The Toronto Blue Jays inked three college free-agents including Vanderbilt second baseman Harrison Ray.
The free-agent signing period began yesterday for players who were not drafted in the abbreviated five-round MLB amateur draft. Teams were free to sign players for a maximum of $20,000 as the Blue Jays picked up a trio of players.
The Blue Jays landed Harrison Ray who was a teammate of Austin Martin at Vanderbilt. He joins Phillip Clarke and Martin as the third player from Vanderbilts NCAA championship season of 2019 within the organization.
Ray was ranked 441 on the Baseball America Top 500 rankings following four seasons at Vanderbilt. In 2019, Ray hit .276/.358/.397 with 64 hits including 21 stolen bases in 66 games for the Commodores. He sports a career collegiate slash line of .259/.343/.378 with 120 hits, five home runs and 37 stolen bases in 158 NCAA games.
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The Blue Jays also inked free-agent outfielder Mackenzie Mueller from Baylor Univerity. In 2019, Mueller hit .286/.379/.500 with 16 hits and two homers in 23 games with the Bears. In three collegiate seasons, Mueller played in just 45 games slashing .276/.366/.517 with 32 hits and six home runs.
The third signing of the day was infielder/outfielder Zac Cook from Texas-Arlington. The utility player hit .294/.395/.296 with 25 stolen bases and 75 bases on balls over 165 games throughout his collegiate career.
No terms of the signings have been released, however, under this new format, players cannot sign for more than $20,000. They will qualify to be paid a minor-league salary for the remainder of the season if the team chooses to do so.
The trio joins the likes of Austin Martin, CJ Van Eyk, Trent Palmer, Nick Frasso, and Zach Britton who were all recently drafted. The Blue Jays have yet to officially sign any of their picks as of yet.
Look for the Blue Jays to land a plethora of free-agents in the coming days seeing the draft was only five rounds as opposed to the traditional 40 rounds.