Toronto Blue Jays: Draft Targets Final Edition- Pitchers

The college baseball season is nearing its end and that means that the MLB Draft is right around the corner.  The Blue Jays are going to have a fantastic opportunity to add a talented prospect to their farm system with the 19th pick due to the depth of this draft class.

With that in mind, I decided to take a look at some more draft prospects and put out my final Blue Jays Draft Targets article, highlighting some players who may be candidates for the Jays to select this July.  If you missed either of the first two draft targets pieces on either the pitchers or position players, make sure to check them out to get all the information you will need heading into the draft.  With that being said, let’s jump and in take a look at some potential future Blue Jays.

Anthony Solometo LHP Bishop Eustace (NJ) #20 On MLB Pipeline

During his time in Toronto, GM Ross Atkins has leaned towards college talent when selecting in the first round, with only one of his first five opening round selections being a high school player in the form of Jordan Groshans back in 2018.  You have to go all the way back to 2013 to find the last time the Jays selected a prep pitcher in the first round, when GM Alex Anthopoulos made Phillip Bickford the 10th overall pick, though he did not sign.

According to many mock drafts, including MLB Pipeline’s last two editions, New Jersey’s Anthony Solometo has a real chance to break the Blue Jays’ recent trend and become the first high school arm they select in the opening round of the MLB draft in over eight years.

Solometo is a super intriguing prospect.  The first traits that immediately jump out while watching his tape are his unique mechanics and plus size.  The New Jersey native may have the most interesting delivery I’ve ever seen.  Solometo has a huge leg kick, a lot of hand movement and throws from a three quarter arm slot (video of his mechanics linked if you want to check it out).  This creates a ton of deception and gives his fastball, which sits in the low to mid 90’s, a little extra life, making it appear a couple miles per hour faster.

Solometo also has a projectable build, standing at 6’5” with great length, leaving scouts to believe that there is more velocity to be tapped into once he grows into his body.  Though the left-hander’s heater only resided in the low to mid 90’s, he has advanced command of the pitch and is able to attack both sides of the plate with it, “allowing him to work inside to both righty’s and lefty’s”, which creates a super uncomfortable at bat for hitters.

The Jersey native’s secondary offerings are not as advanced as his fastball and will need to be polished if he is going to fully tap into his potential.  Solometo has a slider that has received plus grades before, but can be inconsistent at times as it can get “slurvy” and won’t break as sharp as a true slider, which has lead some evaluators to question its swing and miss potential.

Along with polishing his slider, Solometo will have to add a third pitch if he wants to remain a starter.  He possesses a changeup that has improved over the course of his career, but it is considered to be an average pitch at best at the moment and will have to be tweaked once he turns pro.

Overall, Anthony Solometo is a high school arm who has flown up draft boards recently because of his build and the potential that scouts see due to his height, length and untapped velocity from the left side.  The New Jersey native is the 20th ranked prospect on MLB Pipeline’s board and will probably hear his name called around this mark as well.

I personally have other prep arms such as Andrew Painter, Chase Petty, and Ben Kudrna, ranked ahead of Solometo, as I feel that they have better tools and are more polished than the lefty.  However, if Solometo is willing to sign for a below value bonus, then he could be an intriguing addition to a Jays’ farm system that lacks left-handed pitching, while giving them more financial flexibility later in the draft.

Jaden Hill (Re-Visited) RHP LSU #35 On MLB Pipeline 

I touched on LSU’s Jaden Hill during the first edition of my Blue Jays Draft Targets, but so much has changed surrounding the big righty since I wrote this piece back in late March that I thought It would be wise to revisit this tantalizing prospect.

Heading into the 2021 season, Hill was seen as a potential top 10 pick, ranking fifth on MLB Pipelines board. The Arkansas native has everything that ball clubs look for in an ace, starting with his excellent repertoire that features a mid 90’s fastball, a filthy changeup that grades out as one of the best in the class, and a plus slider that has shown swing and miss potential.  The right hander also looks the part, standing at 6’4” and weighing in at 234 pounds.

Combining Hill’s three pitch mix with his plus size led most scouts to believe that there was no chance of him falling outside of the top 15 picks on draft day.  The LSU product was destined to be the first Tiger selected in the opening round of the draft since 2017.  All Hill had to do was go out and build off a solid COVID-19 shortened season, where he put up a fantastic 0.00 ERA in 11.2 innings pitched.  Unfortunately, this did not materialize and the Arkansas native ended up having about as bad of a 2021 season as anyone could have imagined.

It began with the righty posting an ugly 6.67 ERA in seven starts for the Tigers, where teams had “no problem hitting his fastball”.  Then, in possibly the biggest outing of Hill’s college career against Vanderbilt, he was forced to exit the game in the second inning due to an elbow injury and later found out that he would need Tommy John surgery, which would end his season.  Because of Hill’s poor on-field performance and the injury concerns, the right-hander is now viewed as a second round prospect, who could sneak back into the first round because of his upside.

Hill is only a Junior, so there is an option for him to go back to LSU for his senior season to rebuild his value that has plummeted over the last three months.  However, Tommy John can take over a year to recover from so there is no guarantee that the Arkansas native will be ready to pitch next season.  Hill may decide that he’s better off taking his late first to early third round pay cheque and getting into an organization that will allow him to fully recover from his elbow injury, instead of returning to Baton Rouge and potentially rushing his rehab in order to get back on the field and rebuild his stock.

Hill definitely possesses the tools needed to thrive at the big league level. He’s drawn comparisons to the likes of Stephen Strasburg and Luis Castillo because of his elite change up, power fastball and plus third pitch.  I personally believe that Hill’s poor on-field performance this season was due to the fact that he wasn’t 100% health wise, and wouldn’t put too much stock into those seven ugly starts.

I can almost guarantee that Hill will be available when the Jays are on the clock at pick 19.  If Ross Atkins and company are comfortable with the injury, and feel that he will make a full recovery from it, then Jaden Hill could end up becoming one of the biggest steals of the 2021 draft and give the Jays a top 5 talent, towards the back half of round one.

Will Bednar RHP Mississippi State #36 On MLB Pipeline

Like Gavin Williams, Will Bednar is another college prospect whose draft stock has skyrocketed this past season.  Bednar has always had a plus fastball that resides in the low to mid 90’s, topping out at 97 mph with high spin rates.  The Pennsylvania native struggled to throw strikes consistently early on in his college career, but was able to find the zone more often for the Bulldogs in 2021, seeing his BB/9 ratio drop from 3.5 to 2.4 this past season.

He combined his new found command with an improved slider that saw an uptick in velocity and spin, which has turned it one of the best breaking balls in the class due to its late, sharp braking action and swing and miss ability.  Bednar was able to parlay his improved command and slider into a fine season for the Bulldogs, going 7-1, while posting a 3.53 ERA, striking out 13.7 batters per nine innings, doing all of this in the tough South Eastern Conference.

The Pittsburgh native showed the baseball world why he should be a first rounder in his most recent outing, as he was dominate in Mississippi State’s opening game of the College World Series.  Bednar tossed 6+ scoreless innings, while striking out 15 of the 21 batters he faced en route to an upset win against Texas, the number two team in the nation. The righty was electric against the Longhorns, showcasing his pinpoint command and excellent pitch sequencing, which kept opposing hitters off balanced all night long.

Despite the amount of success that Bednar has enjoyed this season he is still no where near a finished product.  The right-hander only has two plus pitches and, because of this, there’s definitely some reliever risk tied to him if he can’t develop a third offering to give hitters a different look during his third or fourth time through a lineup.

I see Bednar in a similar spot to Blue Jays’ former first round pick Alek Manoah, who many scouts believed could pitch in a Major League bullpen immediately after he was drafted, thanks to his plus fastball and advanced slider.  Like Manoah, Bednar has great feel for both his slider and fastball and is a very intuitive pitcher, leaving me to believe that at the bare minimum he has the tools to become an effective reliever with the upside to turn into a quality starter.

Bednar is definitely a high floor player and would be a pretty low risk pick for a club due to how intelligent he is and the advanced feel he has for both his fastball and slider.  The Pennsylvania native’s ceiling is still undetermined and will really come down to his ability to add a third pitch.

If the Jays feel confident in either his change up or curveball becoming an effective pitch at the next level, then Will Bednar has the potential to turn into a top of the rotation arm and one that I would be excited to see develop in the Blue Jays’ farm system.