2025 MLB Draft Day 2 Thread: Toronto Blue Jays Draft on Jays Centre

[Ray]

4 minutes ago, jmomcc said:

He's a senior though? So surely not a ton over. 

Yeah thinking there's probably at least 1 more overslot deal coming

[Pendleton]

Fastball: 55 | Slider: 65 | Changeup: 55 | Control: 45 | Overall: 45

 

Spencer was the closer for a 2023 Indiana State team that made an unexpected run to the NCAA super regionals, though he injured his shoulder in his final outing of the season. He avoided surgery but didn't pitch that summer or fall, then started slowly as a junior season before moving into the Sycamores rotation at midseason. He turned down the Phillies as a 14th-rounder last July to transfer to Texas, where he emerged as the best college senior in the 2025 Draft before injuring his shoulder in April and undergoing season-ending surgery.

 

Spencer added 2 mph to his fastball this spring, sitting at 93-96 mph, touching 98 and maintaining his velocity deep into games, albeit with more downhill angle than carry or run. His sweeping slider always has been his best pitch and it became a wipeout offering after it picked up 5 mph compared to a year ago, averaging 88 mph and reaching 91. He barely threw a changeup at Indiana State but now has the makings of a solid mid-80s cambio with depth.

 

Not only did Spencer improve his velocity and shapes under the tutelage of famed Longhorns pitching coach Max Weiner, but he also gained better mechanics. His delivery is still funky in the back and features some effort, but he was more direct to the plate and more on top of his offerings before he got hurt. His surgery clouds his Draft status, but he was a three-pitch starter working his way toward the first round until his shoulder gave out.

[Ray]

Another overslot in Rd 12. Blaine Bullard, high school OF. Ranked 120 in MLBs board

Scouting grades: Hit: 45 | Power: 45 | Run: 60 | Arm: 50 | Field: 55 | Overall: 45

Bullard raised his stock more than any high school position prospect in Texas this spring. Teams have differing opinions about his offensive upside, but enough clubs like him that he could fit in the top three rounds if he's signable. He has a strong commitment to Texas A&M and could wind up in College Station.

Scouts who believe in Bullard like his bat-to-ball skills from both sides of the plate. Others have questions about his hitting ability and worry that he hasn't faced much in the way of quality competition. He employs more of a gap-to-gap approach right now and makes a lot of groundball contact, but he also has bat speed and a projectable 6-foot-2 frame that could translate into 15 homers per season as he continues to get stronger.

Bullard owns plus speed and knows how to use it on the bases and in the outfield. He displays good instincts in center field and should be able to remain there in college or pro ball. He has average arm strength and could handle all three outfield spots if needed.

[Pendleton]

Bullard sounds like an overslot signing 

[Laika]

Have to like those two picks. 

[Pendleton]

 

 

[John_Havok]

7 minutes ago, Laika said:

Have to like those two picks. 

Very much so. A round 1ish talent pitcher who dropped due to surgery, and a solid prep kid. Yes please

[max silver]

5 minutes ago, John_Havok said:

Very much so. A round 1ish talent pitcher who dropped due to surgery, and a solid prep kid. Yes please

Shoulder surgery is always a scary proposition though. 

[Pendleton]

Jays drafted Sean Casey's kid 

[John_Havok]

1 hour ago, max silver said:

Shoulder surgery is always a scary proposition though. 

True, but I'll roll those dice if the money is there and they're willing to sign 

[Eat My Shatkins]

Looks like Jacob Parker was taken by the D Backs in the 19th round.

I guess he wanted to do his own thing, or the Jays had no interest in him

[Pendleton]

https://www.sportsnet.ca/mlb/article/one-sentence-on-every-blue-jays-pick-in-the-2025-mlb-draft/

[max silver]

1 hour ago, John_Havok said:

True, but I'll roll those dice if the money is there and they're willing to sign 

Hopefully the stuff comes back and he's not a shadow of his pre surgery self. 

[M.E.]

6 hours ago, Eat My Shatkins said:

Looks like Jacob Parker was taken by the D Backs in the 19th round.

I guess he wanted to do his own thing, or the Jays had no interest in him

Probably concern he was going to college after didn’t go in first couple of rounds. 

[mphenhef]

20 hours ago, Laika said:

How does a guy named JACK BAUER drop at all? 

c'mon. 

The Tigers dropped the ball taking Jordan Yost.

[Brownie19]

Interesting draft (not that I have any clue).  Seems like we took a lot of underslot SRs and lots of arms.  Hopefully it works out.  Kind of blah if you ask me (which you shouldn't).

[jmomcc]

My impression from this draft is its a change in direction to me in what we targeted, or it feels that way. Lots of outfield. Maybe that was seen as a weakness in the system. 
 

Joe Doyle on Twitter said he loved our draft if we sign everyone (obviously excluding the 20th rounder who seems an insurance pick). Elsewhere, it seems on most lists we got 5/6 top 150 prospects. That's not bad considering our pool and no second rounder. 

[max silver]

1 hour ago, Brownie19 said:

Interesting draft (not that I have any clue).  Seems like we took a lot of underslot SRs and lots of arms.  Hopefully it works out.  Kind of blah if you ask me (which you shouldn't).

I think not having a second round pick changes the available budget to the degree that it greatly affects the total upside of the combined picks. There's far less overall money available to spread around on higher upside players in later rounds and a relatively underwhelming draft class is the result. I really hope that MLB and the players union find a way to remove the qualified free agent penalty in the upcoming CBA as it does nothing but disincentivize teams spending on free agents due to actively hamstringing their ability to build through the draft. I think MLB has gone a little too far in handing out draft bonuses to the smaller market clubs with the added competitive balance picks that are handed out, and I hate the fact that these picks can be traded when the rest of the regular picks can't be.

[max silver]

10 minutes ago, jmomcc said:

My impression from this draft is its a change in direction to me in what we targeted, or it feels that way. Lots of outfield. Maybe that was seen as a weakness in the system. 
 

Joe Doyle on Twitter said he loved our draft if we sign everyone (obviously excluding the 20th rounder who seems an insurance pick). Elsewhere, it seems on most lists we got 5/6 top 150 prospects. That's not bad considering our pool and no second rounder. 

If I'm not mistaken I believe this was the first draft under the new scouting director Traumata, so perhaps he places a little more emphasis on position players. I do suspect it's a little more likely that this is simply how the cookie crumbled in terms of best player available at their respective draft positions, but the team did a tremendous job stocking up on pitching in last year's draft so I do see how it could be possible they shifted focus a little bit.

[Laika]

I like the draft a lot, given what they were working with. 

Assuming they sign everybody that matters, they found a way to move money around to add some upside to the draft despite not having the 2nd round pick. 

Generally speaking:

• Parker is a R1 talent
• Spencer would have been a R1 talent if healthy, so you could consider his upside to be that of an R1 talent
• Bullard might be an R2 or R3 talent. He seems like a lot of other high school infield prospects, vague but well rounded scouting report on the kid. 
• Cook is an R3 talent with upside comparable to higher picks. Interesting combination of upside and floor, since he might be an MLB contributor even if he never figures out how to hit for power. 
• Bucknam and Piasentin might carry risk and that might be why they are going to sign for under slot (I assume) but you can still see the upside. Bucknam with his velo and spin, and Piasentin with his power. 

So if you squint it's kind of like they had 4 picks in the top three rounds of a straight draft. Parker, Spencer, Bullard, and Cook.

[Grant77]

3 hours ago, Laika said:

I like the draft a lot, given what they were working with. 

Assuming they sign everybody that matters, they found a way to move money around to add some upside to the draft despite not having the 2nd round pick. 

Generally speaking:

• Parker is a R1 talent
• Spencer would have been a R1 talent if healthy, so you could consider his upside to be that of an R1 talent
• Bullard might be an R2 or R3 talent. He seems like a lot of other high school infield prospects, vague but well rounded scouting report on the kid. 
• Cook is an R3 talent with upside comparable to higher picks. Interesting combination of upside and floor, since he might be an MLB contributor even if he never figures out how to hit for power. 
• Bucknam and Piasentin might carry risk and that might be why they are going to sign for under slot (I assume) but you can still see the upside. Bucknam with his velo and spin, and Piasentin with his power. 

So if you squint it's kind of like they had 4 picks in the top three rounds of a straight draft. Parker, Spencer, Bullard, and Cook.

MLB.com had Bucknam ranked about the same as Bullard, for what it's worth. Piasetin was ranked about 40 picks behind them.

[Spanky__99]

4 hours ago, Laika said:

I like the draft a lot, given what they were working with. 

Assuming they sign everybody that matters, they found a way to move money around to add some upside to the draft despite not having the 2nd round pick. 

Generally speaking:

• Parker is a R1 talent
• Spencer would have been a R1 talent if healthy, so you could consider his upside to be that of an R1 talent
• Bullard might be an R2 or R3 talent. He seems like a lot of other high school infield prospects, vague but well rounded scouting report on the kid. 
• Cook is an R3 talent with upside comparable to higher picks. Interesting combination of upside and floor, since he might be an MLB contributor even if he never figures out how to hit for power. 
• Bucknam and Piasentin might carry risk and that might be why they are going to sign for under slot (I assume) but you can still see the upside. Bucknam with his velo and spin, and Piasentin with his power. 

So if you squint it's kind of like they had 4 picks in the top three rounds of a straight draft. Parker, Spencer, Bullard, and Cook.

Proper recap in layman's terms, well done sir.

[metafour]

4 hours ago, Laika said:

 

• Bucknam and Piasentin might carry risk and that might be why they are going to sign for under slot (I assume) but you can still see the upside. Bucknam with his velo and spin, and Piasentin with his power. 

 

Piasentin is an easy over-slot kid and may end up getting upwards of $1 million. Its 60-power, 60-arm for two plus tools on a 6'3/6'4 frame from a relatively young ~18,3 year old. He crushed it at the Combine and is already hitting balls near 110mph EV.

A similar-ish HS prospect from Canada (Nathan Flewelling) got $750K from the Rays in the 3rd round last year.

[Laika]

2 hours ago, metafour said:

 

Piasentin is an easy over-slot kid and may end up getting upwards of $1 million. Its 60-power, 60-arm for two plus tools on a 6'3/6'4 frame from a relatively young ~18,3 year old. He crushed it at the Combine and is already hitting balls near 110mph EV.

A similar-ish HS prospect from Canada (Nathan Flewelling) got $750K from the Rays in the 3rd round last year.

Not sure. I mean, who knows.

Flewelling and Piasentin seem very different to me other than the Province they are from. Flewelling was a slot signee six spots after a high school player who signed $200k under slot, Ronny Cruz. 

It's true that in that pick range most high school drafters are over slot picks.

Piasentin having a 60 arm may not matter much since he seems destined for 1B. Seems like power and then questions everywhere else. Not sure that he is an over slot guy with the hot tool and defense question marks. We will see.

[metafour]

3 minutes ago, Laika said:

Not sure. I mean, who knows.

Flewelling and Piasentin seem very different to me other than the Province they are from. Flewelling was a slot signee six spots after a high school player who signed $200k under slot, Ronny Cruz. 

It's true that in that pick range most high school drafters are over slot picks.

Piasentin having a 60 arm may not matter much since he seems destined for 1B. Seems like power and then questions everywhere else. Not sure that he is an over slot guy with the hot tool and defense question marks. We will see.

Sure, but look at the rankings to gauge the player's negotiating power.

Ronny Cruz signed for under-slot because he was an off the board HS over-draft who didn't even make MLB Pipeline's Top 250, but he was drafted 90th overall. Its not a surprise that he took a haircut to secure his draft slot.

Flewelling ranked #236 on MLB's Top 250 and #153 on ESPN. Piasentin is #160 on the MLB Top 250 this season (76 slots higher than Flewelling). However, Pipeline is actually the lower end on Piasentin:

Just Baseball - #105
BA - #108
ESPN (Kiley McDaniel) - #117

I comped Piasentin to Flewelling because they are similar stories in the sense that they started rising up boards as the Canada team was making its rounds and playing in tournaments and against Complex teams, and then they both put on big displays of power at the Combine. Both are power-over-hit guys. However, Piasentin is actually ranked higher than Flewelling was (from the lists that I have access to; I don't know where BA ranked Flewelling last year).

Piasentin is also a University of Miami signee, which means that his bargaining chip is a Top 25 baseball school in all of NCAA D1. This is another advantage that he has over Flewelling who was signed with Gonzaga.

When you combine all of those facts and look at past-precedent, it is very unlikely that we got Piasentin under the pretense that he is signing for slot (which is ~$500K at his pick) or somehow below that amount.

Keep in mind that we signed Carson Messina (the HS RHP we got in the 12 round last year) for $550K, and he was ranked #222 on Pipeline's list (ie: also considerably below where Piasentin is ranked this year).