Blue Jays Draft Review
After a long first half of the 2024 season the MLB draft is always a refreshing point in the midst of the chaos. The draft is always right around the All-Star game so players have their breaks to reset. Front offices decide to narrow down the lists of players they want to pick and let the draft unfold. They then have to pick players who they think will provide upside and be the next stars for their retrospective franchises. Another thing they can do is use the assets acquired in the draft to trade for major league help. Putting it simply, the draft is a huge time of year for teams to help their minor leagues or major league rosters. The Blue Jays had a very interesting draft from a college pitchers side of things but didn’t draft too many hitters, today there will be a review of the Blue Jays picks and thoughts of the Blue Jays draft.
Blue Jays First and Second Rounders
In the first round of the draft the Blue Jays selected Trey Yesavage. Yesavage was a college arm with lots of upside. Furthermore Yesavage was projected to be a top 8-15 pick in the draft including being ranked 11th by both MLB pipeline and Baseball America. Yesavage should move quickly through the minors as he is very advanced for his age. Additionally, Trey Yesavage could be up there for the Jays top prospect in the system already as multiple different people have already ranked him inside the top 3-4 in the Blue Jays system.
With the Blue Jays 2nd round pick they went with another college arm, Khal Stephen from Mississippi State. Stephen is a little bit older than Yesavage, being 21 years old but is less polished albeit he probably has a little bit more room to grow than what Yesavage has. Stephen should like Yesavage move quickly through the system and hopefully be an impact major leaguer by mid 2026 or early 2027. In the end both of these arms have good stuff and should move quickly to the majors.
Draft Picks 3-10
After the 1st couple of rounds of the MLB draft there tends to be a bit of a philosophy change from best player available to who fits in the organization best and who we think we can develop the best. For example, the Blue Jays have had lots of success developing players such as Spencer Horwtiz, Davis Schnieder and Leo Jimenez recently. Additionally, they have also seen the Blue Jays trying to focus on LHP in the minors like #1 prospect Ricky Tiedemann and other top 30 prospects, Brandon Barriera, Adam Macko and Kendry Rojas.
In this particular draft we saw the Blue Jays take Johnny King in the 3rd round who is a LHP from high school. King is a little bit similar to both Tiedemann and Barriera as both of them were also drafted out of high school and had lots of room to grow. Per MLB pipeline Kings best pitches are his fastball and slider which both have 55 grades on it meaning they are above average pitches. It will be very interesting watching Kings development next year to see if they slow play it like with Tiedemann or if they maybe want to try a different approach.
Other intriguing players included 4th rounders Sean Keys who is a 3rd baseman, Nick Mitchell who was a 4th round compensation pick for losing Matt Chapman to the Giants. After those 2 players the Jays went with a lot of players who were projected to go lower in the draft so they could sign King and Yesavage who both may go for overslot value as well as saving up money for potential later picks with upside.
Draft Rounds 11-20
At this time in the draft a lot of the top players are either taken or are committed to a college or university with plans to re-enter in the draft in a couple years with the hopes of being ranked higher. One interesting pick was 12th rounder Carson Messina who was a higher schooler. Messina already has a brother in pro ball and is looking to join him in pro ball. Messina is a pitcher who throws hard and has upside, two things the Blue Jays need in their farm system. He has the highest potential out of anyone drafted in the 11th-20th rounds for the Blue Jays picks.
Another interesting name of note here was D’Marion Terrell who was projected to go within the first 3-4 rounds of the draft but is a high schooler who has potential to go to college. Considering he was drafted in the 19th round it is very unlikely he will sign but hopefully the Jays will have enough money to sign him and Messina and pull them both away from college.
Summary of the draft
Overall, the Jays draft is likeable even if there were some suspect picks in there with maybe not enough upside in the middle rounds of the draft. The picks of Carson Messina, D’Marion Terrell and Johnny King provide lots of upside for a potential star assuming they sign and the early picks of Trey Yesavage and Khal Stephen provide a pitcher who should get to the majors quickly and provide much needed depth to the Blue Jays pitching and farm system.