Toronto Blue Jays: Top 5 unsigned draft picks since 2010

Brady Singer

Drafted by Blue Jays: 2015 2nd-round selection (56th overall)

Second Draft (as Junior): 2018 1st-round selection (18th overall) by the Royals

Probably the name on here the casual fan will know the least about because he hasn’t thrown a professional inning yet, but Brady Singer was drafted the earliest of all the players on this list the first time around by a whopping 490 selections.

This is the one the Jays may feel the most though as they made the 18-year-old right-hander an offer, but couldn’t come to terms on an agreement. Typically when draft picks go this high and don’t sign it’s due to financial reasons, but Blue Jays amateur scouting director at the time, Brian Parker, said that wasn’t the case according to Ben Nicholson-Smith.

Hailing from Eustis, Florida, Singer chose to attend college just over an hour from home, the University of Florida and with a powerhouse like the Gators to fall back on, it made the decision slightly easier.

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He went to Florida to win and that’s just what they did during his three year tenure in Gainesville, appearing in the CWS all three seasons including a championship in 2017. That championship campaign, his second year on campus, he established himself as one of the following year’s top draft prospects, as he led the team in innings pitched (126), with 14 of those innings coming at the CWS where he secured two wins for the Gators, allowing just four earned runs and racking up 21 strikeouts. He earned a spot on the CWS All-Tournament Team and was named to the US Collegiate National Team, but turned down the invite due to his lengthened workload from the postseason.

This season, his junior year, he was 12-3 with a 2.55 ERA, 114 strikeouts to 22 walks and limited opposing batters to a .203 average across 17 starts, 13 of them quality starts. He won the Dick Howser Trophy as the best player in the country and was ranked the number two prospect heading into the draft by MLB Pipeline. The Royals took him with the 18th-overall selection, giving him a signing bonus of $4.25M, almost a million over the recommended pick value.

Some may be familiar with the story already, but he garnered national attention for what he did with that money at Christmas time this year.

He is currently Kansas City’s number one prospect and ended the 2018 campaign as the 60th in baseball, according to MLB Pipeline.

Singer has yet to throw a pitch in the Royals system as he once again pitched his Gators late into the CWS which doesn’t end until late June.

So while the Blue Jays had brought a lot of talent into their minor league system over the last few years, it could have been even better if they could have signed most of the group above.