrasts. Schneider was selected in the 28th round of the 2017 draft out of a New Jersey high school. His previous four seasons were unremarkable, he was a decent hitter with a decent eye and some pop but it seemed like he was a utility player on whichever minor league team he was on.

One thing that did change for Schneider was his body. He bulked up significantly and has some of the biggest "guns" in the system. He has also been described as a hard worker, one of the hardest workers in the system.

2022 started poorly for Schneider. He returned to Vancouver for a third time, having played 17 games there in 2019 and 46 in 2021. The familiarity didn't appear to help. His average quickly dropped under .200, got down to a low of .105, and ended May averaging .149. On June 1st he picked up two hits. On June 4th it was three hits, a season-high. He had four hits, and ten total bases, on June 7th and his average moved above .200. That started an eight-game hit streak. Schneider hit .329 for the month in Vancouver with a .671 slugging thanks to nine doubles and five home runs. Whatever it was that he figured out earned him a promotion to New Hampshire.

New Hampshire had a similar pattern. It took him nine games to get his batting average over .200. That started a five-game hitting streak but for most of July, his numbers were up and down. He ended July hitting .232 in AA. But August was a different matter. He hit in 16 out of 19 games. His average was .338 and his OPS was .941. That was enough for another promotion. Within ten games for Buffalo Schneider was hitting .300 with an OPS over 1000. He tailed off over the last ten games, dropping his average and OPS.

Schneider started the season as a roster filler and finished as a prospect in AAA. He is a swinger, he struck out in 25% of his at-bats but that was an improvement over 33% in 2021. Schneider will take a walk, about 15% of the time which is a good number compared to the K's.

Schneider was drafted as a third baseman but he has played a lot of second base. This season he played left field too and that is where he spent most of his time in Vancouver. When he moved to New Hampshire he was mainly in the field at second base. In Buffalo, he split his time between second and left.

Schneider was Rule 5 eligible this off-season but wasn't selected. His up-and-down season probably didn't give teams confidence in his ability to survive as the 13th hitter in the major leagues. He also has just sixty at-bats in AAA. Schneider should be back in Buffalo for 2023 looking to put up a strong season and put him in line for a call-up.


29. Estiven Machado | SS

Photo from @DunedinBlueJays

Year Age Team AB 2B 3B HR BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG
2022 19 DUN 339
19
3
1
38
97
6
3
.263
.342
.345

Estiven Machado was signed by the Blue Jays out of Venezuela for $775,000 in 2019. With Covid writing off the 2020 season Machado had to wait until 2021 to show his stuff. That lasted one at-bat before a hamstring injury ended his season.

Machado then came into 2022 with a lot of ground to make up. He was assigned to Dunedin for his age 20 season and played in 90 games with just one short trip to the IL. Machado got off to a slow start, as you would expect, hitting .211 in April. He bumped that up to .299 in May and appeared to be on his way. But that was the start of the rollercoaster. He slumped to a .203 average in June, then hit .333 in August before dropping off somewhat in August and September. Overall he hit .263.

Machado will take a walk with 30% of his walks coming in September, could it be a sign that he learned something? But he does strike out over 25% of the time. He is not a burner on the bases and he doesn't have much pop, just one home run and 19 doubles on the season.

Machado is a switch-hitter. He didn't hit well against left-handed pitchers, with just a .146 average. He did hit .300 against right-handed pitchers. That will be job one for 2023, improve his hitting against lefties or drop the switch-hitting.

In 2022 he split his time in the field between second base and short. He should be able to stick at either position.

2023 will be a big season for Machado. He should be assigned to Vancouver where he can try and be more consistent, both in his hitting and generally to avoid the swings in performance he had in 2022. And in his switch-hitting. If he can hit for average then we can start looking at his power potential.


28. Rainer Nuñez | 1B

Photo from csplusbaseball.ca

Year Age Team AB 2B 3B HR BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG
2022 21 DUN 361
19
1
15
14
82
0
0
.299
.328
.482
2022 21 VAN 106
6
0
4
10
27
0
0
.321
.379
.491

Rainer Nuñez has put himself on the Blue Jays radar with his best season as a pro that included a star turn in winter ball. The native of La Romana in the Dominican Republic signed with Toronto as an international free agent on July 5, 2017, as a shortstop for $350,000 according to Baseball America. However, he has spent the majority of his four-year career at first base after splitting time at the hot and cold corners in the Dominican Summer League during his pro debut in 2018.

Nuñez's first two seasons with the bat were underwhelming as he recorded on-base-plus-slugging percentages of .626 in the DSL in 2018 and .534 with the Gulf Coast League Blue Jays in 2019. 

After the pandemic cancelled the 2020 minor league season, Nuñez returned to Rookie ball in 2021. He put together a much better showing with a 320-point OPS boost with the Florida Complex League Blue Jays by slashing .274/.370/.484 with five home runs among 16 extra-base hits and 31 runs batted in over 36 games. He was named Player of the Week in the FCL in late July. Nuñez received a late-season promotion to Dunedin where he batted .263 with an OPS of .812 in six games that included a home run and three RBI.

With the help of Dunedin coach Matt Young, Nunez overhauled his swing according to a story in MiLB.com. After hitting off his front foot too much, Nuñez worked to employ a more balanced swing to produce more balls in the air.

The 2022 season saw Nuñez start strong with batting averages of .312 and .313 for April and May and recorded an OPS of .810 before getting called up to Vancouver in early August. He tapped into more power with his righthanded bat with a 60-point jump in his OPS with the C's. However, he went 0-for-9 with five strikeouts in the first two games of the Northwest League final against Eugene. Vancouver's season ended with Nuñez in the on-deck circle in the 10th inning of Game 3 as he was scheduled to bat as a pinch-hitter.

Nuñez shook that off and finished 2022 with a bang by winning the Dominican League Rookie of the Year award, going up against players with an average age difference of nearly seven years. He batted .263/.303/.445 with a league-leading seven home runs and 20 RBI in 37 games.

In addition to LIDOM Rookie of the Year honours, Nuñez was the Florida State League batting champ and was named to the FSL Post-Season All-Star team. Baseball America also named him the FSL's best defensive first baseman.

Nuñez was a more aggressive hitter at the plate in 2022. After drawing a walk in just over 13 percent of his plate appearances in 2021 and keeping his strikeouts hovering in the 15-17 percent range, Nuñez only heard ball four less than four percent of the time with a whiff rate of over 21 percent with Dunedin in 2022. The K rate went up by nearly two percent with Vancouver but that was offset by the near-five percent hike in his BB rate. The BABIP gods smiled upon Nuñez with marks of .346 and .400 with Dunedin and Vancouver respectively.

When Nuñez made contact, it was loud contact. Brennan Delaney of BlueJaysNation.com points out Nuñez recorded an exit velocity of 110 miles per hour five times with an average exit veto of 87.9 and a max veto mark of 114.3 mph.

Nuñez's winter performance may have solidified his chances of starting the 2023 season in New Hampshire but there is an outside chance he could get additional time in Vancouver before heading to Manchester. The 6-foot-3, 180-pound first baseman will turn 23 years old on December 4.


27. Zach Britton | C/OF

Photo from csplusbaseball.ca

Year Age Team AB 2B 3B HR BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG
2022 23 VAN 188
15
1
7
41
70
10
2
.239
.390
.442
2022 23 NH 64
5
0
3
12
17
0
0
.234
.355
.453

Zach Britton was the fifth and final pick of the Blue Jays in the 2020 draft but he might be the first to reach Toronto out of his draft class. With first-rounder Austin Martin and fourth-rounder Nick Frasso traded, third-rounder Trent Palmer out with Tommy John surgery and second-rounder C.J. Van Eyk only just returning from the same malady on his right elbow, the possibility of Britton getting to the SkyDome first is very real if his 2022 performance is any indication.

The pride of Batesville, Indiana received a $97,500 signing bonus after being taken by the Blue Jays in the fifth round of the 2020 MLB draft out of Louisville on the recommendation of scout Nate Murrie.

Before becoming a Cardinal, Britton was a four-year letter winner at Batesville High School and batted .533 in his senior season of 2017. Sportsnet's Shi Davidi said neighbours complained about Britton's ability to do potential damage to their property after consistently clearing the 325-foot right field fence during batting practice. Britton's teammates had to set up outside the park to catch any balls that could go astray.

Britton began his college career behind the plate but was sidelined by a groin injury. When he returned during his freshman season of 2018, his catching days with the Cardinals were done as he played on the outfielder corners. A trip to the College World Series followed in 2019 before his extra-base pop really went on display during the pandemic-shortened season of 2020 as he led all of Division I with 11 doubles and slashed .322/.446./542 in 17 games.

Britton padded his resume with two strong showings in summer college ball with a .927 OPS with Newport of the New England Collegiate League in 2018 before slugging .500 with Orleans of the Cape Cod League in 2019.

In its scouting report before the 2020 draft, Baseball America said Britton had a "fairly loud lefthanded bat" as well as a "pretty lefthanded swing with good bat speed and some impressive exit velocity numbers. His hitting ability is the best tool in his box."

In his first pro season with Dunedin in 2021, Britton walked in over 14 percent of his plate appearances but struck out more than 30 percent of the time. He batted .225/.372/.371 with 18 doubles, seven home runs and 35 runs batted in. He also had three separate stints on the injured list in June, July and September.

Britton's 2022 season began in Vancouver and the low batting average/high on-base trend continued when he hit just .145 with a .319 OBP in April. He got his left-handed swing going in May with a .291/.435/.527 batting line that included three homers in two games, including a walk-off shot. Britton told C's Plus Baseball that the adjustment he made at the plate was "firming up my front side a little bit. I was getting a little soft on my front side and I was catching everything really deep. I started to see some balls out in front of my eyes and hitting off a firm front side."

However, the injury bug bit Britton again as he missed the last week of May before missing two more weeks in mid-June. With an OPS of .831 with the C's, Britton was sent to Double-A New Hampshire in late July. Even though his stay in Manchester was marred by two more stints on the injured list, Britton still displayed some power and maintained his sharp batting eye with an OPS of .808.

According to FanGraphs, Britton was pulling the ball a bit more in 2022 as his 43.5 percent pull rate in 2021 went up to 46.2 and 51.1 percent with Vancouver and New Hampshire respectively.

Even though the scouting consensus was Britton was not a good receiver behind the plate with a fringy arm according to Baseball America, he has made 79 starts as a catcher over his first two pro seasons.

On the plus side, Britton has made just three errors in 655-2/3 innings behind the plate over his first two years. On the negative side, he caught just six runners in 71 attempts in Dunedin and just four of 44 with Vancouver, resulting in an eight percent caught-stealing rate. He threw out one runner in six attempts with New Hampshire.

Britton was assigned to the Arizona Fall League and spent all of his time in the outfield with seven starts in right field and four in left. His bat did the talking as he slashed .404/.482/.575 with three doubles, one triple, one home run and 13 runs batted in with Salt River. He won a Player of the Week award and was also named to the AFL Fall Stars Game.

Carrying a career .377 OBP in the minors, the 6-foot-1, 200-pound Britton will more than likely begin the 2023 campaign back in New Hampshire. He turns 25 years old on September 9.


26. TJ Brock | RHP

Photo from csplusbaseball.ca

Year Age Team G GS IP H/9 HR/9 BB/9 K/9 ERA
2022
22
DUN
1 0 1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 18.0 0.00
2022
22
VAN
9 0 11.1 10.3 0.8 4.8 15.9 5.56

TJ Brock was the Blue Jays sixth-round selection in the 2022 draft although he signed an under-slot deal. Brock is a right-handed reliever with a big arm. Brock was a reliever, and a closer, in college and has stayed as a reliever with the Blue Jays. Brock has a 100mph fastball and a slider. The knock on him in college was his control.

Brock made one appearance for Dunedin and then went to Vancouver where he pitched in nine games with mixed results. The good was his strikeout rate, 20 in 11.1 innings or a 16 K/9. On the other hand, his control issues noted prior to the draft were evident. He walked six in 11.1 innings and used approx. 18.5 pitches per inning. He also allowed 13 hits with a BABIP of .480. That seems unreasonably high but it could be because Brock would get behind in the count and throw it down the middle.

Now it should be noted that this is a small sample size and Brock pitched for one month as a professional. The Jays will try and work with Brock over the winter to improve his control to make him a more potent asset.

Brock should return to Vancouver but also could get an aggressive assignment to New Hampshire if the Jays believe they have improved his control.


25. Irv Carter | RHP

Photo from @DunedinBlueJays

Year Age Team G GS IP H/9 HR/9 BB/9 K/9 ERA
2022
19
FCL
9 6 33.2 9.6 2.1 2.9 11.2 5.88
2022
19
DUN
4 4 14.0 9.0 1.3 2.6 7.1 4.50

Irv Carter was a fifth-round selection in the 2021 draft but he did not pitch for the Jays in 2021. Carter is a tall, 6'4", right-handed pitcher out of Florida. Baseball America suggested in 2021 that Carter could be the number two high school, draft-eligible arm in the US. Even though Carter was a fifth-round selection he received the second-highest bonus that the Jays handed out that year, behind only Gunnar Hoglund. In fact Carter received $200,000 more than Ricky Tiedemann in that draft.

Carter was reported to have a low-90s fastball with a slider and a changeup. Prior to the draft scouts suggested that Carter would need to clean up his delivery to avoid ending up in the bullpen.

Carter did not make the Dunedin rotation out of spring training staying behind in extended spring training. Once the FCL started in June, Carter was a part of the rotation and to say things didn't go well would be an understatement. In three June appearances Carter had an 8.44 ERA and a WHIP of 2.16. Hitters were hitting .370 off him.

Things weren't much better in July, an 8.31 ERA, a 1.62 WHIP and hitters hit .321. Despite the bad numbers Carter was striking out hitters, 31 in 23.2 innings.

Once the calendar turned to August Carter found something. He threw back-to-back five inning one-hitters with just one walk over the two starts. That earned him a promotion to Dunedin where he again was hit around in his first start, four runs allowed on five hits over three innings. He was better over his last three starts, with 11 innings pitched, nine hits and two walks allowed. He struck out eight.

2022 will go down as a learning experience for Carter. He pitched as a 19-year-old and he struggled and improved in the complex league. And to a lesser extent had a bad start in Dunedin followed by some better ones.

Carter does not yet have the professional track record to justify his place in the top 30. But he is just a year away from being described as the second-best high school pitcher in the US. Sometimes the players who have faced and overcome adversity turn out the best. At age 20 there is plenty of time for Carter in 2023. He should start the season in Dunedin and hopefully pitch well enough to be in Vancouver before the end of the year.


24. Jimmy Robbins | LHP

Photo from csplusbaseball.ca

Year Age Team G GS IP H/9 HR/9 BB/9 K/9 ERA
2022
24
DUN
6 1 17.1 5.2 0.0 4.7 13.5 1.56
2022
24
VAN
10 9 35.1 7.6 1.0 4.3 11.7 3.82
2022
24
NH
5 5 23.2 7.6 0.8 2.3 9.9 1.52

Jimmy Robbins had one of the best seasons of any pitcher in the organization. Coming back from Tommy John surgery Robbins started in Dunedin, moved up through Vancouver and finished in New Hampshire. Robbins didn't allow a run over his last two starts and struck out 15 in 11 innings.

Robbins was a 20th-round draft pick in 2019, missed all of 2020 due to Covid and had Tommy John during spring training in 2021. Coming into 2022 he had 19 innings of pro experience. Robbins is a 6'3" left-handed pitcher who can throw four pitches. He doesn't blow the hitters away but is one of those crafty lefties.

As mentioned Robbins started in Dunedin and appeared in six games, mostly out of the bullpen. In 17 innings he pitched to a 1.56 ERA and struck out 26. In early June Robbins headed to Vancouver where he continued to build up his pitch count. Robbins generally threw three or four innings but did go five on July 31. Robbins had one disastrous start where he gave up six runs but that was the only one that had more than two runs allowed. Robbins finished in Vancouver after two months and left with a 3.82 ERA and 46 strikeouts in 35 innings.

In New Hampshire Robbins made five starts and had a 1.52 ERA, a 1.10 WHIP and 26 K's in 23.2 innings. Robbins' last two starts were a five-inning shutout with three hits and a six-inning shutout with five hits.

Robbins doesn't blow the hitters away, his fastball sits 92-94. He credits his improvement this season to a cutter that he can ride in on right-handed hitters and an improved slider. Robbins was available in the Rule 5 draft but wasn't selected. He is the type of pitcher that needs to have top command to succeed in the major leagues and that can take time to come together and not one that can work in a forced bullpen role after a Rule 5 selection.

Robbins should return to New Hampshire to start 2023 and could be in Buffalo by mid-season.


23. CJ Van Eyk | RHP

Photo from @cjvaneyk on Instagram

Year Age Team G GS IP H/9 HR/9 BB/9 K/9 ERA
2022
23
N/A
0 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 N/A

There is no new news for CJ Van Eyk. He had Tommy John surgery in September 2021 and therefore missed all of 2022. He should be ready to pitch on Opening Day in 2023.

Van Eyk was a second-round pick in 2020 and had an up-and-down 2021 pitching for Vancouver. With inconsistencies in his delivery he varied from outstanding to bad. One game he would strike out a lot of hitters and in the next he would walk too many hitters. Over the season he averaged 11.2 strikeouts per nine and 4.4 walks per nine. With a year away from pitching Van Eyk would have time to work on whatever plagued his delivery, whether it be core strengthening or balance issues.

Niall O'Donohoe interviewed CJ last year after the TJ surgery so here are excerpts from last year's report and the interview.

Van Eyk throws a four-seam fastball along with a curveball, a changeup and a cutter after trying out a slider earlier. The fastball has touched 95 miles per hour according to Baseball America but FanGraphs reported a reading of 97 on the radar gun. MLB Pipeline rates his curveball as a plus pitch, his fastball an above-average offering and his changeup as average. Van Eyk told C's Plus Baseball that his focus is on improving his cutter.

"The slider/cutter thing where me and … the pitching office are still trying to kind of figure that one out but they seem to think it's a big-league pitch. I don't really see it yet (laughs) but that's what they think and we're still trying to figure that one out. Get the right spin down on it. But I would say my fastball and curveball were definitely complimentary of each other this year and they definitely helped me navigate through most lineups. And the changeup was just there to show to lefties I think but definitely, the usage of that is going to go up along with when I figure out that cutter, it will be good going forward."

Sportsnet'sShi Davidi adds that Van Eyk needs to improve his command and raise his strike-throwing percentage in the mid-60s range. which wound up at 63.6 percent.

His athleticism, delivery and pitch mix are the main reasons that evaluators give him a chance to develop as a major league starter.

Depending on his progress he could return to Vancouver to start 2023, or perhaps to New Hampshire if he has developed on the backfields.


22. Damiano Palmegiani | 1B/3B

Photo from csplusbaseball.ca

Year Age Team AB 2B 3B HR BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG
2022
22
DUN
195
14
1
11
23
47
2
0
.256
.351
.508
2022
22
VAN
228
11
0
13
31
60
3
0
.224
.335
.443

The Blue Jays are obviously convinced the power bat of Damiano Palmegiani will play in the big leagues as they drafted him not once but twice. Born in Caracas, Venezuela and raised in Surrey, B.C., Palmegiani was taken in the 35th round of the 2018 draft out of Vauxhall Academy High School in Alberta. He opted to go the college route instead by attending Cal State-Northridge but batted just .157 in 31 games with the Matadors in 2019. That was sandwiched by a couple of rough stints in summer ball with sub-.200 batting averages in 2018 with Lethbridge of the Western Major League Baseball League and in 2019 with Port Angeles in the West Coast League.

In an interview with C's Plus Baseball, Palmegiani admitted "maturity-wise in my head, I wasn't really sure of how to deal with failure and how to bounce back and stuff."

After the 2020 season was cancelled due to COVID-19, Palmegiani bounced back big time at the College of Southern Nevada in 2021. He swatted 26 home runs among his 42 extra-base hits and posted an on-base-plus-slugging percentage of 1.388. He also stole 14 bases over his 31 games with for the Coyotes. After earning NJCAA All-America First-Team honours, Palmegiani boosted his draft stock with a .304/.409/.482 batting line with State College of the MLB Draft League.

The Jays came calling again as they selected Palmegiani in the 14th round on the recommendation of scout Joey Aversa.

After agreeing to a $157,500 signing bonus and turning down a chance to head to the University of Arizona, Palmegiani saw action in 17 games with the Florida Complex League Blue Jays and slashed .333/.458/.538 line with two doubles, two homers and nine RBI.

Palmegiani started the 2022 season with the Dunedin Blue Jays and homered in his first Florida State League contest but he went into an 0-for-23 funk in April. He would catch fire in the month of June by hitting .327, which was 101 points better than his April BA and 96 points better in May.

That led to a June 21 promotion to Vancouver and a trip home for Palmegiani who also homered in his first Northwest League game. He also belted a couple of grand slams in July and August to help the C's reach the playoffs. After an OPS of .877 in July, Palmegiani cooled off with a .688 OPS in August and a .607 mark in September. Though he homered in Game 1 of the Northwest League final, that was his only hit of the series in 12 at-bats.

Palmegiani drew a walk in over 10 percent of his plate appearances in 2022 and limited his strikeout rate in the low-20 percent range. His batted ball luck was below average as he had a batting average on balls in play of .239 with Vancouver, 40 points lower than his BABIP in Dunedin. Still, his power is undeniable as he posted isolated slugging marks of .251 with Dunedin and .219 in Vancouver.

MLB.com rates Palmegiani as a slightly below-average hitter with above-average power on the 20-80 scouting scale, noting he has "strong hands and promising bat speed to…make his plus raw pop play in games."

With the glove, Palmegiani remains a work in progress. Baseball America cited his .800 fielding percentage mostly at third base at the College of Southern Nevada due to "poor footwork and hands" and believe his future defensive home will be in the corner outfield "where his average arm and fringe-average speed will play."

The Blue Jays have kept Palmegiani mostly at third base as he has made 84 starts at the hot corner over his two seasons so far in the system as compared to 20 starts at first.

In his brief 2021 pro debut in the FCL, Palmegiani made three errors at the hot corner in a dozen starts.

He did show improvement with Dunedin in 2022 with four miscues in 41 starts, resulting in a .952 fielding percentage. However, his defence regressed in Vancouver with six errors in 31 starts. He did show flashes of solid play at third base with his ability to come in on grounders and make strong throws.

The 6-foot-3, 180-pound Palmegiani is likely to return to Vancouver for a little more home cooking before moving on to New Hampshire. He will turn 23 years old on January 24.


21. Adrian Pinto | 2B

Photo from @DunedinBlueJays

Year Age Team AB 2B 3B HR BB K SB CS AVG OBP SLG
2022 19 DUN 157
5
4
2
23
32
18
7
.242
.375
.363

Adrian Pinto joined the Jays from Colorado in the Randall Grichuk trade. Pinto had an excellent 2021 season in the DSL for Colorado at age 18. For 2022 Pinto, at age 19, was assigned to Dunedin.

Pinto only played in 47 games for Dunedin. He went on the IL in early July and did not return. His two months in A-ball were tougher than his time in the DSL. He struck out more, he walked less, his BABIP was down and his power was down. His stolen bases were also down.

The first thing we have to note is that Pinto was in A-ball at age 19. Even though he struck out more it was at a 16% rate, which is not bad. He walked at a 12% rate which is good. So his eye at the plate was still good, albeit not at the high levels he showed in the DSL. His batting average was .242, with a .290 BABIP. Pinto is just 5'6" and is listed at 156 pounds. He likely needs to add muscle to fend off the stronger pitchers in A-ball. And despite the lower numbers his wRC+ was 119.

Defensively Pinto played short, second and centre field for Dunedin. Scouts believe he belongs at second base or in center field. In addition, he is speedy. He stole 18 bases this year in less than a third of a season.

Pinto could return to Dunedin in 2023 or possibly be sent to Vancouver. Hopefully, we will see a stronger Pinto who still has a good eye at the plate but who makes harder contact to bump up his average and power.


Join us tomorrow for more of the Blue Jays Top 30 prospects.

Blue Jays 2022 Top Prospects: 30 - 21 | 12 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
bpoz - Monday, January 09 2023 @ 08:53 AM EST (#425985) #
Very nice list. I only had 2 prospects in this group.

100 mph for TJ Brock. Wow!!
whiterasta80 - Monday, January 09 2023 @ 11:00 AM EST (#425987) #
Lots of prospects who could move very quickly in either direction.   Pretty standard for the 20-30 group I think. 

Britton's AFL stats give me some hope.

And count me as someone who believes in Irv Carter's build and pedigree. I'd probably have had him in the 10-20 range
scottt - Monday, January 09 2023 @ 11:31 AM EST (#425988) #
Even though the scouting consensus was Britton was not a good receiver behind the plate with a fringy arm according to Baseball America, he has spent the majority of his time defensively with 79 starts as a catcher over his first two pro seasons.

I'm having problems parsing this. Spent the majority of his time defensively (behind the plate)?
79 starts doesn't seem like a lot. What's missing is 20 starts as DH and 31 in the outfield.

For Carter, the learning year was probably 2022, not 2021.
Glevin - Monday, January 09 2023 @ 12:00 PM EST (#425989) #
Not a great group but a contending team likely won't ever have a great 20-30 prospect group. Pinto is most interesting here. A player with his speed should have much higher BABIP so would expect that to go up and showing patience is great. Very easy to see a future as a utility player. Not sure what his D is like a CF but that makes a huge difference because if he can be + there, all of a sudden, he's a much better prospect.
Michael - Monday, January 09 2023 @ 01:46 PM EST (#425991) #
That hitting profile for Zach Britton looks pretty great, except I guess he's on age to slightly old for level (he's a month older than Kirk, for instance) and players outside the top 20 so rarely make it. But still, I'm optimistic for https://twitter.com/zbritton33
John Northey - Monday, January 09 2023 @ 03:57 PM EST (#425992) #
Past 21-30 lists with names of note...
Always interesting to look at the old lists. 
Ducey - Monday, January 09 2023 @ 04:15 PM EST (#425993) #
I submit a quibble with the selection of Brock in the top 30.

A reliever with only 12 IP and a history of control problems? He played in the Big 10, so its not like he has the chance to come out of the hinterlands and get advanced training for the first time.

Sure he can throw 100 mph, but so can the Fernandez brothers picked up from the trash heap.
John Northey - Monday, January 09 2023 @ 08:25 PM EST (#425994) #
Looking at the past you can see how good players and even future All-Stars can be in the 21-30 slots...
2019 #22 Santiago Espinal
2017 #26 Jordan Romano
2016 #27 Calvin Biggio
2014 #28 Danny Jansen, #24 Matt Boyd
2013 #26 Rowdy Tellez
2010 #23 Drew Hutchison, #21 Noah Syndergaard

Not a ton of 'wow' but some there. Syndergaard (all-star), Jansen, Romano (all-star), Espinal (all-star), and Biggio have all had significant success (Biggio was the top bWAR guy on the Jays (non-pitchers) his first two years). Not bad for guys not in the top 20 prospects at one time for the Jays.
damos - Monday, January 09 2023 @ 08:59 PM EST (#425996) #
Perhaps best suited to a post below but Susan Slusser (Giants beat formerly A's beat) is reporting on twitter that Brandon Belt has signed a one year deal with the Blue Jays. The physical is complete and the deal will be officially announced tomorrow.
Cracka - Monday, January 09 2023 @ 09:06 PM EST (#425998) #
Just saw this - source is legit, but I'm still surprised. Belt is a 1B only at this point and hasn't played the OF in 3 years. Makes more sense if it's not a guaranteed deal but he apparently took physical so it almost certainly is. Another legit LH bat, albeit with big splits. Adding LH bats was obviously a top priority.
jerjapan - Tuesday, January 10 2023 @ 11:01 AM EST (#426030) #
Yeah, we have the minor league depth of a contender these days, not an up-an-coming team.  So no surprise to see some longshots here, but one thing I like about this group compared to previously years is the youth - 3 teenagers feels like a lot for this team, and the relative overall youth feels promising - especially given the lost COVID year and the guys rehabbing major injuries. 

I still don't really know how to consider age relative to level given the pandemic.  how are you guys factoring lost time in?
#2JBrumfield - Wednesday, January 11 2023 @ 02:26 PM EST (#426104) #
I'm having problems parsing this. Spent the majority of his time defensively (behind the plate)?
Clarified for your liking.
Blue Jays 2022 Top Prospects: 30 - 21 | 12 comments | Create New Account
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