Blue Jays have surplus of shortstops honing their craft in minors

The Toronto Blue Jays have a plethora of talented prospects at the shortstop position honing their craft throughout the various Jays minor league ranks.

There are at least five legitimate prospects who currently spend the lions share of their time at the shortstop position. The likes of Bo Bichette, Lourdes Gurriel, Richard Urena, Logan Warmoth and Kevin Smith all appeared in the Jays Journal Top 30 organizational prospect rankings for 2018.

At some point, depending on their individual development decisions will have to be made on who remains and who shuffles to another position, however, this is definitely a good dilemma to be faced with as shortstop is one of the most difficult and integral positions on the field.

Bo Bichette is the most heralded of all the blue chippers however there is some thought throughout the industry that he may eventually move over to the keystone sack. Thus far Bichette has 102 games at shortstop coupled with 20 games at second base.

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Lourdes Gurriel may be the most versatile of all the players at the position, he split time between shortstop (28 games) and second base (22 games) during his rookie season in 2017. During his 6 seasons with the Cuban National Series, Gurriel saw action at every single infield position as well as 40 games in left field.

Richard Urena made his MLB debut last season, in his 21 games with the big club, he was utilized as a shortstop on 20 of those occasions. Throughout his minor league career, Urena has spent the majority of his career at shortstop with just a handful of games at second.

Logan Warmoth was drafted in the 1st round of the 2017 amateur draft and the initial thought is Warmoth could stick at the position. He played all his defensive innings at shortstop last season. The Jays selected another shortstop in the 4th of the same draft taking Kevin Smith with the 129th selection. Obviously, both players are a long way off but they are both solid talents and I expect Warmoth to shoot through the system quickly.

Aside from the big five the Jays also have 19-year old Luis De Los Santos who has impressed in his first two seasons of pro ball. De Los Santos projects as a shortstop but has also seen time at third base. As well as 20-year old Kevin Vicuna who is beginning to come into his own, the Venezuela native has played both short and second base throughout his career.

Next: Toronto Blue Jays 2018 Top Prospects: #3 Anthony Alford

The prospect cupboard is definitely not bare on the left side of the Blue Jays infield throughout the farm system. Too much depth at shortstop is never a bad thing.