Grading the last 5 Toronto Blue Jays first-round picks 

2022 – P Brandon Barriera

The Blue Jays took a huge gamble in 2022 when they chose to draft Brandon Barriera out of American Heritage High School. In doing so, he became the Jays first 1st round pick coming out of high school since Jordan Groshans in 2018. They sure hoped that Barriera would pan out much better than how Groshans ended up. After all, there were sky-high expectations for Barriera as he was ranked second among the Jays’ top prospects according to MLB Pipeline after coming out of the draft year.

However, the growth and development of Barriera for the past couple of seasons have been significantly derailed as he had been plagued by injuries. In total, he has only made 8 starts in his professional baseball career, posting an 0-2 record with a 4.57 ERA, 1.01 WHIP, along with 10 walks and 26 strikeouts in 21.2 innings pitched. Nevertheless, he did give a glimpse of his potential when he gave up zero hits and zero runs with 6 strikeouts in his professional debut.

With the limited exposure and small sample size that we have seen so far with Barriera, it is difficult to gauge how his performance has been and what he projects to be in the future. But if injuries keep becoming a more concerning and ongoing issue for the inspiring 20-year-old, that could potentially limit his upside (think Nate Pearson). As a result, the pick should get a D for now until he can show what he can do once he gets over his health issues.

Grade: D