The 12 Days of Prospects

Barriera will need to prove his durability and that his stuff can hold up to the rigors of a professional schedule, but he is a real first round talent and one of the best lefthanded pitchers in the class.

Baseball America

If Ricky Tiedemann is the template for the new world of player development, Brandon Barriera might lead the way in how a multitude of high school seniors prepare for the MLB draft.

Barriera had an impressive spring for his prep team, then shut things down in early May in order to prepare for the draft. In the past, high school hurlers drafted in June would make their debuts in the GCL that summer before hitting their innings limit. Now, with the draft in July, high profile high school arms like Barriera won’t make their debut until the following season.

At 5’11”/171, Barriera may indeed be undersized, but there’s nothing undersized about that arm. He hit 98-99 this spring, regularly touching 96, pairing that high-octane heater with a plus slider. He showed promise with a changeup, but didn’t need to use it all that much given the plus grades of that fastball/slider combo.

In taking Barriera with the 23rd pick, the Blue Jays not only talked him out of his commitment to one of the premier college programs in the country (Vanderbilt), they also sold him on a development plan that had obvious results in Tiedemann. The early results from Instructs were very encouraging. Blue Jays Pitching Development Coordinator Cory Popham noted that the velo bump Barierra experienced this fall was not as big as Tiedemann’s last year (“he (Barriera) came into camp already throwing BB’s,” Popham noted), but he still was pumping the fastball in the high 90s. Barriera throws a mid-70s curveball that at least at this time is somewhere between average and a a get-me-over pitch. His overall stuff was rated as among the best in his high school draft class, and his delivery has been described as “stress free.”

Barriera’s mechanics are clean, although scouts noted a slight head whack at finish. Barriera pounds the strike zone with at least average control, and fields his position well. Barriera has incredible mound presence, and an unending belief in himself. “Looking at the 22 teams before me, they’re going to regret this,” he told MLB network on draft day. Perhaps he was just a young man swept up in the moment of the now made-for-tv draft, but he pitches with a sizeable chip on his shoulder.

It will be the development of his change which ultimately determines his future path; while he rarely needed it, he throws it with the same arm speed as his fastball. The changeup is a feel pitch that takes time to master, however, but his primary pitches will no doubt give it time for that development.

Barriera will likely follow a timeline similar to Tiedemann’s, but perhaps without the accelerated pace - the road to the bigs is littered with former prep high draft picks. Tiedemann threw 78 innings over 18 outings, and one would think Barriera may be limited to a few less frames. It will be interesting to see if he’ held back for the FDL season which begins in June, or makes a late spring pro debut in the FSL.