Future Blue Jays Newsletter

   My wife and I were in the middle of a 20 km hike on Ontario’s Bruce Trail, about to head through a technical and mosquito-infested stretch atop the Niagara Escarpment, when I heard my phone ringing somewhere deep in my backpack.  I couldn’t stop to answer.

It was, I discovered later, Blue Jays Director of Player Development Joe Sclafani.  We had scheduled a call for 12:30 pm the following day, but Joe had his date wrong, and called me a day early.  “I was distracted and looked at my calendar and misread it,” he texted later.  “Just excited to talk about our system I guess!”

We did reconnect the following day, and in Sclafani’s defence, he has reason to be at least a little bit giddy about his farm system’s performance to date.  A year ago, three top pitching prospects in the organization were about to undergo Tommy John surgery; fast forward twelve months, and the system has two Top 100 prospects, with one or two more on the way.  Not only is there more elite talent than there was a year ago, but the depth has been bolstered largely as a result of last year’s deadline deals as well.

  Here’s a transcript of our conversation:

DMFox:  So I know you guys aren't ones to rest on your laurels, but are you crowing a little bit? Two guys in the top 100 and possibly a couple more by this time next year.

Joe Sclafani:   We're feeling pretty good about it. Obviously, you know, we feel pretty good about where we've been and the improvements individual guys have made over years.

   But, you know, collectively we feel pretty good about our processes, us going back and reviewing things. We, you know, made some staffing adjustments and some philosophical adjustments. And it's been really neat, you know, different types of energy and training, and just watching the way those guys are going out, competing, you know, supporting one another, competing as a unit, talking through things, attacking their priority goals all over their routines.

There's a lot of positive things that are happening. You know, with anything else, there's also some that aren't doing as well. But, you know, we feel, by and large, pretty good about where things are at right now, and it's our job to make sure we keep that momentum going.

DMF:  Absolutely. It's been a lot of fun to watch, especially the past six or seven weeks. Let's get some injury updates, if I could, out of the way. So I saw Brandon Barriera didn't last long in his last start and didn't go very long today, but that's probably just a precautionary thing?

JS:   Yeah, his pitch limits have been the issue. He just hasn't been able to get out of the 1st inning last couple of times out, and we're not going to push that. He'll probably go longer  once he gets out on a normal or more normal schedule, but

 instead of the 35 pitch threshold, it's probably closer to 30, and I we just don't want him to overdo it. Coming off these injuries, it's all about just getting the feel back and getting out there pitching, and feeling like a professional baseball player again. Brandon's been great with everything he's done. Extremely thrilled for him just in general to be back. You know, his body looks great. He's moving really well. He's in a good mental space. Now it's just starting to get that feel back and start attacking the zone as much as he can.

DMF:   Good to hear because I have heard some good things about him from Florida. The stuff has been good, that's for sure. Was Josh Kasovich injured again on his rehab assignment with Dunedin?

JS:  Yeah, that was a tough one man i mean he had a i think it was a small fracture in his back in spring training yeah that was the original one, and then right as he was coming back he got in some rehab games in the FCL, then he was over in Dunedin, and he was probably two or three days away from and back to Buffalo, and there was a one of those tricky ground balls in between short and third.

They didn't talk, he  and Tucker Tolman didn't talk, and they collided, he flipped, he landed on his hand, and yeah, small little issue there. He has a consultation or a follow-up with a hand doc today . So if he gets that go-ahead there, then he'll start ramping up baseball activities and hopefully get back in there, you know, hopefully within the month. But we'll see how that goes.

DMF:  The guy everybody wants to ask you about is Ricky Tiedemann. Where are we at?

JS:  I think he starts bullpens tomorrow (June 20), and if it's not tomorrow, it's by the end of the week. But he's been throwing flat grounds. Ball's coming out great.

Body looks great. Like all the stuff we've talked about in the past, he's attacked this as well as you could hope for. And, you know, unfortunately we have a bunch of guys  that have been down here, but it's been pretty cool to see them kind of gel together and help each other get through the difficult aspects of it and pull for one another. And we're starting to see some of them come back. But Ricky's been training well and is, I think, if he throws bullpens tomorrow, he might be in games in five, six weeks, six weeks probably. But everything has to trend well.

DMF:  Chad Dallas made huge strides two years ago, but last year it was obvious it he wasn’t right, and now he’s part of that group of rehabbing guys you have at the Complex.  Where is he at?

JS:   Similar spot. I'm not sure of the specifics of when he's back on the mound,

but it's very similar to Ricky, very close timeline. I haven't heard of any setbacks or anything. I saw him today, seems like he's in good spirits . Body's looking all right. And, yeah, I'm excited to get him out, too. But I think both of them are probably late August or late September, if I had to guess.

DMF:  Will we see either Connor Cooke or TJ Brock this season?

JS:   I think Cooke has a better chance than Brock. I believe Cooke had an internal brace. and is already doing rehab  stuff. And then Brock, I think, is pretty unlikely because his surgery was even a little bit after Cooke’s. That's a pitching staff right there almost that we're talking about.

DMF:  Carson Messina hasn’t pitched in over a month now.  Can you tell me about his situation?

JS:  Yeah, dealing with some soreness, some inflammation. It is not severe, which was the good news. He's working to get back. I mean, he's already a physically imposing kid for a 19-year-old. So it was good news. We got good news on that front that it wasn't more severe, but we're obviously playing it pretty conservatively there. But I think he has a chance to maybe come back and pitch a little bit this year, but either way, we're just trying to get him healthy.

DMF:  I'm not an orthopedic surgeon, but I know that, first of all, blown UCLs, they're a cumulative thing. It must be really difficult for pro teams to be able to work with.

And the second thing leading into that, it's certainly an industry-wide problem.  I know you touched on briefly at the beginning, some changes in personnel, changes in personnel changes in philosophy and I know you don't want to get too too far into the weeds here on this, but overall what are some of the changes that have been made because touchwood so far they they look like they're working.

JS:  We felt really good about some of the individual pieces that we had in place and some of the things that we were doing. But we wanted to shift some of the focuses into execution-based pieces. I think we've done a decent job at helping guys gain velocity and introducing new pitches and helping their their map their current pitches improve a little bit and pick up but you know we were doing that, and it felt like we lost some of the focus on the nuances - count leverage, and first pitch strikes and really just going at guys and helping guys understand who they are and why they're successful.

We had targeted Justin (Lehr, new  Blue Jays MiLB Pitching Director) a couple times in the past couple years. We had heard really good things about him;  he's got a really interesting background. And he has been all of that and more.

I think it was amazing to see the buy-in that he got from the pitching coaches and that entire pitching development group.  It seems like it's worked really well. You know, pitchers know who they are, know what makes them successful. They're learning how to attack guys, how to set things up. We're getting ahead of a lot of guys. I think we're third or at least top five in overall strike percentage in the minor leagues. That's starkly different than it has been in the past.

And it's a credit to the entire group. We're talking about those things. Even if guys are giving up stuff and their stuff is good, they'll be like, well, yeah, I spun the crap out of it.

DMF:  The development template you’ve set for Gage Stanifer, Trey Yesavage, and Khal Stephen - is that the model you’re going to use moving forward?

JS:  Yes, but I think it'll be individual basis year, year over year,

There were a lot of factors that we put into play for them. You know, of course, this is the one year that it didn't rain in Vancouver, but we had done some research. The last three years, we had 18 rainouts in Vancouver in April. So, it was one of those  things where we want them to continue pitching routines and staying on routine consistently is important.

And as someone who has sat in the stands at Nat Bailey, you know it’s cold in the Northwest League in April.   We studied the impact on the quality of pitches and below and whatnot in different temperature ranges and we felt like Dunedin was the right start for them… we knew they were more advanced than that obviously - Gage has earned it,  but the other two guys we already knew were advanced. So I think we'll use what we've learned this year with those different paths and approaches and come up with them for our next group of hopefully another phenomenal crowd.

DMF:  Speaking of Yesavage, Stanifer, and Stephen, one thing I noticed in their first starts with Vancouver is that they weren’t getting the chases they were getting in the Florida State League.  I know some of that is due to the more experienced hitters, but I was wondering if the lack of the ABS system in High A played a part in that?

JS:  I think it's an adjustment. The ABS, you touched on some of the benefits there and it goes both ways. Pitchers kind of understand and get a better feel for where they need to start pitches for it to land in the zone. Hitters, it helps them innately just get a better feel for the zone. What is a strike? What isn't a strike? 

So there's definitely some benefits on that front, but then you go to Vancouver and a lot of the general public doesn't understand that umpires are going through development as well - they have to progress the same way.  They definitely have gotten better… honestly, ABS I think has kind of challenged the umpiring group just as a whole to improve on that front but it is an adjustment some of those pitches that might just clip the zone and get challenged or strikes, it's a good thing to challenge them in different types of ways. They're going to need a bunch of different tactics and strategies and how to handle those things and the adversity that they're going to go through. They're going to face that, and then when they go to New Hampshire, it's also not an ABS system. If they even remember it from Low A, they get to experience it again in Triple A with the big baseball and their stuff plays differently. So there are a bunch of different steps or challenges throughout the steps as they go.

And if we're doing our job appropriately and those guys are engaged and open to talking through those things, hopefully they're doing that and it's prepping them for long-term success. 

DMF:  As someone who has watched the game for decades, sometimes I get a little worried about the creep of technology into the game. But having said that, I would love to see the ABS everywhere in professional baseball.  Do you think there's a day when we're going to see it at High A and AA as well?

JS:   I do. You know, there was, part of it was improving the standards, with the new PDL agreements and whatnot, just generally improving the standards across the board for facilities. And so that was the focus. And as we were figuring out the different ABS issues and problem-solving, which MLB has done a really nice job with.

Joe Martinez (MLB Director of On-Field Operations) kind of leads that, and we figured out something that players feel good about, staff feel good about. I think it's in a good spot. I think there was decent feedback in spring training. That's where it's trending in my head. It'll be everywhere. I love it.   It had its hiccups, I know, in the early stages, but it's seamless now, and I can't wait. I think Major League fans are really going to be happy with it when it comes along. Teams have got to figure out when to use those challenges, how to use them. It's just not an automatic on any pitch I don't like you know we got to consider what point in the game and where we are in the at bat,  but I'm a fan.  It has a whole other strategical element to. 

DMF:  Let’s start to work our way up the system and talk about some players who have stood out.  Any conversation about the Complex League guys has to start with Johnny King.  Is there a chance, as you slowly unwrap the layers of bubble wrap around him, that we see him in the FSL this summer?

JS:  Yeah, you are not alone…..Johnny is the one that I get asked about the most this year, and it's for good reason. He's earned that. The kid’s  an ultimate competitor. He's big. He's strong. He's a good mover. The heater is electric and has life to it. He can really spin his breaking ball. You know, our challenge is to keep getting him in, you know, keep improving his zone percentage and have throw him more strikes overall and continue to help him develop a third pitch to go with that. He is as impressive a young guy as we've seen here in a little bit, and he deserves all the buzz that he's getting. In our heads, the routines, if he can continue to excel at that, and if he continues to improve with the other things I mentioned, it’s definitely a possibility. You've heard me say this before, players drive those decisions, and if he continues to trend the way he's trending, then he'll be over there at some point this year.

DMF:   David Beckles, is interesting, looks like a big guy, and his bat's been loud so far.

JS:  David has been a really pleasant surprise for us. You know, we picked him up. He had gotten released from the Yankees, I believe. In the DSL, they had two teams, and he got squeezed out. Big body,  had put up some numbers. And, you know, when we got him, awesome kid, number one. We’re thrilled with just how he's fit in and gelled with what we believe in and what we try to do here.

And then we saw a couple opportunities. As you mentioned, he's a big dude. EVs are good. He's still figuring himself out as a hitter, but when it's there and you make a mistake, he'll punish it. And the performance there has been really encouraging, and he's trending in a spot where he might deserve to get the challenge from heading over to the Florida State League as well at some point.

DMF:  Who are some other players in the Complex League who have impressed so far?

JS:  Yorman Licourt is definitely one. If you haven't heard about Yormund, he's big, he's athletic. There's a lot to like there. He’s a switch hitter, there's definitely some opportunities. The right-handed swing, and the left-handed one looks really good.

  Enmanuel Bonilla looks really good,  but we're still still trying to work through some things there but seeing some positive signs.   Andres Arias is another big dude a lot of things to like…Aldo Gaxiola can hit a little bit…… Dariel Ramon is a tiny little shortstop that is a sneaky good player. I think he's got some grit to him and grinds it out. It's pretty neat.  We were seeing some positive trends with Luis Meza before the knee injury. That was unfortunate.

On the pitching side, it's going to be great to have Holden Wilkerson get back out there soon. He'll probably be in the Florida State League.  Troy Guthrie has been unbelievable. If you look at his numbers, Guthrie has been unbelievable, if you look at his numbers.  And Sann Omosako continues to throw strikes and stuff is getting better. Yes, there's some interesting arms down there and interesting players in general. And the staff, led by John Tamargo, is doing a great job. We haven't had a lot of success at this level in the last few years.

DMF:  Speaking of little gritty guys, any updates on Adrían Pinto?  Just imagine where Vancouver would have been with him in the lineup.

JS:   He's going to be down for another six weeks. It’s unfortunate, man. We've tried everything we can think of to keep him healthy, and he just has these little things here and there. And then, yeah, it's frustrating.  So hopefully we can get this right, get him out there, and kind of roll from there. But, yeah, we're trying.

DMF:  Let's move up the ladder…. I probably watch more of Dunedin than any team in the system just because it's my first extended looks at some of these guys. And you guys have to be thrilled.

JS:  Sam Shaw and Edward Duran -especially the the progress both both have made this year yeah it's been it's been really awesome there's a lot of good stories from that group overall Gil (Kim, Dunedin Manager) and his staff are doing a tremendous job um

Sammy, I mean we knew what we had last year in the batter’s box. He can go play center field. He did a great job there. The unfortunate part about FCL, they don't throw a ton of strikes, and he walks a lot.  So, he got classed as passive. He's not. He just doesn't swing outside of his zone. It's been pretty cool to see what he's been able to do over there. Second base, we're still working through. I think he has a chance to do that, but either way, he's a baseball player, simple way to put it.. 

 Duran - we’re incredibly pumped about his progress this year. He's a glue guy in the clubhouse, number one. Pitchers love throwing to him. Pitchers love him. Everybody loves him.  Brings good energy every day. He's tough. Plays through things. He's still refining the defensive piece and leading and helping to lead a staff, but he's made major strides there. The receiving has continued to get better. He can throw people out pretty well. He's definitely the most exciting catching prospect we've had in a few years, at the very least. And offensively, the dude has always had a feel for the barrel. Now he's figuring out who he is and what pitches to swing at, and he puts together a competitive AB every time out. Can't ask for much more.

DMF:  Speaking of competitive ABs, Tucker Toman has always battled, always seen a lot of pitches, but that hasn’t translated into results.  But now he’s one of the hottest hitters in all of Low A.  What’s been behind this surge at the plate?

JS:  I think all the credit goes to Tuck. You know, it's definitely not been the smoothest of rides so far.  But credit to him. He took all the feedback that we've given him, we've tried to kind of mold our plan with how his body is developing. You know, that's a hard thing for us to predict generally.   And he works. Don't get me wrong, he's on it. But then we did some research and had some slight adjustments to what we were preaching with him. And he kind of took it and ran with it. And you said you watch a lot of those games, his ABs have been unbelievable. In the last month, he is in every single one. He is battling his butt off. The quality of contact is continuing to improve. And, honestly, the defense up there is continuing to improve. I'm pumped for him.

   He's a great kid. He really wants to help the team any way he can. And he deserves it. Hopefully he can keep it going.

DMF:  He’s been dynamite from the left side of the plate, but has struggled from the right.  Will he still continue to switch-hit?

JS:  For now, we’ll continue.  He wants to keep at it as well.

DMF:  Let’s go up to Vancouver, where the weather - ironically - has been great for the most part.  There are so many stories from Day One with the C’s this year:  Arjun Nimmala, Victor Arias, and now Cutter Coffey.

JS:   Yeah, that group's been really exciting, man. Like we knew they were going to be exciting coming out of camp.  I don't know what it is at this point, but they were like 2 and 18 in one run games. I knew that couldn't last. They're just too talented and they're competing well. They're preparing well. It's been pretty neat to see those guys gel and kind of what they've been able to do on a nightly basis. They're challenging each other and picking each other up. Arjun, we could talk about him all day and just the maturity and how he's handling all of the attention. The work has continued to be good. He knows himself.

You know, Cutter is probably one of the more exciting ones. He’s always been tooled out, and it's just a matter of helping him refine those things and get to those tools a bit more often. He's been great on that front. 

Victor, you know, we are very high on him.   Not only because of the physical tools, right? He's built like a unit, but he's gained eight or nine miles an hour on his throwing arm because we've been working on it over the last year plus. He loves playing center field. He works his tail off. He plays the game hard. It's tough. Guys feed off of him. He's got a little edge to him, he’s one that is extremely exciting… you've seen the EVs, you've seen the ABs that he puts together he's not afraid to take a walk.

DMF:  I know we don’t think about batting order as we once did, but man - he’s a prototypical leadoff hitter, a guy who can have an impact right at the start of the game.

JS:   You hit the nail on the head. He sets the tone. Let him go do his thing. Yeah, he's a really good player. I think he'll be in AA sooner rather than later at some point. 

DMF:  And so what do we need to see from Arjun before he joins them?

JS:    I think with Arjun, it’s a matter of just trying to figure out the best timing for him. You know, that league is so unique. We talked about that before. You play the same five teams over and over. The last, like, three to four weeks, he's just been okay, you know?  And that's acknowledging that those are high standards. It's still pretty good, but high standards. So can he make the adjustments when these guys are adjusting to him? Continuing to be consistent on the defensive side, he still makes some silly errors sometimes,  but credit to him. The preparation, the work, all of it is beyond his years, honestly, and it's really exciting to see.

DMF:  With the AA guys, I'm more talking about a couple of guys not there anymore, but I found it interesting, just to look at the progress since the beginning of May of RJ Schreck and Yohendrick Pignango and now Eddinson Paulino look like different hitters after struggling after they joined the organization last year.  What has spurred the turnaround?

JS:  It's an overwhelming experience when you get traded, especially for the first time for these guys. There's one place you knew , you have your friends, all the staff, all the relationships, all the philosophies and what they're preaching.

So we kind of just try to be a little hands-off at first and, you know, go do your thing, the reason why we wanted to bring you here, while at the same time kind of tracking the opportunities that we're seeing.  And then we had game plans for the offseason, and they crushed it. I mean, Yohendrick came into camp, had a great camp. Schreck didn't have a great camp, but he was in good shape. All the things that we worked on, you could tell that they attacked them in the offseason. Schreck's a historically slow starter, and once he got going, he's been pretty much unstoppable since, except for getting hit in the same spot in the hand a couple times in the last couple of weeks.

DMF:  As we speak, I believe Orelvis Martinez is mired in a 1-29 funk.  Just a few weeks ago, it looked like his bat was waking up as well.

JS:   Orelvis is a historically slow starter as well, but he had a slow start in camp you know a couple nagging things here and there so he didn't get a full spring training. But he always seems to shake off that slow start and get things going, that’s why it was a little surprising to see him take a step back and struggle the last couple weeks…..But he's not a secret anymore.  Like, everybody circles his name on a lineup, and how can he attack that? 

One thing we'll definitely say is the approach, how he's handling the work, the maturity level, how he's preparing for, you know, opposing pitchers, and all of that stuff has improved. So we're just gonna stick to it and he's too talented to not perform at this level for so long, so we're gonna trust that he's gonna be able to turn around here.

DMF:  We’ve referred to them earlier, but let’s talk about Stephen, Stanifer, and Yesavage.

JS:  Probably the most impressive thing with Trey is just how he's handled it, and how he's fit in with the different teams that he's been on and teammates, hopefully future teammates for a long time. It'll be interesting to see:  the AA hitters are going to challenge him.  Those foul balls are now hits. You know, in Low A it was all punch-outs. Nobody could touch it. High A, they fouled it off. He still punched them out. AA might challenge him a little bit more. So, we’re excited to see what he can do there.

Khal has just gone out and posted every single time out. The stuff is good. He throws strikes, It's been impressive.  

As for Gage, what an incredible jump. So thrilled for him on that front. And then, you know, we got a lot of interesting. stories on the pitching side. You know, less so in Triple-A, but  CJ Van Eyk’s bounce back has been pretty neat. Anders Tolhurst has been pretty good. Adam  Macko has looked good his first couple times out. Laz Estrada got off to a tough start, but he's been pretty solid over the last couple months. It was great to get Hunter Gregory to AAA to give him a chance. Ryan Jennings has been solid. Ryan Watson in AA has been really, really neat to see. Dev Harrison's bounce back, Rafi Sanchez's bounce back (both at AA. Juaron Watts-Brown, I mean, you can’t ask for much more out of him. It's been awesome to see him compete. I know Grant Rogers got his butt kicked last week, but, man, he's a different shape.  It's not going to be that dominant or eye-popping, but dude just goes and gets out. Exactly. And Alex Amalfi, if he gets whacked a couple more times, that's informative for us, you know? That'll guide kind of where we go with it.

In Vancouver, Fernando Perez got off to a slow start in spring training, which kind of impacted his year, but he's starting to look like himself again. Jackson Wentworth, we challenged pretty quickly with Vancouver. He's held his own. You know, we'll be getting Kendry Rojas back, hopefully we get him out of Florida soon. Landen Maroudis is coming back, had a good first start. Just great to have him back out there. Barriera’s stuff has been really good. Gilberto Batista has been sneaky good. Daniel Guerra has shown flashes and made strides. Colby Holcombe, same thing. Austin Cates has held his own. Silvano Echevarria is a really intriguing guy. Eminem Flores out of the pen throwing really hard. Colby Martin, electric, now in High A;. Javen Coleman, struggled recently, but pretty solid. Chay Yeager, Pat Gallagher at Vancouver.

It's just nice to be able to have some positive stuff to talk about.  And, as far as the injured guys go, they're working their way through, then we're startinG to see them come back one by one online and as I said, and we agree, everybody's going through that. It's not isolated to us. As part of our farm director meeting in the winter meetings, we learned that MLB coordinated a massive research study on the pitching epidemic, if you want to call it that, to try to get to the bottom of it because nobody has it figured out. We're trying to do what's best for all of these guys.

DMF:  Lastly, now that we’re in year five of the realignment of the minor leagues and Player Development Agreements, what have the benefits and challenges been with these changes?

JS:   Yeah, you could go a lot of different directions with this question. It's a tough one to answer. But, I think logistically it's super helpful in terms of the (playing) six days a week. Mondays consist of off days. It definitely helps us on our side protect and take care of guys to the best of our ability.

It definitely presents some challenges when you're playing the same team six times in a week. You know, one thing that is kind of beneficial is the preparation and the reports. Like, players get so many reps, and then they can start to tie what they're seeing in those reports  to what they're seeing with their own eyes. As I mentioned earlier, we've been trying to help coach guys up on that and improve their ability to game plan themselves and with what are they seeing and just have those conversations more and more.

And the fact that you're playing the same team six times in a row and then multiple times a year six times in a row, it kind of plays into that a little bit. On the other side of it, just the smaller amount of numbers (of players allowed to be under contract), it's tough to get in, and that development window is much shorter than people realize at this point just because of the 165 limit. So that part's tough. There's some urgency with everything, and that's why I think you're seeing some people challenge players a bit more quickly now. You know, it's kind of sink or swim. If they can handle it, you know, let's go, kind of. So yeah, there's probably, like, we could talk about this for an hour. In and of itself, there positives and some lesser positives.