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Toronto Blue Jays: The Next Top 100 Prospects

By Callum Belshaw

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 15: Alejandro Kirk #85 of the Toronto Blue Jays grabs the baseball on a wild pitch during the second inning against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on September 15, 2020 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 15: Alejandro Kirk #85 of the Toronto Blue Jays grabs the baseball on a wild pitch during the second inning against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on September 15, 2020 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images) /
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TORONTO, CANADA – JULY 18: The front logo decal on the batting helmet of Jose Reyes #7 of the Toronto Blue Jays before the start of MLB game action against the Texas Rangers on July 18, 2014 at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images)
TORONTO, CANADA – JULY 18: The front logo decal on the batting helmet of Jose Reyes #7 of the Toronto Blue Jays before the start of MLB game action against the Texas Rangers on July 18, 2014 at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images) /

C Gabriel Moreno: Signed in 2016 for $25,000

The Blue Jays have a wealth of young catching.  They have guys at the big league level like Danny Janson and Reece McGuire, as well as prospects who are close to the big leagues in Alejandro Kirk and Riley Adams.  All of these players have high selling’s, but Gabriel Moreno may have the highest of them all.

Moreno, a 2016 international free agent signing out of the Dominican was not a highly touted signing.  The Jays were able to sign him for just 25,000 dollars because of this.  Moreno proved the Jays right for talking a shot on him as, after a slow starter to his pro career, he found his groove in 2018 slashing .359, .395 and .577 as an 18 year old in Rookie Ball.

He followed this up with another impressive season in 2019 where he hit .280 while smashing 12 home runs in just 82 games in A ball.  Moreno spent most of the 2020 season at the alternate site and the strides he took in Rochester were put on full display in the Dominican Winter League where he would slash .373, .471 and .508 in a league where he was almost eight years younger then the average player.

Moreno’s defensive game has improved over the course of his career as well as this past winter in the Dominican where he had a .1000 fielding percentage and caught 43% of runners trying to steal on him, which is very impressive.

Moreno is only 20 years old and hasn’t played past A ball so he is still a couple years away from the bigs but with the potential he has shown with both the glove and the bat, there’s a real possibility that Gabriel Moreno could be the Blue Jays’ catcher of the future and someone I fully expect to see on MLB Pipelines top 100 list soon.

Projected 2021:Start in High A Vancouver; End in AA New Hampshire

Projected MLB Arrival: Mid-Late 2022

Projected Debut On Pipeline’s Top 100:Offseason 2021

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