Batter's Box Interactive Magazine Batter's Box Interactive Magazine Batter's Box Interactive Magazine
In this thread, we will talk about some of the players who missed out on the Top 30 as well as some more background on the ins and outs of the Top 30. One player from last year's list was traded, Yosver Zulueta. Three others graduated, Addison Barger, Leo Jiménez and Spencer Horwitz.

Eleven players dropped off the list. Enmanuel Bonilla, Connor Cooke, Damiano Palmegiani, Chad Dallas, Hagen Danner, Cade Doughty, Dahian Santos, Alex De Jesus, CJ Van Eyk, Tucker Toman and Michael Dominguez.

Some of those pitchers dropped due to injury issues. Guys like Dallas and Cooke missed time and could easily be on next year's list if they bounce back. Bonilla and Toman were both rated in the Top 30 at one time but they haven't developed. Toman was on last year's list, but that was hopeful rather than based on performance. Bonilla was probably the most disappointing player of those who dropped off, he showed nothing much in the Complex League. He is still young but a .186 batting average and a 35% K rate does not bode well.

Danner and De Jesus did get votes but not enough to make the top 30, they just missed. Danner was injured most of the season and was waived in December before being claimed recently by Seattle. DeJesus spent the season in New Hampshire. He hit .260 but had a 28% K rate.

Many of the hitters drafted in the 2024 draft had excellent cameos with Dunedin. Sean Keys, Eddie Micheletti Jr., Aaron Parker, Brock Tibbitts and JR Freethy all played well. But we need to see more before we can place them in the Top 30. These players had between 70 and 80 at-bats, just a taste of what's to come.

Similarly, there are a couple of very young pitchers at the lower levels who showed a little something that might or might not develop into something. They are Daniel Guerra and Roberto Batista. Also, Edward Duran is a catcher in Dunedin who has shown flashes with the bat.

Similarly, some players who joined the organization at the trade deadline haven't made the list. Eddinson Paulino and Jacob Sharp are two of these. Neither seem to be Top 30-caliber but sometimes a trade can either depress stats in the short term or reenergize a player for their second season.

The Jays had plenty of pitchers going under the knife in 2024. From the Top 30, Ricky Tiedeman, Barriera, Dallas and Maroudis had UCL surgery. Nolan Perry is another pitcher who could have made the Top 30 if he didn't have surgery.


Connor O'Halloran

Pitchers can always add a pitch or tweak a pitch to become more effective. Dominguez, Connor O'Halloran and Devereaux Harrison are three such players who were close to the Top 30 but need a little more to make it.

The Jays have a ton of very good relievers, many at the AAA level who aren't in the Top 30. The Jays opted not to give many of them a shot at the major leagues in 2024. Are they good enough now or could they find something to take them up to the major leagues? Hayden Juenger, Van Eyk, Cooke, Santos and Brandon Eisert are close. Eric Pardinho could have made this list but he was a free agent and signed back with the Jays in late December.


Kai Peterson

Some other under-the-radar pitchers include Kai Peterson who led the organization in K rate but also walked a ton of hitters. The next three pitchers in K rate were Bo Bonds, Josh Mollerus (traded to Texas) and Johnathan Lavallee. All of them, like Peterson, had walk rates that were too high. Andres Tolhurst is another pitcher with a big K rate but he had a decent walk rate.


Anders Tolhurst

Riley Tirotta did have a good year in the system. But guys like him, Rainer Nuñez and Palmegiani who aren't the best fielders need to hit a ton to make it to the majors.

That's your Top 30, and others, for 2024. I hope you enjoyed the coverage. Thanks again to #2JBrumfield, aka Niall O'Donohoe, aka C's Plus Baseball, for joining me in this endeavour.

Blue Jays 2024 Top Prospects - The Others | 14 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
soupman - Wednesday, January 15 2025 @ 09:28 AM EST (#455394) #
great work as usual - thanks!

I was really impressed by what I saw from Irv Carter last year. My understanding was that last year he was coming back from some and injury. I didn't catch mention of him on the the list this year - do I need to be disabused of this enthusiasm?
Gerry - Wednesday, January 15 2025 @ 09:41 AM EST (#455396) #
I didn't see much of him this season but his fastball was considered too straight in previous seasons. Also while he did pitch well in Dunedin he walked 31 hitters and hit eight more in 56 innings.

He did do better when he got to Vancouver but still needs to show a little more.

He does seem to be a good guy and he was in Toronto this offseason visiting hospitals with Dasan Brown. So kudos to him for that.
John Northey - Wednesday, January 15 2025 @ 09:43 AM EST (#455397) #
Thanks to the minor league gang for doing this each year. I love going through it and looking at past lists to see how guys move up and down them.  I'm working on a big summary of all years and how we've done looking back.  It'll be interesting, but very time consuming so it'll be a few weeks.  FYI: Enmanuel Bonilla was 10th last year, now off the top 30.  Amazing how injuries can derail a career before it even gets going.
Ryan Day - Wednesday, January 15 2025 @ 12:12 PM EST (#455399) #
Bonilla's drop from 10th to Nothingth seems pretty extreme - probably for both the high and the low. He'll only turn 19 this month and he's had one good season and one (very) bad one - that's a better career than Brandon Barriera or Landon Maroudis has managed so far. I don't think we should get too excited over 50 good games in the DSL nor too discouraged over 50 bad ones in the GCL, given the tools that got everyone excited about him in the first place.
Glevin - Wednesday, January 15 2025 @ 12:49 PM EST (#455404) #
If Bonilla had some holes or things to fix, I'd agree with you, but he was awful. Worst player on the team. International prospects are very hard to predict so plenty of guys have good tools at 16 but what a player looks like at 16 doesn't matter much when they're awful at 18. Obviously, Jays aren't going to give up on him and you never know but as of right now, IMO, he isn't even a prospect. Pitcher development is less linear and stats matter less. I'd take a guy in A ball throwing 98 with control issues over a guy throwing 91 and dominating.
John Northey - Monday, January 20 2025 @ 01:31 AM EST (#455774) #
FYI: working on a killer thing with every last top 30 we've put in, every top 10 BA, and a lot of others. The 2 guys mentioned the most on these lists are Miguel Hiraldo, and Anthony Alford 7 times each. Alford peaked at #1, worst was #22, Hiraldo ranged from #8 to #29. Nate Pearson on our lists 6 times ranging from #1 to #5. None of those 3 have achieved much. Other's on the list 6 times were Eric Pardinho, Reese McGuire, Rowdy Tellez, Hagen Danner, and Orelvis Martinez. Will Orelvis break the curse of little results from being on these lists forever? I think McGuire has the most fWAR of them all at 4.4 (I'm figuring out a way to get the WAR for all of them, then easily update annually). Tellez is at 0.0 fWAR lifetime (peak of 1.1 in 2022 with Milwaukee, worst a -0.7 the next year with them). Weird to be at 0.0 WAR after 666 games. Pearson is in the negatives as is Alford. We weren't the only ones overrating these guys, so did Baseball America and others. Vlad was on it 4 times, ranging from #1 to #2 (yeah, he was always obvious to be a star). Bo ranged from #2 to #9 on his 3 times on the list. The best guys shoot through the system quick enough to not be on it too much. If you are on the list 6+ times odds are you aren't making it and are more minor league hype than ML ballplayer it seems. FYI: Delgado on BA's list 4 times, as was Roy Halladay. (BA's lists go back to 1983).
bpoz - Monday, January 20 2025 @ 08:20 AM EST (#455779) #
Great project John. Good conclusions as well like the more often you make the list the higher rate of failure and vice versa. Injuries caused Pearson and Pardinho to stay prospects for a long time. BA seems to put a prospect in their top ten the year drafted due to pedigree.
bpoz - Monday, January 20 2025 @ 08:57 AM EST (#455782) #
I am working on a project inspired by Marc Hulet about good pens being built cheap or something like that. Here are my results.

TB had zero home grown pitchers in their pen. So trades and waiver claims. Their MO is to pay little.

Minnesota had 3 homegrown out of 10 pitchers. Not a big spender but spend more than TB. Maybe they are a typical spending team.

I cannot make conclusion but can mention possibilities. 1) A surprise can happen by an over performance. 2) The richer the team the less they gamble on unknowns. With less unknowns there should be less chance of striking gold.

So I just did 2 teams because my computer skills are basically none so I took the time to click on each reliever with 20IP or higher to find out if he was home developed.

jerjapan - Monday, January 20 2025 @ 12:50 PM EST (#455800) #
Yeah, Marc's not wrong about the best way to build a bullpen. 

The problem is a lot of the useful arms we've cycled through have become useful elsewhere.  Even as the FO focuses more on a strictly-bullpen developmental path for some prospects, even with our relentless waiver claiming. 

The problem with relievers is that they are too variable to predict compared to starters.  Less data = less predictability.  You'll get big fluctuations year to year in some cases, and the injury risk for all these flame throwers is high. 

I don't mind spending on the bullpen, but I sure would prefer it if we didn't have to. 

Two teams walked away from Hoffman for a reason.  Relievers are a different species these days.  He's worth the risk, to my mind - both those teams were willing to give him more money and term. 

bpoz - Monday, January 20 2025 @ 07:52 PM EST (#455876) #
Agreed jejapan.
mendocino - Monday, January 20 2025 @ 10:43 PM EST (#455890) #
Francys Romero@francysromeroFR · 1h
Dominican right-hander pitcher Marcelo Marcelino has officially signed with the Blue Jays.
Bonus deal: $10,000.

Francys Romero@francysromeroFR · 2h
The Blue Jays officially signed Dominican shortstop Juan Sanchez today.
Bonus deal: $1,000,000.

Francys Romero@francysromeroFR · 5h
The Blue Jays officially signed their star player from the 2024-25 international class: Dominican SS Cristopher Polanco.
Bonus deal: $2,300,000.

Francys Romero@francysromeroFR · 5h
Cuban RHP Alexander Valiente officially signed with the Toronto Blue Jays today.
Bonus deal: $75K plus $50K scholarship.
Fastball: 93/96 mph. Cuba’s U-23 team member at the 2022 World Cup.

Francys Romero@francysromeroFR · 3h
The Toronto Blue Jays have officially signed their top two players from Venezuela 🇻🇪:
SS Kennew Blanco ($900,000)
SS Elenaiker Coronado ($850,000)
mendocino - Monday, January 20 2025 @ 11:47 PM EST (#455895) #
Francys Romero@francysromeroFR · 44m
*Bonus correction here: SS Kennew Blanco ($600,000).
John Northey - Monday, January 20 2025 @ 11:50 PM EST (#455898) #
Thanks mendocino - so Marcelo Marcelino is a non-factor on the cap ($10k or less = doesn't count towards it). The rest add up to $5.175 million. Cap is $8,261,600 (with the $2 mil from Cleveland factored in) so roughly $3.39 mil left. BA had the Jays with pre-2025 agreements with Cristopher Polanco, Juan Sanchez, Elaineiker Coronado, and Kennew Blanco - all signed. Hopefully they find some diamonds in the rough that no one else grabbed up pre-January 15th.
bpoz - Wednesday, January 22 2025 @ 02:13 PM EST (#456026) #
I liked the 2024 DSL team because I thought they were good. But I reanalyzed and it seems they were good only because the FCL and FSL teams were so bad in comparison. So now I am disappointed. But the position players had good size. Pitchers Hechavarria and Omosako were good. Omosako hardly walks anyone and also does not K many.
Blue Jays 2024 Top Prospects - The Others | 14 comments | Create New Account
The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.