Blue Jays may have gotten a steal drafting catcher Will Brick in the fourth round

The Toronto Blue Jays rounded out the first day of the 2026 MLB draft by selecting a high school catcher out of Tennessee. 18-year-old catcher Will Brick was chosen in the fourth-round (No. 131 overall) by the Blue Jays out of Christian Brothers High School. The six-foot-two, 195-pound right-handed hitter was listed as the 46th best prospect on MLB Pipeline's big board ahead of the draft.

Brick was also linked to the Blue Jays in some pre-draft analysis and was widely regarded as the best high school aged catching prospect in the draft. This may end up being a steal for the Blue Jays down the rode. While catchers are some of the toughest to fully develop into all-around major league contributors, getting a guy who is a defense-first catcher, who can handle a pitching staff, is never a bad thing.

But that's not necessarily what Brick projects to be either. It's just that he was so lauded for his defensive skills that some scouts may have overlooked the offense. Brick has above-average arm strenght and posted a sub 1.9 second pop time, while being able to throw out base stealers from his knees.

He was named Gatorade's Tennessee high school player of the year, moves well behind the plate and shows the potential to become a plus reciever and blocker down the line. He got some work in with the U.S. 18-and-under team and scouts loved the fact that he was able to handle some elite pitching during that tour of duty.

Meantime, his bat is said to have plus raw power, and can launch balls during batting practice, but tends to be more of a line drive hitter during games. He is short to the plate and that results in his hands moving through the zone quick enough to get to most balls, but he displayed a passive approach at the plate that knocked him down a few pegs in the scouts eyes.

Blue Jays suddenly becoming flush with catching depth

Brick joins a Blue Jays farm system that all of a sudden has some very intriguing depth behind the plate. After the graduation of Brandon Valenzuela to the big leagues it looked like they were thin on potential big leagues at that position.

However, there have been a number of pleasant surprises in the minors this season amongst the Blue Jays' catching group. Giaconino Lasaracina, who was signed by the Blue Jays as an international free agent from Italy just before the World Baseball Classic, has hit the ground running in his first year playing stateside. With the FCL Blue Jays and Single-A Dunedin, Lasaracina has hit .330 with eight home runs and a 1.082 OPS in 24 games. Meantime, Juan Caricote is hitting .310 in the Dominican Summer League with a .386 OBP and a .342 BABIP.

The Blue Jays also just traded for Ryan Sprock in a deal with the Minnesota Twins with reliever Tommy Nance going the other way. Sprock is a 21-year-old catcher who has hit .297/.427/.428 in 67 games with five home runs, a 17.4% walk rate and 11.5% strikeout rate.

Brick will join that group if he decides to sign with the Blue Jays. He is committed to Mississippi State and that may have scared off some teams from drafting him higher. But this is a very good gamble for the Blue Jays to take on a guy that looks incredibly polished defensively for his age.

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