Toronto Blue Jays Top Prospect 2015 Wrap-Up: Chad Girodo

In a year when Toronto Blue Jays system got purged of its left-handed pitching, RP Chad Girodo continued to solidify his spot as a future bullpen option for the Blue Jays

A 9th round pick in 2013, Chad Girodo had a busy year in 2015. He started the year with the Dunedin Blue Jays before being elevated to New Hampshire on June 10th, then being elevated to Triple-A Buffalo on September 1st for a four game audition. The development of Girodo in 2015 continued into the fall, when he was named to the Salt River Rafters of the Arizona Fall League.

2015 was a very good season for the side-arm relief pitcher, being named Mid-Season All-Star team with Dunedin and Rising Stars game with the River Rafters.

The product of Mississippi State split 20 games with the D-Jays and 21 games with New Hampshire, seeing his ERA, FIP, and walks drop in Double-A despite seeing a rise in opponent’s batting average.

Many say the jump from A-ball to Double-A is the toughest for minor league ball players, but the lefty saw his ERA drop from 1.32 to 0.62, his FIP drop from 2.29 to 1.89, and his walk totals go from 2.3o to 0.62 BB/9 from Advance-A Dunedin to Double-A New Hampshire.

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Chad completely dominated LHB holding opponents to .096BA versus .282 against RHB over three levels. In Dunedin, lefty batters hit a dismal .038 in 29 plate appearances and in New Hampshire lefty batters hit .132 in 38 plate appearances.

Despite not being a flame thrower, Chad finished 25 games with 2 saves in 3 opportunities. With a fastball that sits between the high-80’s and low-90’s and a slider that hits 80 mph, Chad continues to rely on plus movement on his pitches to find success.  It’s the impressive movement that allows Chad to generate weak contact (1 HR allowed) and a lot of ground balls (1.74 GO/AO).

Chad also showed excellent control with 9 walks, 58 strike outs, 2 hit batters, and 0.96 WHIP over 60.1IP and 45 games. This future LOOGY also excelled with runners on base, stranding 89.4% with Dunedin and 92.9% with New Hampshire.

I purposely left Chad’s Buffalo stats until now because the sample size was very small. Chad threw two shutout innings in Game 1 and Game 3 with Buffalo. In Game 2, Chad surrendered 2 runs on 3 hits with one strikeout, lasting 0.2IP, and in Game 4 Chad had a 1-2-3 8th inning before allowing one run on 2 hits and a strikeout before being lifted in the 9th with one out.

In his final stop of 2015, Chad dominated over 7 games in Arizona, allowing 2 runs on 9 hits in 10IP while walking 3 and striking out 7. He finished the Fall league with a save, no wins or losses and 1.80ERA.

Overall, Chad finished the 2015 minor league season with 4 wins, 2 losses, 1.34 ERA, 9BB, 58K, 0.96WHIP in 60.1IP while converting 2 saves.

With Brett Cecil, Aaron Loup, and Pat Venditte (or is he a righty???) being the only left-handed RPs on the 40-man roster, 2016 could see Girodo crack the Blue Jays roster.