Blue Jays depth signing brings immediate results after sensational debut from undrafted pitcher

If you have never heard the name Jack Nedrow, don't worry, you're probably not the only one. Nedrow is the newest member of the Toronto Blue Jays organization after signing a contract a few days ago. The reason you may not have heard of him is because Nedrow wasn't pitching in affiliated baseball within any of the 30 MLB team's minor league organizations. The Blue Jays plucked Nedrow out of the Atlantic League, while he was playing for the York Revolution.

In his debut with the Single-A Dunedin, the Tenesee native went four innings, struck out six, walked one, allowed two hits and no runs. It was a sensational pro debut for a player that went undrafted after four years of college ball.

He wasn't really over powering guys with his average exit velocity sitting at 90.1 mph, but he was getting a ton of chase and whiff by effectively mixing that pitch with his cutter and slider. He threw his cutter 21.4% of the time, getting hitters to chase at a 57.1% rate. Then he got half of the hitters he threw a slider to, to whiff on that pitch, resulting in a 50% whiff rate out of the 11 sliders he threw. He also mixed in a curveball and a changeup but he only threw those pitches twice each.

Nedrow's debut another excellent story for Blue Jays farm system

As mentioned, Nedrow went undrafted after four seasons of college baseball. His first three years he spent with Lee University, before transferring to the University of South Florida last year. He posted a 3.82 ERA across 311.1 innings pitched in 63 games, including 52 starts during his college career. He racked up 270 strikeouts and a 1.143 WHIP. Those are decent enough numbers at any level of baseball, but if his velocity in his college days was anywhere near what it was in his debut with Dunedin, you can see why some scouts may have been hesitant to draft him.

However, just the fact that he managed to make it to the pro-baseball level with the Blue Jays is a great story altogether and it's just one of several great stories that have been emerging in the early part of the year across the Blue Jays farm system. The Blue Jays are seeing great performances from some top prospects such as Arjun Nimmala (No. 3) and JoJo Parker (No. 2).

Nimmala was recently called up to Double-A for the first time and the 20-year-old is hitting .423/.444/.500 through his first six games with 11 hits, including two doubles. The 19-year-old Parker has three home runs, 15 RBIs, 11 stolen bases and a 16.7% walk rate through his first 29 games of minor league ball, after being taken in the first round a year ago.

RJ Schreck, who climbed three levels of minor league ball last year, is picking up where he left off with Triple-A Buffalo. The 25-year-old outfielder had a massive week in which he hit .600 (15-for-25) with two home runs and 16 RBIs, including back-to-back nights with a five RBI game. Those numbers led to him being named International League Player of the Week.

On the pitching side, the Blue Jays are seeing solid performances out of some guys who are on the cusp of knocking on the door for their MLB debuts. CJ Van Eyk (3.13 ERA, 30 strikeouts in 31.1 innings pitched) and Chad Dallas (3.90 ERA, 27 strikeouts in 25 innings pitched) have both hit the ground running in Triple-A. No. 4 prospect Johnny King has 25 strikeouts in 17.1 innings and a 1.04 ERA as a 19-year-old in High-A.

Nedrow is just the latest Blue Jays minor leaguer to add to all of these feel good stories.

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