Future Blue Jays Newsletter

A look back at the Blue Jays 2018 IFA and draft classes,

2018 IFA and Draft

A good farm system not only can be used to feed the MLB roster, but it can also be used as currency to upgrade that roster. The latter was certainly the case with the Blue Jays 2018 class.

1st round pick Jordan Groshans, a Texas HS SS, seemed primed for big league stardom. Less than a year after graduating from high school, he was squaring up Low A pitching, and showed that while his defence was a work-in-progress, his future on the left side of the infield seemed solid.

A severe case of plantar fasciitis limited him to 23 games in that 2019 season, and when he came back in 2021 at AA after the pandemic wiped out 2020, he just didn’t seem like the same player. The pop in his bat just wasn’t there. The Blue Jays managed his workload meticulously that year (he missed the first month and appeared in just 75 games), but he didn’t come out of the gate on fire in 2022 (he hit only 1 HR in 240 AAA ABs), and when the chance to bolster the bullpen came along, he was dealt to Miami in a package that included a PTBNL, in exchange for Zach Pop and Anthony Bass, in a deal that seemed like a steal at the time.

Groshans did make his MLB debut for Miami that year, but he spent all of ‘23 at AAA, where he posted a paltry .669 OPS. At 24, there is still time for him to turn things around, but the signs are not exactly encouraging.

Speaking of underwhelming returns and Players to Be Named Later, 2nd round pick Griffin Conine, a legacy OF from Duke, was dealt to the Marlins as well. In 2020, he was exchanged with INF Jonathan Villar, who hit .188 in 28 games for Toronto. Conine hit 22 HRS in his 2019 pro debut season at Low A, many of them of the majestic variety. He also struck out 36% of the time, a huge red flag. In the Marlins system, Conine has continued to hit the long ball, reaching AAA after parts of three seasons at AA. He’s also struck out 533 times in the past three seasons.

Groshans agreed to an under-slot deal with the Blue Jays, which allowed them to go over slot to sign his high school teammate, RHP Adam Kloffenstein. King Kloff repeated AA in 2023, but turned himself around significantly. Gone were the blowup innings where he would lose the strike zone and force up his pitch count. He really seemed on his way to being a 3rd or 4th innings eater starter when, like Groshans, he was part of a deal to upgrade the MLB roster, this time in a deal at the deadline last season to St Louis for reliever Jordan Hicks. Kloff was immediately promoted to AAA, and showed enough in 9 starts that the Cards added him to their 40-man in advance of the Rule 5.

Things drop off significantly after that. 4th rounder Sean Wymer was seen as something of a sleeper, but he missed most of 2021 due to Tommy John surgery, and was released near the end of the 2022 season. 5th rounder C Chris Bec was a senior sign, and the money saved from his $5K signing bonus was used to lure Florida HS SS Addison Barger from a college commitment. 8th rounder Joey Murray pitched at 3 levels in 2019, his invisiball - a low arm slot, high spin rate FB - confounding hitters along the way. Like Wymer, Murray never really recovered from Tommy John (newsflash: lots of guys don’t, but we only tend to hear about the guys that do), and was released this past season after several comeback attempts. 10th round pick Cal Stevenson, another senior sign who people in the organization have absolutely raved about, was packaged to the Astros in the forgettable Derek Fisher deal, and made his MLB debut with the Phillies in May. 12th rounder LHP Nick Allgeyer appeared in one game for the 2022 Blue Jays, and was dealt to the Phillies at the end of spring training last year.

With their 35th round pick, Toronto selected a Canadian from Vancouver by way of the Vauxhall Baseball Academy in Alberta. Damiano Palmegiani opted to attend Cal State Northridge, but after playing sparingly there transferred to JuCo powerhouse Southern Nevada. The Blue Jays got their man, drafting him in the 21st round two years later.

Who did the Jays miss out on? The Mariners took Logan Gilbert three picks after Groshans, and the Royals chose Brady Singer - who the Blue Jays had drafted in the 2nd round three years earlier, but failed to sign either because of a concerning medical report or Singer’s college commitment, take your pick. Nico Hoerner went to the Cubs with the 24th pick, and Shane McClanahan, who went at 31 and up until undergoing his second Tommy John this past fall seemed destined to be the best pitcher selected, were also available.

But the Jays love their up-the-middle guys, and there is still an appreciation for the high risk/high reward player. This was a draft that seemed to lean more towards close-to-MLB-ready college talent, and obviously the chance for to pick Kloff had Toronto leaning in the direction of Groshans. But it’s looking more and more like Barger may be the best pick for them in that draft, which on the one hand inclines one to give kudos to the amateur scouting department, but when it comes to high-end talent, the Jays whiffed on this draft.

What’s interesting is that the Blue Jays didn’t really set out to draft Kloff after taking Groshans. Obviously, teams are in touch with agents to let them know what their plans are, but then-amateur scouting director Steve Sanders said that wasn’t necessarily the case:

And while we’re at it, here are Sanders’ thoughts about Conine at that time:

The IFA side

The Jays did well both on July 2nd (the first day IFAs could sign, since moved to January 15th), and later on in the 2018-19 signing period.

Orelvis Martinez was the obvious prize, and while he had something of a setback in his development in 2022, he seems back on track to one day be a big league 2nd Baseman. Martinez, who signed for the biggest bonus (for 16 year-olds), was familiar to the Jays because he had trained at the same Dominican academy as Wander Franco.

The next big signing was Venezuelan OF Gaby Martinez. Martinez had something of a breakout year in Low A in 2022, but his development seemed to stall at Vancouver, and his tools look to be on the fringy side. The only other player signed from the July 2 class still in Organized Baseball is Catcher J.J. (Javier) D’Orazio, who went to Arizona in the deal for Joakim Soria in 2021. D’Orazio had a good year at the plate in 2023, and faced the Canadians in the Northwest League final.

Two of the best signings came toward the end of the 2019 portion of the signing period. The Blue Jays had scouted Dutch RHP Sem Robberse extensively, and signed him with pool money gained from the trading of Kendrys Morales to Oakland, and Dwight Smith Jr to Baltimore. Using that $1.5 million, they signed Robberse and Cuban RHP Yosver Zulueta. It can be argued that these scouting efforts were more impressive than the one that landed Orelvis.

Speaking of IFAs, I’ll have some thoughts in my next newsletter. Blue Jays Director of International Operations Andrew Tinnish was an annual interview in pre-COVID times, but he’s ghosted me of late. Nonetheless, I shall endeavour to get him to talk about this year’s signings before the month is out.