Toronto 'excited about the whole group' for Draft
Alexis Brudnicki
TORONTO -- After taking two big right-handers on the first day of the 2019 MLB Draft and getting some position-player depth on the second day, the Blue Jays concluded the selection process with a mishmash of players at all positions and levels on Wednesday.
Alek Manoah was the first player taken by Toronto in the first round at No. 11 overall on Monday, and should he sign, the 6-foot-6, 260-pound junior out of West Virginia University would lead a Draft class the club takes a lot of pride in.
“We’re excited about the whole group,” Blue Jays director of amateur scouting Steve Sanders said. “A really good, diverse group of players, [with a] diverse group of tools. I’m proud of the work that our scouts did to put us in a position to take all these guys. … I think the entire room felt really good walking out those doors about what we were able to add to the organization.”
With their second- and third-round picks, the Blue Jays took a pair of high schoolers that they are confident they will be able to reach deals with, and the club is looking forward to getting them out on the field. Another 6-foot-6 right-hander, Kendall Williams, was the second player off the board for Toronto and is committed to Vanderbilt.
“Kendall Williams is extremely strong,” Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins said. “We do have a ton of background and a lot of information just in the time that we’ve spent with him. … Incredible person, a great athlete with a ton of upside. The power and strength are what stand out, some opportunities with his delivery.”
The Blue Jays made Dasan Brown the first Canadian selected in this year’s Draft when they took him in the third round at No. 88 overall. A member of the Canadian Junior National Team, Brown has consistently matched up against professional competition throughout his amateur career, which has Toronto confident for his future.
“Dasan Brown is a plus athlete, plus speed, [has] a chance to be an above-average defender, a chance to be -- dare I say -- a five-tool player, so that’s exciting,” Atkins said. “Seventeen years old, people talk about age in today’s Draft and selection process, and common sense -- not just analytics -- [is why] you have more opportunities for growth.
“And players like Dasan, who are competing at 17 with 21-year-olds in professional baseball atmospheres -- [it] is a very good indicator of future success and certainly an indicator of a lot of opportunity and development opportunities.”
Brown was one of four Canadians the Blue Jays selected in this year’s Draft. In the 26th round, Toronto chose Levis, Quebec, native Jean-Christophe Masson, a 16-year-old outfielder. And in back-to-back rounds in the 29th and 30th, the Blue Jays took Owen Diodati, a high school catcher from Niagara Falls, Ontario, and Noah Myers, a junior college outfielder and Wyoming, Ontario, native.
“We were excited obviously for Canadian players this year, and one as high as the third round in Dasan,” Sanders said. “All really interesting players. Noah Myers, who’s down at Wabash [Valley College (Ill.), had a nation-best] 77 steals this year, pretty impressive speed.
“Obviously, Diodati and Masson with big power, and Dasan is really a very tooled-up player on both sides of the ball. So four Canadian players, very different, very different backgrounds, but really excited to have the opportunity to take those guys, and there’s certainly special meaning, not only for us, but hopefully for them, to be selected by the Blue Jays.”
Diodati and Myers are both graduates of the Great Lake Canadians program -- a nearby organization based in London, Ontario -- the former finishing up his tenure this summer and committed to the University of Alabama, and the latter just having completed his second year of junior college with a commitment to the University of South Carolina. The program couldn’t be more excited about what its players will offer at the next level.
“Owen’s got a tremendous work ethic,” said Chris Robinson, former Major League catcher and Great Lake’s director of baseball operations. “He’s the type of kid you don’t bet against. He’s really mature on and off the field, in terms of his approach to the game.
“Noah’s amazing. He’s a great story. He wasn’t the most highly recruited player, he wasn’t a Draft prospect out of high school, and he made a very mature decision to go to a very strong junior college and it paid off for him.”
With players to sign and already looking ahead to next year’s Draft class in the never-ending scouting process, Sanders was excited to see some of the hard work his staff has been putting in come to fruition throughout the three days of the Draft.
“It’s awesome,” he said. “The last three days is really the culmination of a year’s, and a lot of times, more than a year’s worth of work … [for the] guys that are out on the road, spending a lot of nights and a lot of miles travelling to see these guys. For them, it doesn’t always result in getting a player or getting a player signed, and sometimes it’s the first-round guy and sometimes it’s the 40th-round guy.
“But for us, every single one of these players is a group effort, so it’s great. That’s what it’s all about. It’s about bringing players into this organization, and they’re the driving force behind that."