Thoughts on the Blue Jays Rule 5 draft picks and a few more things in the last newsletter of the year.

Spencer Miles

Certainly, the hype surrounding the Rule 5 draft has far exceeded its actual value. Granted, the White Sox opened a lot of eyes with the performance of last year’s first pick, RHP Shane Smith.

The trend of the last few years has leaned toward pitching, and this year’s MLB phase of the draft was no exception - 12 of the 13 players selected were RHPs.

With their pick (#27 in the first round), the Blue Jays made an interesting selection in Giants’ RHP Spencer Miles. On the surface, Miles doesn’t fit the usual R5 profile of some success in AAA - he hasn’t pitched above High A. But there are a lot of pieces of the puzzle that makes kicking the tires on him at spring training worthwhile.

Miles’ career has been an up-and-down one. He was draft-eligible as a Missouri sophomore in 2021, but went undrafted due to his demand for upper-level bonus money. His gamble on himself backfired a bit when the Giants took him in the 4th round and signed him to an under-slot deal the following year. He pitched in two Cal League games later in the season, and was sidelined for the following year after undergoing back surgery. Miles pitched in only five games in 2024 before going on the IL with a right flexor strain; Tommy John surgery followed not long after.

Miles missed all of the 2025 season save for five outings in the Complex League, but with his Rule 5 eligibility looming, he was sent by the Giants to the Arizona Fall League. Miles fared reasonably well in the hitter-friendly AFL (12 Ks in 8.2 IP), but was left off San Francisco’s 40-man in advance of the Rule 5. In his 5 outings, the Blue Jays had seen enough to take a flyer on him. Small sample size to be sure, but his profile in Arizona was impressive.

Miles’ best pitch is a bowling ball of a sinker that sits 93-95, and touches 98. It starts above the belt, but by the time the ball reaches the plate it’s hugging the bottom of the strike zone, and hitters tend to pound it into the ground. When he’s locating that pitch, his 4-seamer up in the zone becomes his primary whiff weapon. Miles also throws a cutter that can have slider action, along with a curve and change. He threw a slider in college, but the Giants had him junk the pitch while helping him with his cutter grip.

Miles lives in Dunedin in the off-season - once the MiLB “Dead Period” (which extends from the Saturday of U.S. Thanksgiving weekend until January 1st, and will likely be changed in the next Collective Bargaining Agreement). when teams can not contact MiLB players or open their training facilities to them ends, he can spend time in the pitching lab at the Blue Jays minor league complex refining his pitches.

“What stands out to me,” Blue Jays MiLB Pitching Development Director Justin Lehr responded to my text about Miles, “is the ease with which his arm works, producing big velocity, two distinct FB shapes, a couple of projectable breaking balls, and an outstanding CHG shape. He handled the zone well in the AFL, given how much time he has missed. His story is an inspiring tale of perseverance just to be a major league Rule 5 pick.”

If you’ve got 11 minutes, Fangraphs has some good Arizona video of Miles.

Lehr was familiar with Miles from his time with the Giants, but Miles’ performance did much of the talking., he told me. “I didn’t need to provide much background as I think many believed in the raw tools that were close the the process of the Rule 5 draft,” he said.

At the end of the day, Miles is still very much a longshot. He must be kept on the MLB roster for the 2026 season, or be offered back to the Giants for half of the $100K drafting price. Complicating matters is that RHP Angel Bastardo, taken from the Red Sox is last year’s R5, will be likely be competing with Miles and others for the last of the spots in the Blue Jays bullpen. Bastardo missed all of 2025 recovering from Tommy John. He was set to go to Arizona himself in October, until he tweaked something in one of his last live bullpen sessions. Obviously, there isn’t room for both, and realistically, a team that hopes for a return trip to the World Series would have to be blown away by what they see in March. Of course, if there’s lingering soreness, he could start the season on the IL.

Congratulations, Cs!

It’s always good when an email from Tyler Zickel, play-by-play voice and PR director of the Vancouver Canadians lands in my inbox.

This week’s release was a notice that the Canadians have won the Bob Freitas Award by Baseball America as the best overall High A organization. It’s the second time the C’s have captured the award, the first time dating back to 2011.

The Vancouver staff had some challenges this year, most noticeably the complete replacement of the playing surface, as well as dugout and weight room upgrades to comply with MLB standards. As someone who has combed the bowels of venerable Nat Bailey Stadium, I can vouch first-hand that it was a complex and much-needed overhaul. In addition, a new two-story clubhouse/training facility was started along the right field line. The top story will become a new rooftop patio when it opens next spring. Attendance was up at The Nat (the C’s are perennial Northwest League leaders in that regard), despite the Canadians finishing just short of the playoffs in both halves of the split-season schedule.

I have said this countless times before, but serious Blue Jays fans should make one trip to Vancouver to catch the C’s in their lifetimes. As someone who grew up many miles removed from live MLB baseball in the 70s until the Jays came along, games at The Nat take me back to my days watching our town team in Midland, ON, perform every Thursday night. I know I’m approaching my get-off-my-lawn years, but a minor league game is so refreshing to take in. There’s no endless, overbearing game ops like at an MLB game - where silence is to be avoided at all costs. At a C’s game, you can actually have a conversation with the person beside you - if you need an in-between innings washroom or hot dog break, you can usually make it back to your seat without missing a pitch.

Rule 5 - MiLB Picks

The minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft is a much more interesting follow. Because teams aren’t under the same roster restrictions, they can be much choosier. 55 players were selected in the his phase, as opposed to 13 in the MLB R5 draft.

The Blue Jays have gone this route with some success. OF Alexis Hernandez, taken in the 2023 draft, put together a nice season at the two A ball levels this year.

Last year, Toronto plucked RHP Richard Gallardo and OF Jacob Wetzel from the Cubs. Gallardo missed all of 2025 recovering from Tommy John, while Wetzel only played in a handful of games for Vancouver before going on the IL.

This year, the Blue Jays selected OF Hedbert Perez from the Brewers, and RHP Travis Kuhn from the Tigers. Perez, son of former Blue Jays OF Robert Perez, burst onto the scene with a huge (.333/.394/.575) season in the Arizona Complex League in 2021, and was ranked as high as 3rd among Brewers prospects, but has seen his stock fall steadily since then. Perez has tremendous raw power, but limited pitch recognition, and has struggled to tap into that pop. He has bulked up his 5’10” frame considerably, to the point where scouts feel it has cost him speed and mobility. There are things to like about Perez, namely that power and an ability (despite a tendency to chase) to draw walks. It will be interesting to see what the player development and high performance group do with him. Perez is definitely a long shot, a guy who has played only a dozen games above High A in five minor league seasons. But he’s only 22, has the bloodlines the organization loves, and his type of “super duper hard swing,” in Fangraphs’ words, is hard to teach.

Unlike Perez, time is not on Kuhn’s side. The 27 year old was drafted by the Mariners in 2019, and was invited to spring training as a non-roster invitee in 2022, but bounced from the Phillies to the Tigers before the Blue Jays selected him. He pitched in 36 games in AA this season, averaging 7.4K/9, but walking 4.6/9. He comes right at you with a fastball that sits 95-96 with both run and sink, but landing it consistently in the strike zone has been a challenge. The undersized (5’10”) Kuhn has some deception in his delivery. Just like Perez’ raw power, Kuhn’s power arm is likely what convinced the Jays to select him. If nothing else, he’s some bullpen depth for the upper levels.

Mr Martinez Goes to Washington

Orelvis Martinez, DFA’d in September, has signed with the Nationals, and will get an invite to spring training.

Martinez was on the cusp of a regular big league job in 2024, until he was hit with an 80-game PED suspension. No one in the Jays player development department, understandably, wanted to publicly comment on the ban, but it was fairly apparent that there was huge disappointment.

Martinez had an up-and-down 2025, and the organization must have felt it was best for him to have a change of scenery. We don’t know the ins and outs of the trade deadline negotiations, but it’s fairly safe to say that Orevlis was offered, and there were no takers. He’s only 23, and there’s lots of pop in that bat. Maybe the Nats will help him better develop it.

Finally………

I’m am thrilled to announce that my latest book, “The Howleyites: Toronto’s Changing City, New Stadium, and 1926 Championship Team,” will be published this spring by August Publications, the same fine people that bring you Baseball Digest, and a number of football and baseball books (one I’m really looking forward to is “Before They Were Dodgers,” about Tommy Lasorda and Los Angeles’ incredible 1968 draft that landed them the core of a World Series team).

If all goes well, my book will be off to the printers by the end of March. One might think that a writer’s job ends when the manuscript is accepted to the publisher, but I have a whole list of tasks and a timeline to get them accomplished. To tell you the truth, I can’t wait to get started. With all due respect to my wife, my editor and fixer of my run-on sentences, it’s going to be very educational to work with a professional.

All the best to you and your loved ones this holiday season. May next season extend until the end of October again.