Dunedin Blue Jays 2022 Season Review

Andrew Thriffiley is a Communications and Admin Specialist working for the Blue Jays in Dunedin.  Among his responsibilities is overseeing PR for the Single A Dunedin Blue Jays.  We caught up with him in Florida recently to talk about the impact of the pace-of-play rule changes on the D-Jays players, finally moving into their home ballpark after having played on the road (at various locations in the area), the exciting finish to the 2022 season for the club, and last - but by no means least - the wealth of prospects who passed through Dunedin last year.  

D.M. Fox:   I was going to ask and the new pitching and hitting lab, as well as the new player development complex - has that become kind of a draw for more guys to spend the offseason in the area?

Andrew Thriffiley:  Yeah, definitely the gym is a big draw.  Th pitching and hitting labs are very nice. I don't hear much about it just because they like to keep those things under wraps because those are pretty specialized areas. Not every team is utilizing them yet, so we like to keep some sort of competitive advantage with those types of things. But, we have a ton of batting cages and having coaches in the area. strength coaches, hitting coaches, pitching coaches…..there's always people to work with there.   So it's definitely beneficial for those guys to just stay behind. That's great. They enjoy it's

DMF:  So tell me about 2022 - was that possibly one of the more interesting and  more exciting years since you joined the organization?

AT:  It's tough to say, because that first season I was here back in 2019, that was a good baseball team….a very good baseball team and it just got cut short because of the hurricane (Hurricane Dorian cancelled the Florida State League final that year).  

The guys on that team…..Nate Pearson was there for a while. We had Alejandro Kirk, 

Ryan Noda, who was just destroying it in the Dodgers organization. I believe he just got traded (to Oakland).  There's a ton of the 2019 Dunedin Blue Jays on the A's right now. And…. 2018 Kevin Smith on the A's, Noda, Cal Stevenson. Kirby Snead’s over there…. So yeah, I'm excited for those guys to do well. But I mean, other than the 2019 team, that was very good. 

   This 2022 team, if you go back and look at the amount of players that left or that started with us or came to us and then got promoted is pretty incredible. I think we had, if you include rehabbers, we had almost 100 players put on a Dunedin uniform this year.   But we had a lot of players come through and it was a good team. And once those draft guys came in, I think that's when it really changed….. So prior to that when we were playing well, it was just guys were getting promoted. Because, at the end of the day, that's what this level is for.  

   So once we got that solidified core of players, who just were going to stay the rest of the year, like Josh Kasevich and Cade Doughty, and the pitchers that came in, that's when we started to really click on all cylinders….. And we drafted a lot of four year college guys this year, guys who had experience.

   A lot of the guys - especially Latin guys - are younger high school-aged guys, they're still learning how to play the game. So a lot of college guys are coming in just to get used to pro ball. It's still an adjustment. But once you get used to the adjustment of pro ball, if you're a good player , Single A level from college is probably about the same, or even a little bit below.  You’re going to see some more consistency, obviously with everybody throwing 95 to 100 these days, but the guys just hit, and we put together some good runs. We won six in a row against the (Jupiter) Hammerheads. With (manager) Donnie Murphy and (hitting coach) Matty Young and (pitching coach) Drew Hayes, just a great coaching staff. It was cool to be around and is obviously a tough end to the postseason, not winning at all, but still it was a special group to be around and it was cool to see how excited those guys were. 

DMF:  That was a pretty decent Mets farm team you played in the final.

AT:  We just kind of ran into a buzzsaw there…..we played well in the first game and you feel like if if that one goes a different way, Trey Cumbie just need to get one more out or if Ben Baggett comes in….. you can look at pitching matchups, but I think when you look at who came in, I’m  pretty confident with those guys and how they've done all year, and it didn't work out the way we wanted it to.  Roque Salinas in the second game of that championship series, he was trying to will us to a victory on his own - heck, he almost did, but it still was a cool experience and just a good team. 

DMF:  Well said…. Tell me how much of a difference finally having your own ballpark to play to play and for the first time in three seasons, how that was what that meant to the team.

AF:  Yeah, even for me, like back in 2019 we're playing in Jack Russell and 2020 doesn't happen and then in 2021 for the first part of the season we’re sharing with Toronto…….for me it's a cool experience because I get to watch regular season baseball here, and to be a small part when you have one of maybe three minor league parks all time have had major league games played in their stadium…..but to have to have our own stadium for a full season, I think the guys were just more comfortable. 

   We've had the renovations here on the fan-facing side but also from having regular season games on the player side, I tell people we easily have the best Single A locker room in all of minor league baseball, or probably one of the top two in all the minor league baseball, like outside of Buffalo, which is another one that just got beautiful renovations because of playing MLB regular season games there, and our minor leaguers have some nice places that they get to go play. So to be here all season, the guys really felt more comfortable and then made the most of it.

DMF:  Can you tell me about the pace of play rules. I've talked to a number of people about them. I kind of liked them once I got used to them. How did you find them, and how  the players find them?

AT:  It definitely worked. I mean, you can just look at the raw numbers, games were shortened by like an average of 30 minutes.  I think at the beginning of the season, it was kind of like just getting introduced to the new rules, but they were giving some grace period of letting guys get used to it.  So the timing, you would definitely see at the beginning pitchers were maybe a little behind or weren't as ready.  And then once the rules actually went into effect for about the first week or first week and a half, there were a good five or six violations a game, and then by the second week of the season, guys were just ready to go. They've gotten used to the pace, the pitch clock and pitchers understood it and I mean, pitchers as you know, they can be pretty set in their ways,  but some kind of liked the pace and don’t have to think, just get it and go. Some guys are a little more cerebral, and like to think about what they're doing. But I don't think it affected too much. And you could really feel it in the game. I think the fans enjoyed it.

  And I think coaches and players at the end of the day. enjoyed it as well. And then on the other side of it, and I think a little under-publicized was just the challenge system and the robo ump that's been in our league for two seasons and the first season there wasn't a challenge…..it did have some things to work out, and I think MLB did a great job of really speeding up the process of a ball and a strike being called and then the challenge system…personally I thought it was very effective - it was kind of a cool thing to see…….I think it gives the umpires a good chance to see, okay, what I'm seeing is maybe not a strike, but guys acknowledging that it is a strike, and I think it helps them out and it gives the players a chance - especially at our level, where they’re still learning - to get used to the strike zone as well.

DMF:  How about the new rule about shifts that was implemented part-way through your season?  

AF:    It was interesting to see….I don't know how much difference it really made because at our level, guys are more “see the ball/hit the ball,” just trying to hit the ball……they're not looking at pulling the ball,  they’re just trying to put the ball in play. There is some education that will have to happen with fans. Because I think at times, fans might not completely have understood what was going on. But once they started to pick up on what was happening, then they started to get it.

DMF:  So, let’s talk about this past season… it was kind of a tale of two seasons.  In the first half, you had possibly more prospects I've seen pass through since I can remember at that level, but then they were almost all gone by the second half. And then you had as you said, college guys who probably in another era would have been at Lansing at some point not long after they were drafted -  they helped with the turnaround but how much fun was that in the first half to watch? Watching Tiedemann, Zulueta, Palmegiani, Dominguez, Martinez, Nunez, Brown, Santos - how much fun was that?

AT: …it feels like forever ago, but when you think back, the individual performances in the first half were incredible. And we weren't really putting it together as a team I guess you could say, but to watch Ricky Tiedemann go out every seventh day and just absolutely dominate as an 19 year old was incredible. I went up to Toronto for the postseason, I was lucky enough to come up, and I think it was (Sportsnet’s) Arden Zwelling asking me about Ricky, and he said I've heard he's kind of like a left-handed Alek Manoah. I know. And I just jokingly said, I think he's just a left handed Ricky Tiedemann. Because I truly believe that Ricky is just that good. I mean, I think fans are going to love him in Toronto. He's a great human being and a great kid to work with. He's going to be very successful. He's got that drive. So and then he wins pitcher the month in April, and then I believe the order was Diahan Santos and wins it in May with his incredible performance and he's a guy that right now with his stuff can definitely be a bullpen arm….he did start to get challenged that at the higher level in Vancouver, but I mean, I think some of that just had to do with how many innings he was pitching, because he's not the biggest guy in the world. He's worked well with Drew Hayes and he's going to keep developing.  

   Trenton Wallace is another unheralded name that people don't really think about.  I think he gave up one run (actually, 0 runs in 19 IP), that whole month, and like four or five hits.

DMF:  Cory Popham told me Wallace deserved to be FSL pitcher of the month for June.

AT:  Yeah, he’s just another incredible pitcher.   Jimmy Robbins (just invited to big league spring training) was there earlier, he’s the kind of guy - really deep Blue Jays fans are on that name now. But he’s a guy that came out of college, and had just been hurt for a while and started with us just to start building up innings, and then he goes to Vancouver and then he goes to New Hampshire and he's flying through the system.

   I think Blue Jays fans should be encouraged by a lot of the movement in the system this year, and how many guys went up so many different levels.  Like when you look at a guy like Addison Barger, who went from Vancouver all the way up to Buffalo, another guy that was just with us last year is knocking on the door. 

   Dasan….to see his growth from when he started back in 2021 with us to last year where he looks like the prospect that everybody wants him to be, he's already a special defender,  and that bat as you saw in the Vancouver playoffs is really coming around. I think he's just going to keep growing on that.

   Damiano Palmegiani - another player that Canadians can be proud of.

He’s going to hit a lot of home runs….he’s got to just improve that defense a little bit more and just get on base, but just another great player. 

   I think fans should be excited about another couple of younger guys like Kendry Rojas.   He finished the season very strongly and could start for us next year as maybe like an opening day guy or it might be in Vancouver If he pushes for that promotion. Raphael Ohashi is another younger guy that I think has the tools to to have a chance to be a starter, he has the pitches to be able to do it and certainly has the drive and just super young, and Lazaro Estrada I think is another guy that just has maybe one of the best curveballs in all of minor league baseball that just isn't talked about.

DMF:  And you know, you only had him for I think one or two outings but the name that's come up a couple of times, the people I've talked to is Eliander Alcalde. 

AT: Yeah, I only saw him a couple of times. He was pretty impressive as well from the brief stint that I'd seen him. 

   I think that there are many pitches that I could talk about, but I think Cooper Benson also had a great season for us before he got shut down.

   Braden Scott is a bullpen arm who is up in New Hampshire now. There are a lot of bullpen arms coming that I think fans will be excited about and then obviously, I don't think you can tell the story of our season without Gaby Martinez and Rainer Nunez. Martinez had a month in May where I mean it was kind of like an Orelvis month back in 2021, where you felt like every time he came up to the plate it could be a home run. He was just special to watch, and just another quiet, soft spoken guy that is happy to be out there, and you saw him grow a lot even from April in May, where in April he didn't really have the best month. But when you talk to (Dunedin hitting coach) Matty Young about it, he talks about how like he knew he was hitting the ball hard in April and the results just weren't there, then in May those results finally come around and you see a pretty special month and, and then a well deserved promotion. 

   And then you could argue Nunez was the MVP of the whole league; he just came on on a nightly basis and it just felt like he got a hit every night, played great defense. Just a great player, great team guy….we had a lot of Latin guys on the team, he was definitely kind of a strong voice in the clubhouse. 

   Estiven Machado, I mean, defense is never going to flash a lot to some people, it's always about the bat, but he’s a great defender and he gets on base, and he does hit singles and he’s a switch hitter so maybe he can turn on a little bit of the power, but he’s just a good player and then, we didn't see him for long but Manuel Beltre when he got here, he started playing well and maybe hit .270 something. He’s just another creative player who at his young age will eventually become a very good leader.

DMF:  Nunez had a really good winter ball season, too.

AT:   Yes - his stock is certainly on the rise

   And then I briefly mentioned Roque Salinas. He came through a lot in the playoffs.

 Adrian Pinto got hurt, but I think he's another player that people can be excited about with that trade.

   And how do you not talk about Cade Doughty?  What a player.   I'm even slightly more biased because I'm a Louisiana kid myself.  He’s another guy who I felt like could hit a Home Run any time, and he was just so locked in on the pitching at this level, by the end of it that you didn't think he was going to make an out, to be honest.

   A guy that got a promotion (to Vancouver) pretty quick was Michael Turconi. He did some good things with us in his brief stint here. Well deserved promotion.  

DMF:  Yeah, Mason McCrae, who used to write for me and does incredible stuff on the draft…..he's got some kind of pipeline to college stats that nobody else has. I asked him after the draft who was a sleeper.  Among the players the Jays picked Turconi was at top of the list. 

AT:  They love his wing. I think you could maybe slightly comp him with  a Cal Stevenson, who used to be in our organization, and I’m very high on Cal. 

DMF:  Of that second half group, I guy who I really liked was Allen Roden.  As an old outfielder, I can maybe appreciate his skills better, but he just seems to get really good reads on the ball. He's got a ton of range in the outfield, and he's got a decent eye at the plate as well. 

AT:  Yeah, like I wish people could watch our games here in Dunedin and TV.

DMF:  you're not the only one. 

AT:  Some of the plays that he made here in Dunedin, there some of the best I've seen in my time here……what a great player, throws I guys out from the outfield, makes incredible catches, just did it all. I mean, an outfield with Dasan Brown and Allen Roden would be pretty cool to see. 

DMF:  And then Devonte Brown - how does the guy like that go undrafted to go with that toolkit?

AT:  Yeah, I mean he just gets on base. You can't deny that it….he just draws his walks. I don't know how many he drew while he was here, but it felt like he had at least a walk at night. I think that's something that was maybe missing in the lineup prior, that guy that could work the count and so he kind of was just keeping the line moving and he got his hits as well.

DMF: this was a team I understand that late in the season just seemed to be coming from behind all the time. That must have been exciting. 

AT:  Yeah, I kind of referenced that earlier. But that but six game win streak against the Hammerheads where we swept them, I want to say we had three walk offs in the week, and I think that's where it kind of turned around where it was we would either just do nothing for seven or eight innings, and then just say “okay, I guess we'll get the Win now,” or just slowly and methodically come back but I mean, they would just find a way to win and it just became a feeling in the clubhouse. Iy went from, are we going to make the playoffs to, Oh, we're not going to lose any more…..we're not only going to make the playoffs, we're going to have a real chance to win this thing.

   To see that kind of change to the feeling of, “ today's just going to be a win,’ was incredible to see - it's just a mindset,  when you get into that long season and you're maybe not winning every day, and it's becoming a grind, and you're seeing guys get promoted and you're trying to get promoted.  I think maybe you can lose a little focus on winning those kind of games. But I think the team once new guys came in and it was just kind of like “let's all just see what we can do and we got 30 or 40 games left, whatever it may be, and let's see how many of these we can win and maybe we make the playoffs”  and they made a pretty good run once we got there.

DMF:   And credit to Donnie Murphy and the coaching staff for pulling all those first time pros just getting used to playing every day and all of that, but he really must have helped with the transition. 

AT:  Yes, and especially when guys are getting drafted, when you're dealing with the bullpen, or dealing with just playing time like when guys are getting drafted, you just want guys to go out and play. You’re not really worried about situational things and you want to see your relievers just get innings and see what they can do at the pro level …..but every guy that came out of the pen in big spot, got outs when they needed to. And guys that weren't playing every day when they came in, they took their chances with guys like a Ryan McCarty, another undrafted guy out of Division Three that I think hit about .450 when he was in college and I think he's a little bit different….he’s not a fluky average guy like, I think he has some pop and he can hit some home runs.  Obviously when you’re at the Division Three level you're not maybe not seeing 90 mph fastballs every day. So that's probably something to get adjusted to. But I think he’s a kid that is pretty smart, and can learn quickly and there's definitely something there.

DMF:   So, we’re getting towards the end here - you're going to be waving goodbye to pretty much all of the roster from the second half. So who are some guys you think you might be seeing with the D-Jays next year?  Toman would definitely be one and guys that maybe - I don't know if you get to see much of the Complex League or anything like that, but just like names that you're hearing who you might be looking forward to seeing?

AT:  Yeah, I don't see a ton of them, but you hear like kind of like almost folklore of what's going on in the FCL. Like everybody talks about how great Tucker did in, so I’m hoping that he can be up with us and continue that success. Maybe we see our first round pick Brandon Barriera, hoping to see him possibly……obviously guys that were here before and went back down, like Rikelbin de Castro, a guy that break at the start of the year because he’s not a muscular kid to begin with but had some mono that he was dealing with.  I think he's gotten a lot of muscle back on him and I think he's gotten a lot bigger. So I think I wouldn't be surprised if he comes out this year and plays for us and does really well.

   And then another player I believe went up to double A and hit  well just to finish off the season, but might come back to us Robert Robertis.  I've heard great things about you played maybe a game or two for us….he's another name that I've heard. who can be pretty good. And you never know, we might get some of these guys back. That's my hope. But I mean, at the end of the day, we want to see them eventually get to Toronto, so I guess I can't be too selfish. 

DMF:  Andrew, anybody who’s under the radar? Anybody we've missed? You've been awesome with all the names that you've given me, but is there anyone you think we might have overlooked you'd like to give a plug to?

AT:  If there's one guy I would say is real no name here…..Ben Baggett is a guy that came out of college and he went to Stanford was just hurt his whole career. I think he put in like three college innings and was always hurt and came to us and again was hurt. 

   He finally came back this year, and he's got a fastball that just spins forever. I played catch with him one time, and he just spins it really well. He's big on the art of pitching and he’s big into throwing motions. He likes to study Javelin throwers, and just throwers of other things other than just a baseball. So he’s an interesting mind to pick of…..he was our Closer at the end of the year and he was pretty successful at what he was doing. So I think he's going to be a guy that gets a pretty big jump up to maybe AA or even AAA by the end of it because I think he's my age, about 26/27…he’s a very athletic guy, too - his wife is a professional soccer playe as well.

   A big thanks to Andrew for his time; with the limited online streaming of FSL games, he’s our eyes and ears in Florida.  All the best to him and the club this season.