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!

This is a pinch hit post from our own Mike D.

With the Winter Meetings now underway, I thought it might make sense to take stock of Ross Atkins’ transaction record since December 3, 2015, when he took the GM job vacated by Alex Anthopoulos.