Future Blue Jays Newsletter

A potential Blue Jays Rule 5 draftee, a look back at Anthony Alford’s time as a Blue Jay, and a conversation with Blue Jays Minor League Pitching Development Coordinator Cory Popham in this edition.

Let’s get this party started.

CJ Van Eyk - Rule 5 Risk?

The good folks over at Baseball America took a look at the top Rule 5 candidates in next month’s cull of the players exposed to that draft. Surprisingly, they feel that RHP C.J. Van Eyk, Toronto’s 2nd round pick in the truncated 2020 MLB draft, could be taken by a rebuilding club in a relief role.

You have to feel for Van Eyk. He pitched only 20 innings in his draft year due to Covid all but shutting down college baseball, and after a promising 2021 with Vancouver, he missed all of 2022 recovering from Tommy John, and had his, uh, ups and downs this year.

Look, compared to maybe cancer or some other life-threatening illness, recovery from Tommy John is a walk in the park. But the thing I hear time and again from guys going through it is that it’s both a lonely experience, because you tend to be going through your recuperative drills on your own, and also because there’s always that nagging doubt that tends to go through a TJ pitcher’s head, a voice that says, “oh, crap, you may have done it again,” with the slightest of tweaks or pains in that throwing arm. And if there’s one thing we’ve learned over the years, it’s that not every pitcher follows a straight line in terms of their recovery. Van Eyk came back with Dunedin with a pair of pitch count-limited outings in May, but had some soreness and was shut down for almost a month. He made another appearance with Dunedin before being once again shut down for almost six weeks. He finally came back in nature’s sauna, the Complex League, then made two starts and one relief appearance in the FSL, before finishing the season at AA.

The Blue Jays sent Van Eyk to Arizona to make up for lost innings, and by all reports he found himself in the desert, pitching in the championship game. Still, the Blue Jays felt that given his uneven return, it was worth a gamble to leave him exposed when 40 man rosters were finalized last week. And it’s a reasonable risk the organization has taken, given that his velo sat 92-93 this season. But the good folks at BA feel that his 12-6 curve could get big league hitters out right now, and if maybe he was moved into a relief role his fastball could play up a tick or two. So, perhaps a team might take a flyer on Van Eyk, get him to spring training, and see what happens. It’s not quite nothing ventured, nothing gained, but the price for drafting and returning a Rule 5 pick is peanuts in today’s game.

As you’ll read during my interview with Cory Popham, the Jays are still very high on Van Eyk; the front office obviously feels exposing him is a calculated risk. BA believes he’s one of the top relief prospects in the draft.

Anthony Alford

Athletically, things always seemed to come easy for the Petal, MS native.

In 2012, he became the first athlete to be named State Mr Baseball and Mr Football in the same year. Because of the immense popularity of the college gridiron game in his part of the country, the pressure was on Alford to continue on in football, and he accepted a scholarship offer to Southern Mississippi. He became the first freshman Quarterback to start for the Golden Eagles.

But the Blue Jays were not dissuaded by Alford’s pigskin dreams. This was the era of GM Alex Anthopoulos and Amateur Scouting Director Blake Crosby, a time when the Blue Jays were always on the lookout for the high risk/high reward player. They took Alford in the 3rd round, and gave him a $750K bonus - nearly twice what other picks in that pre-slot era round signed for - to be a part time player while he focussed on football.

Alford played only twelve baseball games in his first two seasons, but off-field problems resulted in his transferring to Mississippi, and a change in his position to Safety. This seemed to shift his perspective, and Alford got married in 2014, Anthopoulos offered him a contract he simply couldn’t turn down, so in early September, he announced he was leaving school in order to pursue a pro baseball career full time. The Blue Jays quickly sent Alford to Australia for a crash course in pitch recognition in the Down Under winter league, and he firmly established himself as a Top 100 prospect the following year, slashing .298/.398/.421 at Lansing and Dunedin. He was obviously toolsy-but-raw, having fallen behind his draft cohort peers by about 1000 At Bats, but there was no mistaking his speed: Alford showed game-changing ability on the basepaths.

Alford seemed to take a bit of a step back in 2016, but the Blue Jays had seen more than enough, and decided to put him on the 40-man roster in advance of the Rule 5 draft that year. In hindsight, that was probably a good move - there were 8 teams that had lost more than 90 games that season, and it wouldn’t have been a stretch for any of them to select Alford and continue his development in the big leagues if he hadn’t been protected. Once again, the Blue Jays faith in Alford was rewarded, as he rebounded in the first six weeks of the 2017 season at AA.

That’s when his career began to accelerate; it probably also hastened his departure from the organization. The Blue Jays, thin on OF depth, called him up from New Hampshire in May. He recorded his first MLB hit on May 23rd, but broke his wrist a few innings later, and didn’t return to the bigs that season.

Alford opened the 2018 season in the DL with a hamstring injury, and spent much of the season at AAA, hitting only .105 over 19 MLB ABs. He appeared to have made the team out of spring training the following season, only to have the front office change their minds and send him back to Buffalo. Alford was back within a week, but the organization had likely seen enough: they acquired the mediocre Socrates Brito, and Alford spent much of the season at AAA once again. He appeared in only 13 games in 2020, and the Pirates plucked him off waivers after the season. He got into only 41 games in two seasons with the Bucs before Cleveland signed him as a free agent in May of 2022. They released him before the end of the month.

Alford then signed on with the KT Wiz of the Korean League, and its there where he appears to have hit his stride. Alford has posted a .839 OPS in two seasons in the KBO, and was named to the league’s all-defensive team this week.

Personally, I love the guy. Anthony came from a difficult background, but he’s one of the kindest and warmest people you’d ever want to meet. He and his wife Bailey, along with their two young kids, appear to have adjusted well to life overseas. When Alford was sent to Australia, I reached out to him about his experience there, and he patiently and thoroughly typed out responses to my many questions on the flight home. He found himself in a tough situation at Southern Miss - the AD had quit, most of the football coaching staff had been fired, and Alford found himself being booed after the program had gone from 12-2 before his arrival to 0-12. He was behind the developmental 8-ball in baseball terms as a result of his football exploits, and putting him on the 40 - while admittedly a reasonable move - compacted his timeline.

So, was Alford rushed?

That’s a tough question to answer. The Blue Jays were in a rebuilding mode, but they didn’t seem to want to give Alford time to learn and play through his mistakes. His athleticism certainly is tantalizing, but as they say: baseball isn’t a game you play as much as it is one you practice. And by treating the game as a part-time pursuit during his football years (and he fully admits the pressure to go in the football direction was overwhelming), Alford missed out on some critical skill development.

I put this question to a former high-ranking member of the Blue Jays organization, who agreed to speak off the record, and he seemed to feel Alford was rushed:

I could not agree with that final sentence. Will we see Alford playing stateside again? That’s a tough question. I’m sure he would like one more shot at the big leagues, but he will also be 30 years old next year, and with a young family, he may opt for the security of the KBO. How knows ? Had he grown up in more of a traditional baseball belt, he may have opted for that sport at a younger age.

Tuesdays With Cory

I spoke a few days ago with Blue Jays Minor League Pitching Development Coordinator Cory Popham, a regular in this and other spaces I’ve written in over the past few years. This is a downtime in player development - players can not be asked to work out at a team’s complex for a six week period that runs from roughly mid-November to January 1st (that doesn’t stop players from coming to the Blue Jays MiLB Complex on their own, or follow the off-season program the team has recommended for them at home). I last caught up with Cory in the Vancouver Canadians’ dugout in April, so we had plenty to talk about.

D.M. Fox: Cory, before we start to talk about individual prospects - and I have quite a list - I thought I would ask about the impact of the pitching lab. We’ve heard about the tweaks Ricky Tiedemann and Sem Robberse made there last season, and in a recent BA article, the organization ranked 6th over in their Statcast rankings - their combined curveball chase rate, which was the highest in all of minor league baseball, has to have been influenced at least in part by the lab.

Cory Popham: The lab has been another great tool for us in trying to help guys throw harder, improve a pitch, or add a pitch. We’re still constantly trying to learn from the information we collect, and how we can implement it more effectively for more players.

DMF: So, any conversation about pitching prospects in the system has to begin with Tiedemann. I know that this was not necessarily a linear year for him in terms of development - there were some definite signs of rust when he went back to New Hamsphire, but you have to be pleased with how he finished the season against fairly tough competition in Arizona.

CP: Yeah, we saw some of that rust in New Hampshire, we started to see him get more comfortable on the mound in Arizona, started to see better command of his stuff. You and I have talked before about how sometimes it takes a guy who has had an injury time to trust everything has healed, and that he can go back at it like he did before. That really came through in his last couple of outings. We’re really pleased with how he did in Arizona.

DMF: Where, in your opinion, did he make the most progress this season? What does he still need to work on?

CP: I think we were pleased with where the slider kept improving on the year. The shape was inconsistent throughout, but it started to get back into the shape in the Fall League we were looking for. I think that the biggest thing for Ricky is just getting some of that familiarity, that comfort back with his changeup. It's a really good pitch, and he shied away from it a little bit this year just because he didn't have great feel for it. But I think that, you know, if he can get the feel back for his changeup and nail that down, he's going to be in a really good spot next year.

DMF: Yeah, that changeup is such a feel pitch. The next guy we should talk about is Chad Dallas. I probably saw more of his starts than any other starter in the organization this year, and what a turnaround he had. What were the keys to this ?

CP: First off - there’s a lot to credit Chad for. He had a tough first season with us, and he came in and worked his butt off in the offseason. I think primarily the biggest thing we saw right out of the gate was that he was throwing harder, and he made a deliberate effort to do that. He picked up a mile per hour on the year, which is impressive for him. I think another part of it is just the work he did with our pitching coaches and where he targeted his fastball - he was able to locate it up in the zone and the results were better. So, the extra velo and the placement of his fastball was definitely a part of that, and then when he got to New Hampshire, he added a cutter, and it became a pretty good pitch for him

DMF: What does he need to do to get to the next level?

CP: I think is just continuing to refine his arsenal, continuing to execute the way he has been. I think we're really excited with the direction that he's gone in. I think we're really excited to see how, if he can get his stuff to carry a little bit better in a shorter outing. So his stuff in Vancouver, when he was going once a week, he was going a lot harder. And it kind of took a dip as he went to a shorter turn between starts. But I think throwing strikes there is going to be pretty important for him. And especially if he continues to locate that fastball, it’s really going to change hitters’ eye levels.

DMF: Adam Macko is next on my list. He started the season kind of slowly, but he has dominant over the last six weeks or so of the season, and you have to be thrilled that he put together a healthy year.

CP: Yeah, he was really impressive. And I think a large part of that is a testament to him. and the staff up in Vancouver, pitching coach Joel Bonnet, and (assistant pitching coach) Austin Bibens-Dirx did with him.

And I think part of was that we challenged him - at the start of the year, we wanted him to get a full year of work underneath his belt, he hadn’t had a full healthy season, and we wanted him to reduce that walk rate. And the more he was around Joel and Austin, he realized that he didn’t have to tinker, and could trust his stuff.

DMF: Yes, it was great to see him stay healthy all year - did he even miss a start?

CP: No he didn’t, and again, what a testament to the whole Vancouver staff.

DMF: I was talking with the Vancouver PA guy in late August, and he was concerned that the C’s had really stumbled down the stretch, some guys had been called up to AA, a couple were sick, and many were running on fumes. But I told him, “You just have to win one game in Everett, and with Macko on the mound, that’s all but a lock. And that sure turned out to be the case.”

CP: Definitely. The team had to have a lot of confidence heading into that series with Adam starting the opener.

DMF: I know we as fans tend to expect these guys to be dominant right from the start of the season, but sometimes the development plan doesn’t always work that way, and to some extent that was the case with Adam.

CP: Yeah, and there's sometimes I think some guys need to...struggle a little bit before they're willing to potentially make changes, or there are times where we think something might work.

DMF: Because they seemed to make progress almost in tandem this year, I thought I’d get you to talk about Connor Cooke and Mason Fluharty. Both made huge strides this year.

CP: I'll start with Connor first….he has incredible stuff. He throws hard, his breaking pitch moves a ton. And he's been working on implementing a changeup…. so I think now the goal for him going forward is can he hold that velocity throughout an entire season? He started to fall off a little bit towards the end. And so we're working towards keeping that floor of his velo high throughout the year.

And then also just mixing in that changeup a little bit more, and executing his slider better - the stuff is there, it’s just a matter of how well can he execute that stuff, so that’s he’s a viable big league option…..we don’t think he’s far off there.

And then Fluharty, I think the biggest thing is he’s a competitor, he goes right after guys, he went up to AA, wasn’t phased at all. The big thing that Mason has been working on is trying to throw a little bit harder - his stuff is really good, but we feel that if he adds a tick or two, it will play up better.

DMF: Just building off what you said about Connor, just out of curiosity, what is the key to helping a guy keep his velocity through the season? Is it recovery? Is it in-between appearances, routines? Is it plyometrics? What are the keys in that situation?

CP: A little bit of all those things. I think that one thing we're also trying to do with a lot of guys, is deliberately trying to add velocity in the offseason with more than just guys who need it. So I think that a lot of the time in the past, we've had guys who people would say throw sufficiently hard, and we didn't necessarily push the envelope there. So I think what we're trying to do with Connor is just to raise his bar in the offseason through his strength and conditioning work, his throwing program and drill work. And then in the season, it's everything you just touched on: how he undulates his throwing program. Does he take the statewide and recover when he needs to? Is he able to throw it at a high intensity when he needs to?And his routines with our high-performance staff.

DMF: And just one last thing to build on that, too: when pitchers go home in the offseason, does the organization provide them with a training program to follow?

CP: So the way that our structure guys would meet with the staff at each affiliate, and they talk through kind of what the focus of the offseason is going to be. And so they'll sit down and get programming from the strength trainers and the athletic trainers, and then we send out throwing programs as well. And those are completely optional. The majority of the guys have opted in, but we’re open if guys think they can get programming from a place like Driveline….we’re definitely open to learning and collaborating with them. The majority of guys have a weightlifting and throwing program they can access on their phones.

DMF: Two guys we didn’t get to see because they were in the Complex League - but we heard a lot about them - were Fernando Perez and Nolan Perry. What can you tell me about them?

CP: We're really excited about both of them. Fernando - he’s a competitor, the results speak for themselves. He was part of a no-hitter, and for a young kid, has great command, and control of the zone….the walk rates are really low. He’s gotten bigger and stronger - he was up to 96 toward the end of the season - credit to our coaches at the Complex there, Brendan Kelly and Tony Caceras - and he has a really good changeup. I think the next step for Fernando is to work on polishing his command of the breaking ball…he’s got a smaller slider that he still needs to get more power behind, and we think he’s going to be able to do that.

As for Perry, I think the ERA (7.28) was a bit deceptive there, because there were a couple of outings where he got hit around a bit….as far as the things that he can control go, the strikeouts to walks, the work on a daily basis…we couldn’t ask more from him, and we’re really excited about next year for him.

DMF: We talked earlier about development not always taking place in a linear fashion, and that certainly was the case for Brandon Barriera in 2023.

CP: Yeah. It's obviously not the year that Brandon, or we would hope for Brandon, but I do think that it's an opportunity for him to learn that it isn't going to be a straight line. And he is working incredibly hard right now on getting his body in better shape and cleaning up some things with his arm action, so we think that even though this wasn’t an ideal season for him, he’ll be better for it.

DMF: A guy who really impressed me this year was Mike Dominguez. Both you and Joe Sclafani had mentioned last season the maturity that he showed, and it really came through this season.

CP: The biggest thing with Mike is - we know he can get guys out. He can make the ball move in a lot of different ways. The area where he needed to make more progress in was his offseason work. In the past couple of years, he’s come into spring training kind of behind the gun. We’re really excited in that he’s already put in a ton of work this offseason, to the point that he’s ready to get to the next level not just with his routines and physically, but with his pitch mix as well. Another thing we’ve been working on tightening up with him is his walk rate….his miss pattern with his fastball last year was up on the arm side, so a large part of what we’re working on right now is trying to shrink that miss, because when his stuff is in the zone, it’s really good.

DMF: So now we’ve come to one of my favourite parts of our conversation - who are some guys we haven’t talked about, some under-the-radar types we should know about?

CP: So, one guy who maybe isn’t under the radar but we’re excited about is C.J. Van Eyk. We saw him do well in the Fall League, he got to start the All Star game. We think he’s on a pretty good trajectory right now, looking forward to see what he does next season.

Devereaux Harrison is a guy who, as you know, transitioned into a starting role in Vancouver, and was really impressive. Now that he’s got a year under his belt, we’re excited to see how he’ll go about pitching and executing his stuff - the stuff that he has should lead to more strikeouts in the future, and we’re looking forward to seeing how he does next year.

Ian Churchill had a great year, hasn’t given up a pro Home Run yet - I’ve probably just jinxed him - but he’s been really impressive, and started to implement a slider at Dunedin, and his results were good and he became someone they really leaned on in Vancouver.

DMF: Can I ask for some injury updates? Dahian Santos is the guy I’m most curious about, we haven’t heard a whole lot since he was shut down at the beginning of July.

CP: He was able to throw some live BPs at the end of September and finished up healthy. The big thing for him is to be able to continue to add strength and put on some more weight so that he can handle the duration of the season - we’ve talked to him about the importance of that. We also think that putting on a bit more weight will help him throw a little bit harder. He really has an impressive slider, his change is good, now it’s just a matter of going out and executing those pitches for strikes. He finished the year in a really good spot, and he’s trending in the right direction.

DMF: How about Hagen Danner?

CP: Danner’s doing well, too. He’s back home and is progressing. He’s started his throwing program and is building up to get ready for spring training.

DMF: I know injuries are a fact of life when you’re developing pitchers, but the Blue Jays system - knock on wood - was pretty healthy from that standpoint.

CP: We were really fortunate in that regard, and it’s a credit to a lot of people in the system’s hard work. It was definitely a deliberate effort, it was one of the goals as a pitching department. It’s something we hope we can continue in 2024.

DMF: That’s all the questions I had on my list - anything else you’d like to add?

CP: Yeah, we’re excited about a couple of guys we picked up this year - Jauron Watts-Brown and Landen Maroudis are two we’re really looking forward to seeing. They did something similiar to what some of our other guys like Ricky and Chad who threw a loy of innings in their draft year did - they worked hard and made some good progress. Kelena Sauer (15th round pick) had a pretty good start to his professional career, we’re excited to see where he’s at next year. And a guy not from last year’s draft class, Ryan Jennings is someone who had a little setback, but came back at the end of the year and pitched really well for Vancouver - we’re looking forward to seeing what a healthy season for him looks like. He’s got good stuff, and when he’s out there we feel like he puts us in a good spot.