Blue Jays: Four players in Baseball America’s new top 100 rankings

Baseball America announced their latest update to their Top 100 prospect rankings, and there are four Blue Jays now on the prestigious list.

The future looks bright for the Toronto Blue Jays, at least if you’re asking Baseball America’s latest top 100 prospect rankings (subscription required). After graduating a few elite players like Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette last year, the Blue Jays are well represented on the current list with four prospects being named.

To no one’s surprise, Nate Pearson leads off for the Jays at seventh overall, although he’s likely to lose his prospect status at some point in 2020. That said, for now he’s considered one of the best prospects in the game, and there’s a lot of reason for excitement for his arrival.

Last week I asked openly how Austin Martin would compare to the rest of the Blue Jays’ current prospects, and he is rated even more highly than I had anticipated. Martin debuts on BA’s list at 16th overall, an impressive showing for a guy who has yet to play his first professional game. He’s also the 2nd player to show up from this year’s draft, behind only Spencer Torkelson at number eleven.

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As if those two aren’t enough to be excited about on their own, Jordan Groshans came up just short of the top 30 ranking at number 31. He missed some significant time last year while battling some injuries, but he looks to be fully recovered and ready to get back to it, whenever minor leaguers are able to do just that. The 20-year-old thrived in Low-A last season, and presumably would have started in in Dunedin in High-A in 2020 had their been a season. Still, he’s not that far away from making the jump to the big leagues.

Rounding out the Blue Jay representatives on the list is Simeon Woods Richardson, who comes in at number 67. He was acquired last year in the Marcus Stroman swap with the Mets, and the criticism at the time was the Blue Jays didn’t get a top 100 prospect in the return package of Woods Richardson and Anthony Kay. Obviously the Blue Jays scouting department proved they know a little more on the topic than you or I, and SWR really impressed after switching organizations last year. He won’t turn 20 years old until September, but after thriving in High-A last year, don’t be surprised if we see him in the big leagues sometime in the next couple of seasons either.

The Blue Jays have really put together a strong minor league system over the last few years, and there were a handful of players that can’t be far off from the top 100 such as Alek Manoah, Alejandro Kirk, Orelvis Martinez, Gabriel Moreno, and possibly others. The fact that they added Martin at 16 really improves their overall system, and gives us yet another reason to be excited about the future.

At a time when it looks like baseball will return in 2020 after all, dare I say, I think it’s even okay to start dreaming about the future again. As for the Blue Jays, that future looks very promising.