Promotions, a talk with Johnny King, and some other thoughts as we slide into the second half of the minor league season.

Up

Hot off the press is the addition and promotion of Lazaro Estrada, destined to fill the gap in long relief caused by Paxton Schultz’ trip to the IL:

Lazaro sets hitters up with his fastball, but his slider is the true swing-and-miss offering in his repertoire. I have long wondered when the Jays would move him into a relief role. Lazaro was a late (January) signing in the 2017-18 IFA class after leaving Cuba. He missed almost three full seasons due to COVID and Tommy John recovery. It’s been a long road indeed for the RHP.

Several players were promoted at the turn of the season. RHP Pat Gallagher, a converted starter, was elevated from Vancouver to New Hampshire. Pitching mostly in middle relief, Gallagher was one of the C’s most consistent pitchers right from the start of the season. Now, the Leominster, MA native gets to pitch close to home. Gallagher is 3-0 with a tidy 1.22 ERA and microscopic 0.99 WHIP covering 22 games. He’s fanned 51 in 46 innings. Gallagher took the spot in New Hampshire’s bullpen occupied by Hunter Gregory, who was moved up to Buffalo after a fine first half.

Gallagher joined former Vancouver teammate OF/DH Jackson Hornung in the Eastern League. Since being moved out behind the plate to start the year, the the 2023 16th round pick has gone on a tear. He posted an .855 OPS in the Northwest League, and did not stop hitting once hemoved up, hitting .429 in 7 games with the Fisher Cats. Like Gallagher, Hornung is a Massachusetts product.

UT guy Bryce Arnold and LH Javen Coleman moved up from Dunedin to fill out Vancouver’s roster.

Of Je’Von Ward also moved up a few days ago from Vancouver. One of the most patient hitters in all of minor league baseball (his 64 Walks are tied for the MiLB lead), Ward will see a lot more pitches on the black at AA.

LHP Johnny King, in one of the most highly anticipated promotions across baseball, ascended from the Complex League to Dunedin of the Florida State League (more below).

What we haven’t seen is a ton of movement from guys we expected. Arjun Nimmala appeared to be on the fast track to AA a month ago, but he slashed .158/.252/.263 for June, and showed maybe he’s not ready just yet. Victor Arias is another player who seemed destined for AA, but he’s been passed over twice for promotions. Arias has had his difficulties staying healthy, so I suspect it’s a case of the Player Development staff wanting him to having a prolonged stretch of active duty before me moves up. Similarly, Edward Duran and Sam Shaw at Dunedin appeared headed for the Pacific Northwest, but obviously there still a few more goals in their development plans to hit.

Here’s Johnny!

He admittedly didn’t have his best stuff on a sweaty Florida Sunday afternoon, but Johnny King showed what they hype is all about. At 18, King became one of the youngest Florida State League pitchers (average age is around 22).

When asked how it felt to stand on a big league mound, King said it was, “like a dream come true for me. It was really tough for me to get to this level.”

King, who was born in Michigan but grew up in Naples, FL, had a lot of support in the stands. His family made the three-hour drive to Dunedin, as did a number of his former travel ball teammates. After the game, he said they all, “were really impressed with how my composure on the mound has come.”

King received his “Welcome of Full Season Ball,” in the game’s first plate appearance when he faced rehabbing AAAer Tsung-Che Cheng (who had a brief MLB stint with the Pirates earlier in the season). Cheng fought off a 2-2 curve from King and lofted a base hit over the infield. He then proceeded to steal 2nd and 3rd, showing King has some work to do in shortening his time to the plate and learning to hold runners on. King struck out the second hitter he faced on a slider. With the infield in, Cheng became the second out of the inning when the next hitter hit a ground ball to SS Manny Beltre, who made a perfect throw to the plate. King walked the next hitter, allowing a couple more stolen bases in the process, before getting another whiff on that slider to end a 28-pitch inning that had the bullpen warming.

But even after one inning, the differences between FSL and Complex Leagues was obvious to King. “The (Complex) hitters, they just want to be swing and hit the ball as far as they can,” he observed. “The Single A guys aren’t as swing happy, they have a plan at the plate, and it’s good competition. It’s definitely a challenge for me, but I love challenges.”

King issued a leadoff walk (and another stolen base) to lead off the 2nd, but then he sandwiched a pair of Ks around another nice defensive play be Beltre. King admits that he didn’t have to work a whole lot on holding runners on in the FCL, but the FSL is a different matter, with runners going at the first sign of movement to home. “Yesterday, we were working on that,” he explained, “because I’m a left-hander, and no one should be stealing on lefties.” He threw a couple of slide step pitches, but admitted that he’s not comfortable with that delivery.

Cheng led off the Bradenton 3rd, and drew a walk, but was gunned down at 2nd by Catcher Edward Duran, who did yeoman work on the day, stealing a couple of strikes on ABS and the new check swing challenges. He had a pair of strikeouts with another walk in the middle, and King’s pro debut was done: 3IP, 1H, 0R/ER, 4BB, 6K. He threw 64 pitches, with an outstanding 48% whiff rate, and topped 95 with his sinker. Talk among evaluators is that King needs to add a third pitch, and to that end, he’s added a changeup, which the organization feels he’s made great progress on. But we only got to see one in this outing, because, as King said, “they had five lefty hitters in the lineup.” But he admits the pitch is still a work in progress, and the player development staff “isn’t too hard on it right now.” King is still developing a feel for the pitch, and with his fastball overpowering low level hitters, he hasn’t really needed one up to this point. He did use it in an FCL outing against the Tigers, because it was “like the fifth time they’d seen me, and they knew what I threw.” King said he had a “complete feel” for the pitch that day and had eight out of eight whiffs on the pitch

The Blue Jays love their young draft-age players. A source in the organization said their research showed a high correlation between success at a young age, and even more success at an older one. King was just 17 when the Blue Jays took him in the 3rd round last year, and gave him an above-slot $1.2 million bonus to forego a commitment to the University of Miami. In reality, King was ready to sign, acknowledging he “wasn’t much of a school guy.”

King trained with MLB veteran Chris Sale last off season in Naples. Coming off a Cy Young comeback season, Sale let the youngster pick his brain while they worked out. “He taught me this game is so tough, and you have to learn to compose yourself out there.” King also mentioned veteran Amir Garrett, signed by the Blue Jays and trying to work his way back to the bigs, as another strong influence.

King makes his next start on Sunday. He says his pitch limit will be around 70 (he threw 64, 32 for strikes in his FSL debut), and he’ll be moving to a five-day schedule after that.

One nice aspect of King’s start was the addition of retired long-time Blue Jays MiLB Manager and Instructor Dennis Holmberg to the D-Jays broadcast booth. Holmberg added a nice touch to Eli Fishman’s call. Dennis tells me this will be a semi-regular thing during Dunedin home games this spring. If you get a chance to watch, you’ll learn something from him.