Tony Fernandez—the greatest shortstop in Toronto Blue Jays history—has passed away at the age of 57. #BlueJays #RIPTony

Pitchers and catchers begin workouts on... 13 February? That's like two weeks from now. Is winter getting shorter? This is still Canada, right?

The Toronto Blue Jays unveiled their new powder blue uniforms at their annual Winter Fest event at SkyDome. #NewBlue #BlueJays


Cavan Biggio, Randal Grichuk, Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. model the new powder blues. (Image from BlueJays.com).

The top 30 is complete for another year. Here are some notes on those who are on, and who missed, the list.

This is one of those dumb things I took an inexplicable interest in and had to dig into.

The top 10 features three returnees from last year's top 10, five returnees from the top 30, seven who were in the system in 2018 and three players who are new to the system.

The middle 10 of our top 30 prospects has plenty of pitching, several of whom are very close to the major leagues. We also have a couple of catchers and two very different hitters.

It's time for the newest edition of the Batter's Box Blue Jays Top 30 prospects. This marks the sixteenth year of the top 30 here on Da Box. We are later than usual this year but its a quiet time for baseball news so this gives us something baseball related to discuss.

As we remind readers each year, the expectation of the top 30 prospects for any team is that one third will improve, one third will regress and one third will stay as they were. This year nine players from the 2018 list graduated to the big leagues. That is a big number and when you graduate that many players, it does impact the value of your minor league system. In case you forgot, the graduates are Vladdy, Biggio, Bo, Danny Jansen, Rowdy Tellez, Sean Reid-Foley, Thomas Pannone, Billy McKinney and Travis Bergen. Reese McGuire is still eligible for the 2019 top 30. Max Pentecost was also on the 2018 list and he retired so that makes ten players who are ineligible for the 2019 list before we get to on the field performance.

The Jays front office added more pieces to the system this year as part of the now annual mid-season clear-out. Simeon Woods Richardson and Anthony Kay are the two most notable additions. But not all of the prospects added via trades have made this list. As has been discussed on Da Box, the Jays system includes a lot of players who are possible, or fringe, prospects. Some people see them as prospects, some as long-shots and some as not a prospect. As a result there are many players who some Blue Jay fans consider to be prospects who did not make it onto our top 30. In another season, or if they were on a different team, they would be on a top 30 list.

After the ten players have to come off our list, the remaining 20 players from last year's top 30 go into Da Box's mixer with the newly drafted players, the international signings, the traded-for players and those whose performance took a step forward in 2019. The mixer goes to work, powered by the votes of our minor league team, and kicks out the definitive list of the Blue Jays top 30 prospects. Only fourteen of last year's top 30 are back. That means six have dropped off and we have 16 new entrants.

As usual the first 10 are published today, the next 10 tomorrow, and the top 10 on the day after. Let the discussion begin!

The long wait is almost over. Tomorrow we will publish the first installment of the Batters Box top 30 prospect list. We have been delayed this year due to life, but we pulled through over the Christmas holidays, adjusted for flu season and now are ready.

As 2019 ends and 2020 begins who were the Jays of the 10's?

New thread is required, and perhaps we can start to speculate on the shape of the active roster. I suspect most of what was going to happen has already happened, at least until mid-March when teams start to cut loose people they're just not going to have room for...

With a 4-year, $80 million contract, the Jays have signed the best free-agent pitcher still on the market.