Blue Jays promote surging prospect with incredible patience to next level

It’s been a long-time coming for Je’Von Ward. The 25-year-old Toronto Blue Jays outfield prospect was just promoted to double-A for the first time in his career. The Cerritos, California native was originally drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 12th round of the MLB draft in 2017. Despite putting up some decent numbers, he never moved past single-A ball.  

Now in his second year in the Blue Jays system, he’s finally earned a promotion going from the Vancouver Canadians to the New Hampshire Fisher Cats. Ward’s pitch recognition has been outstanding this year with a 27.9% BB rate. He also led the Northwest League with 64 walks before the promotion, 13 walks ahead of the next closets hitter.

While his contact ability has not been tremendous this year, hitting just .215, 13 of his 35 hits have been for extra bases with four home runs, six doubles and three triples. He also owns an impressive .437 on-base percentage and has scored 43 runs and a wRC+ of 133.  

On the defensive side of the ball, Ward has always been a capable defender, playing in all three outfield spots. He’s split time across left, right and centre fairly evenly this season and has made just one error all year and has made 102 put outs on 106 chances with the ball hit his way.

It takes a lot of patience and determination to stick around in pro-baseball at that level for as long as he has. Ward was once rated as a top ten prospect in the Brewers system but was continually surpassed as he failed to live up to that expectation. However, that commitment to the craft and the determination to keep getting better and making the most of your opportunities could be paying dividends soon as he steps into a new territory with the Fisher Cats.