3 important things we learned about the Blue Jays this weekend against the Red Sox

The Blue Jays have late-round, homegrown talent be a difference maker for the ballclub

In the past, the Jays have had many homegrown MLB players that ended up making a huge impact with the ballclub. This included the late Roy Halladay, Marcus Stroman, Vernon Wells, Aaron Hill, Alex Ríos, and the more recently Bo Bichette just to name a few. However, the common trend among all of these elite talents was the fact that they were all drafted in the very early rounds, or in the case for the aforementioned players they were all drafted in the first round from the MLB Draft. As a result, it has been a very rare instance for the Jays to have a late-round bloomer that eventually made it to the big leagues and have a significant impact with the team … perhaps until now.

Chosen in the 28th round from the 2017 MLB Draft, Davis Schneider has suddenly become the unexpected hero coming out of nowhere for the Blue Jays. After being selected and called up last Friday by the Jays to start the series against the Red Sox, he has had one of the most spectacular MLB debuts that one could imagine of with the team.

In the series, Schneider went 9-for-13 for a .692 batting average, 1.887 OPS, 417 OPS+, with three runs scored, two home runs, and five RBI, while leading the Jays’ offensive attack. Obviously, he won’t be able to sustain this kind of production for the rest of the season, but it one took a careful look at his approach at the plate, he is a great contact hitter with good plate discipline. He may have the power to keep gunning for home runs, but instead, he could hit according to the situation presented at the plate, grinding out important base hits to drive in the necessary runs to keep the momentum going. Albeit that it may just be a small sample size, but it is this kind of approach that will make him successful no matter what role he ends up playing for the Jays down the stretch when they eventually get back to full health.