Top Five 2022 Stories in the Blue Jays System

2022 was the first full season for the new and (mostly) improved major league farm system. It had its ups and downs, but for the most part, the new model seems to work. New rule changes were implemented - the pitch clock having the greatest impact, to these eyes - and from a Blue Jays standpoint, two clubs made the playoffs, and a number of players had breakout seasons. Here are five.

Ricky Tiedemann 

Duh. This was a no-brainer.

We had heard of Tiedemann’s uptick in velo at the Florida Development Camp last fall, but entering 2022, there were still doubts, after an underwhelming JuCo season during his draft year, about how things would play out in pro ball:

 He is an excellent athlete who aggressively goes after hitters, but his arm slot can wander and make it harder to throw strikes. He’ll show above-average control in some outings and struggle to find the strike zone in others. (Baseball America)

Tiedemann’s first start with Dunedin gave a glimpse of what was to come. He sat 95-96 with his fastball, touching 98, and fanned 8 in 5 innings of work, filling up the strike zone with a 65% strike rate.

From there, Tiedemann went on the next month to dominating hitters at High A, then after some down time and work at the pitching lab in Florida over the All Star break, it was much of the same at AA before he reached his innings limit at the end of August.

With that upper 90s fastball, circle change, and plus slider (after his time at the lab, it really had much more of a sweeping movement to it), Tiedemann rose to 28th on BA’s Top 100, and 33 on MLB Pipeline’s.

There is no doubt about his front of the rotation potential. While he’s likely to possibly return to AA for at least his next few starts next season, the question among most Blue Jays fans is when Tiedemann will be big league ready. Having just turned 20 in August, the farm and high performance departments will be make sure he’s no rushed, but if he continues to get stronger and develop his slider more, his ascension to the bigs could be sooner rather than later.

 Addison Barger

One of the few married players in the organization (with a baby daughter to boot), Barger seemed to have found some maturity and improved focus over the course of the last off season to become the system’s most dangerous hitter.

Barger was among the Northwest League leaders in most offensive categories before a mid-season promotion to AA, where he continued to hit (.912 OPS in 47 games), and fared well in a late season move to Buffalo. For the season, he slashed a career-best .308/.378/.933

One of the strongest players in the system, Barger had shown promise since being drafted in the 6th round in 2018, but he had yet to show enough mastery of the strike zone to make contact on a consistent basis prior to 2022. This year, he dropped his K% from the mid 30’s to 24, and the difference in his numbers was dramatic. There still is a swing-and-miss aspect to his game, but no one in the system gets to their barrel like Barger does.

With one of the strongest infield arms in the system, Barger can easily slot in on the left side of the infield on a utility basis. He has had reps at 2nd, and can play some 1st as well. As a versatile power-hitting left-handed bat, one would have to think Barger will be in competition for a big league job next spring.

 Davis Schneider

When you’re a 2017 28th round pick who hasn’t advanced above A ball before this season, expectations might be on the low side. But Schneider, a 2B/LF type with an ability to get on base (65 walks in 113 games), and even a bit of pop (16 HRs at 3 levels), went above and beyond what the organization likely expected of him this year.

Schneider reached base in 23 consecutive games at one point this summer, and put together 8 multi-hit games in August. He even stole 17 bases this year. The competition for a big league job will be immense, but after finishing the season at Buffalo, Schneider should at least merit an invite to big league camp next spring.

Yosver Zulueta

For Zulueta, whose 2021 season was limited to 3 pitches, 2020 lost due to Covid, and 2019 wiped out because of Tommy John surgery, 2022 was a big coming out party.

Starting at Dunedin, progressing through Vancouver, and ending the year at New Hampshire, Zulueta routinely sat 98-99 with his fastball from a smooth, easy delivery, and fanned 13.6K/9.

While the organization still views him long term as a starter, Zulueta was moved to the bullpen after the break (he did start a game for Buffalo, but that was likely more due to a lack of starters on the Bisons’ roster) to cut down on his workload. There was talk that the big club was looking at this stint as a reliever as a prelude to a possible MLB promotion, but a stint on the IL from early August until September put an end to that notion.

It will be very interesting to see what happens next spring with Zulu.

Jimmy Robbins

There were several other names that merited consideration for this final spot, but Robbins - who hadn’t pitched since July of 2019 after undergoing TJ - gets the nod. At three levels, all it seems like he did was get hitters out.

Robbins struck out 98 hitters in 76 innings, and posted a tidy 2.59 ERA at three levels, finishing at Buffalo. He can field his position well, too:

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So, if you’ve been getting your regular Blue Jays prospect information from futurebluejays.com, first of all - thanks. After six years of Blogger and then another four with a website, I’ve decided to go the substack route. Having published my first book this past spring , I want to devote more time to researching and writing baseball (and and some hockey) stories from the past. But I still want to continue to write about the Jays farm system. Minor League baseball appeals to the grassroots fan in me, a guy whose only exposure to live baseball growing up was the local town team, a club I desperately wanted to play CF for, until the club folded after our town’s arena beside the ball diamond burned down in a spectacular conflagration.

I enjoy talking to players, staff, and even parents connected with the system. To that end, I had a conversation with Blue Jays Player Development Coordinator Joe Sclafani that I’m working through a transcription of - I hope to have that up later this week. My goal is always to try to find you stuff that you can’t find anywhere else - at least, not without a great deal of searching.

During the off-season, I’ll write the odd piece about things connected to the system - the Rule 5 draft, MiLB free agency, and the like. During the season, I’ll get back to doing a weekly update of the system - that was something that seemed to resonate with my readers, so I’ll continue to work on those next year.

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