We're all wondering about prospects as the Jays have made trades, promoted guys, have a lot in the top 100 right now.  So lets look at some history.  Baseball America has been doing Jay top 10 lists for prospects since 1983, top 100's for MLB since 1990 roughly.  So I thought lets do a summary of them.  I thought about others - MLB.com's (2012 and up), Baseball Prospectus (2007 and up) but BA's was easiest to find and actually has guys whose careers have ended for sure so more useful for this purpose.

The Minors are now set for a decade. No worries about the Jays ending up in Vegas again.

The Top Prospect Lists are coming at last from assorted sites.

As expected the Jays have decided to go with AAA Buffalo, AA New Hampshire, A+ Vancouver, A Dunedin (lowest level of the minors now). Goodbye to Lansing (who should find another affiliation - probably Oakland it appears), Bluefield, and GCL Jays. The DSL team might survive though.

For 2021 the minors will be changed drastically from 2019, and not just due to COVID.

Time for the summary of the top 30's from as many sites as possible. 

Baseball America has released its 2020 edition of the Top 30 prospects in the Toronto Blue Jays system.


2019 fifth-round pick Tanner Morris made it onto Baseball America's Top 30 Jays prospects list.

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

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.

Well, things are quiet so with the rule 5 draft, winter trades, free agents all over the place lets take a look at how others rate the Jays system as of now (Batters Box top 30 will be coming once the crew has a chance to do it right - best to do it right rather than rushed)

The Dunedin Blue Jays were to play their first playoff game Tuesday but Hurricane Dorian said, "Screw that noise!" Instead, this is a recap of Monday's action where #BlueJays affiliates were 3-1 on Labour Day to conclude the 2019 minor league season. #LetsGoBlueJays

The GCL season is done and they join Bluefield and the DSL Jays on the beach. Dunedin joined them after Thursday's game due to hurricane Dorian. Dunedin finish as Division Champions with no overall FSL champion. I looked at the stat leaders for 2019 for those four teams. In the playoff hunt, Vancouver were eliminated. Buffalo's tragic number is one and Lansing's is two.