Future Blue Jays Newsletter

August 28, 2023

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? My wife and I spent two weeks of a bucket list/milestone anniversary trip that was postponed twice by COVID, but rest assured when I had cell service while we were hiking in the Alps, or wifi at our hotel in Italy, I was keeping tabs on the Blue Jays farm system.

Luckily, I still remain married.

Much has happened over the past few weeks, so I thought I’d hit the highlights.

Tiedemann Scraping off the Rust

Ricky Tiedemann has sandwiched a decent start around a pair where he’s struggled with his command since returning to AA.

In his latest start this week (on a five-day rotation, no less), Tiedemann struggled mostly with the consistency of his slider and failed to make it out of the 2nd inning before surpassing his pitch limit of 50.

Should we be concerned? Not really. Missing over two months in the middle of the season is hard, especially for a pitcher who relies on the feel for his sweeper to generate much of his whiffs. On this occasion, Tiedemann was also missing with his two-strike chase fastball up in the zone as well. He did go to too many full counts, and had trouble putting hitters away with two strikes. As he neared the 50-pitch mark, his velo dropped from 97 to about 95 as well.

Look, despite the best wishes of fans and some media members, there was little chance Tiedemann was going to be in Toronto this year. He’s just turned 21, and only last week passed 100 total innings for his career. The rest of this season will be about building him up, and if the medical staff gives the all clear, he should make up for lost innings in Arizona come October.

Miguel Hiraldo

Hiraldo was signed with great fanfare in 2017, labelled one of the top bats in that year’s IFA class. But since reaching full season ball in 2021, Hiraldo has struggled on both sides of the ball, coming into 2023 with an OPS around .700, and having been moved permanently from the left side of the infield to the keystone, where he committed 25 errors for Vancouver last year.

Left exposed in the Rule 5 last fall, Hiraldo had no takers in either the major or minor league phases of the draft. Sent to AA to start the season, Hiraldo was more or less a fixture in the bottom third of the Fisher Cats order before catching fire this past month. Hiraldo has posted a 1.034 OPS, hitting 7 of his season total of 12 Home Runs in that stretch, earning manager Cesar Martin’s confidence with a move to the top third of the order.

Has Hiraldo made any mechanical adjustments? It doesn’t appear so - he still relies on a leg kick and takes among the biggest swings in the system. But he seems to have refined his approach, and is showing more patience at the plate - those big hacks are still there, but he’s connecting more often, and drawing walks when his pitches aren’t there. Hiraldo came into August with 13 bases on balls, and has almost equaled that total with a week’s worth of games left to play.

Is he moving back into top prospect territory? Not really - we need to see more sustained production after two and a half seasons of mediocrity at the plate. Then there’s his defence, while improved this year, has a long way to go. Hiraldo doesn’t have the greatest hands, and often gets eaten up on balls.

Still, it’s good to see a guy maybe start to figure things out.

Michael Dominguez

While Hiraldo is a guy who’s starting to figure things out, Dominguez, a 2019 Virginia HS 15th rounder, is starting to put things together.

The compact (5’10”/180) righthander was a guy whose name popped up in several conversations I had with people around the system last offseason. Many pointed to greater maturity and an all-around improved approach to his in between starts routine.

Dominguez started the season at Vancouver (where he had finished last season), and hasn’t missed a beat in four AA starts since an early August promotion.

Dominguez throws a mid 90s fastball with a ton of movement, a change, and a slider. His short arm stroke messes with hitters’ timing. If there’s a black mark on his record, it’s the number of walks (58 in 83 IP between A+ and AA), but he’s also fanned 99 hitters.

Dominguez will no doubt continue to start for now, but a move to the bullpen with that FB/SL combination is worth thinking about. He’s Rule 5 eligible this fall, so there’s another factor to consider.

Jace Bohrofen

Entering the 2023 collegiate season, Bohrofen was as divisive a prospect as you’re likely to see.

Ranked the 141st top prospect by Baseball America prior to the 2020 draft as a high schooler, BA neatly summarized the views of Bohrofen in their scouting report of him that year:

 He has plus raw power and an average arm with a quick release that fits in either corner outfield spot, and he can even play center in a pinch. But a team willing to draft and sign him out of high school is taking a chance that his noisy setup and leverage-based lefty power will be able to play against more advanced pitching.

While there was no doubt about his potential 20-25 HR power, there were concerns about Bohrofen’s pitch recognition. He attended Oklahoma after high school, but transferred to Arkansas after only one season. Bohrofen struggled in his sophomore season, but burst out this year, and the Blue Jays selected him in the 6th round. The scouting reports stated that he could hammer fastballs, but had trouble with breaking pitches.

Bohrofen has cooled off a bit, but he’s demolished Single A pitching in his pro debut with Dunedin. He hit 5 long balls in 4 games in the middle of the month, but has managed only one extra base hit since then. Still, this is an interesting, somewhat hit-or-miss lefthanded bat.

 

Who’s Hot - top OPS over the past 30 days (qualifiers)

  1. Spencer Horwtiz 1.172

  2. Miguel Hiraldo. 1.100

  3. Alan Roden. .966

  4. Will Roberston. .960

  5. Orelvis Martinez. .956