Blue Jays: The 2018 champion Fisher Cats were a special group

With T.J. Zeuch’s MLB debut on Tuesday, that’s now 12 players from the 2018 New Hampshire Fisher Cats to have made their big league debut already. There’s a good reason they won their Double-A championship that year.

We’ll get to see a few more young Blue Jays throughout the month of September, and the first group of them joined the roster on Tuesday, including Anthony Alford, Richard Urena, Jonathan Davis, and T.J. Zeuch.

The first three had already made their big league debuts in the past and were already on the 40 man roster, but the Blue Jays had to make space for Zeuch, which meant they designated Zack Godley for assignment before the game. He didn’t have to wait long to get his feet wet either, pitching in his first game after Wilmer Font opened things up. He managed a line of 4.0 innings giving up two earned runs on three hits and two walks, striking out four.

Zeuch’s promotion brought about another reunion, as he’s played with many of the current Blue Jays as they’ve all worked their way through the minor league system. What’s particularly interesting is that Zeuch joins a long list from the 2018 Double-A champion New Hampshire Fisher Cats to make his big league debut already, showing how much talent there was on that team.

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The list features current Blue Jays like Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette, Cavan Biggio, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Justin Shafer, Jordan Romano, Travis Bergen, Sean Reid-Foley and Davis, and their skipper, John Schneider as well. There are a few who have since departed as well including Jon Berti (now in the Marlins’ organization), Harold Ramirez (Miami), and Jose Fernandez (Detroit Tigers).

There are a lot of moving parts on any minor league team with players being promoted and demoted all the time, so there were a lot of notable players that passed through New Hampshire that year. They even saw rehab stints from established big leaguers like Aaron Sanchez and Aledmys Diaz, and veterans near the end of their career like a Craig Breslow.

Chances are the list will grow eventually as well, as I’m guessing that there are a few more that have a future in the big leagues. According to thebaseballcube.com, they list anyone who played at least one game with the Fisher Cats that year. If we’re looking for bright futures from guys who haven’t made their MLB debut yet, I’m willing to bet that at least will more will get that chance some day, including Santiago Espinal, Patrick Murphy, and Forrest Wall, and possibly others.

There was a lot of hype around that team in 2018, and rightfully so. The core of that lineup has essentially become the core of the Blue Jays going forward, and there’s a lot of reason for excitement. Many of these youngsters have shown a championship pedigree in the minor leagues, and hopefully one day they’ll do the same at the highest level. It’s pretty cool to see how many of these guys have worked their way through the system together already.