The Jays Journal staff returns with our yearly Top 30 prospect rankings. The #29 spot goes to an under the radar player that had a breakout rookie campaign in 2018.
Cal Stevenson, an outfielder, was taken by the Blue Jays in the 2018 draft in the 10th round. Stevenson will be turning 23 in 2019 and he has shown over the course of his extremely brief minor league career that he could be a force to be reckoned with the stick and on the basepaths.
Name: Cal Stevenson
Position: OF Age: 22
Height: 5’10 Weight: 175 lbs
Throws: Left Bats: Left
Acquired: 10th round pick, 296th overall by Toronto in 2018
Cal Stevenson started his minor league career with 249 plate appearances over 53 games with the GCL Blue Jays before finishing 2018 with the Bluefield Blue Jays. Stevenson got to Bluefield for 6 games and 31 plate appearances. To put it simply, Stevenson dominated at both stops in his first season in the Blue Jays system.
GCL Blue Jays – .359/.494/.518, 173 wRC+, 20 stolen bases
Bluefield Blue Jays – .474/.645/.579, 246 wRC+, 1 stolen base
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Even though the stop with Bluefield was just 6 games, those are some pretty impressive numbers to put up in a small sample size. Stevenson should be penciled in to begin 2019 with Bluefield again but there is a possibility he goes to Vancouver extremely quickly. Stevenson really did put himself on the radar of tons of fans in 2018 and the Blue Jays organization took notice.
Baseball America has a pretty favourable scouting report for Stevenson:
"“Stevenson began his college career at Nevada, where he was the 2015 Mountain West Conference co-freshman of the year. He transferred to Arizona, by way of Chabot (Calif.) JC, following head coach Jay Johnson. Stevenson produced two solid years in the Pac-12 Conference, showing good on-base skills and a disciplined approach at the plate. He’s an above-average runner who covers a lot of ground in the outfield. Stevenson also pitched early in his career, but his future is as an outfielder.”"
The Toronto Blue Jays definitely have some good organizational depth with Cal Stevenson. He definitely won’t continue to put up gaudy numbers like he did in 2018, but his glove and speed on the basepaths should get Stevenson a few quick promotions to Lansing or perhaps even New Hampshire before seasons end.