2026 Toronto Blue Jays MLB Draft Day 2 Thread

[Leo Morgenstern]

On Saturday, the Blue Jays made their first three selections of the 2026 MLB Draft. You can read more about each selection by clicking on the links below:

• No. 39: Cole Carlon
• No. 103: Ryan Cooney
• No. 131: Will Brick

Today, the draft continues, with the final 16 rounds taking place from 11:30 am to 7:30 pm Eastern. The Blue Jays lost two of their top five picks for signing a free agent who rejected the qualifying offer (Dylan Cease), but they'll have a selection to make in every round of Day 2. 

The action resumes with pick No. 136, belonging to the Rockies. The Blue Jays will have to wait until pick No. 164 to start their day. Here is the full list of their remaining draft slots:

• Round 5: No. 164 (Slot value: $421,300)
• Round 6: No. 193 (Slot value: $330,300)
• Round 7: No. 222 (Slot value: $262,300)
• Round 8: No. 252 (Slot value: $219,500)
• Round 9: No. 282 (Slot value: $202,100)
• Round 10: No. 312 (Slot value:  $191,900)
• Round 11: No. 342
• Round 12: No. 372
• Round 13: No. 402
• Round 14: No. 432
• Round 15: No. 462
• Round 16: No. 493
• Round 17: No. 523
• Round 18: No. 553
• Round 19: No. 583
• Round 20: No. 613

Like yesterday, you can follow the team's selections on our 2026 Draft Tracker, which we'll continue to update throughout the day and during the post-draft signing period. You can also continue to share all your thoughts in this Day 2 thread.

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[Pendleton]

5th rounder Nolan Higgins RHP from Michigan State. The panel described him as a senior sign (ie under slot) but said he was very effective in a relief role and has big enough stuff to move quickly. 

 

 

[Pendleton]

6th round - SS Gable Mitchell (Iowa). Another college senior, Callis mentioned he's an undersized likely 2B type as a pro, but a good contact hitter with an aggressive approach, solid speed and gets the most of his tools by playing hard. 

 

 

[Brownie19]

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145 likes, 5 comments - cheapseats73 on July 11, 2026: "#Bluejays are one of my big winners on day 1 of the #mlbdraft...

[Brownie19]

Looks like we took a lot of college seniors?  Need the $$$ to sign Brick I guess. Anyone have any info on any of these draft picks?

[jmomcc]

It’s a lot of college pitching as well which is interesting. Almost all big righties. I’d assume there is one high school flier coming up .

[John_Havok]

13 hours ago, jmomcc said:

It’s a lot of college pitching as well which is interesting. Almost all big righties. I’d assume there is one high school flier coming up .

Looks like 2 fliers from HS, round 19 and 20 but a junior flyer in round 18 also in Jake McCoy

McCoy was ranked just outside the top 150 amd some think he could have been seen as the best LHP in the draft, except he had TJ surgery in Feb so he's been out all year. He was set to transfer schools so maybe the Jays can make him change his mind

[Pendleton]

3 minutes ago, John_Havok said:

Looks like 2 fliers from HS, round 19 and 20

Round 18 McCoy as well, sounds like he has huge potential but missed this season due to TJS after a breakout Cape Cod performance in 2025. Maybe they'll try to make enough budget space to convince him to rehab as a pro, rather than follow through with his planned transfer from South Carolina to Tennessee. Then perhaps the two HS fliers are backup plans to chase after depending on McCoy. Hard to picture being able to afford more than one, but they did draft a ton of college guys 

[John_Havok]

3 minutes ago, Pendleton said:

Round 18 McCoy as well, sounds like he has huge potential but missed this season due to TJS after a breakout Cape Cod performance in 2025. Maybe they'll try to make enough budget space to convince him to rehab as a pro, rather than follow through with his planned transfer from South Carolina to Tennessee. Then perhaps the two HS fliers are backup plans to chase after depending on McCoy. Hard to picture being able to afford more than one, but they did draft a ton of college guys 

Drafted the best prep catching prospect in teh draft too. 

They must be thinking they have to trade Kirk

[Olerud363.354]

2 hours ago, John_Havok said:

Drafted the best prep catching prospect in teh draft too. 

They must be thinking they have to trade Kirk

Always reminds me of Austin Martin.  If a guy falls it is because the other teams scouting reports weren't good so adjust expectations accordingly. 

[John_Havok]

1 hour ago, Olerud363.354 said:

Always reminds me of Austin Martin.  If a guy falls it is because the other teams scouting reports weren't good so adjust expectations accordingly. 

Or it's because the MLB draft is very difficult to predict, especially for high school kids and signability. And most prosepcts fail spectacularly. 

You just love making stuff up to suit your biases.

[metafour]

2 hours ago, Olerud363.354 said:

If a guy falls it is because the other teams scouting reports weren't good so adjust expectations accordingly. 

That's not what it means at all, genius. This is what is called "floating" a player to you. Brick and the Blue Jays agreed on an amount prior to or during the draft, and his agent subsequently told other teams that he was going to school which takes him off their draft board (and ensures that he can be selected by the team he agreed to a deal with). Its a completely planned event, and it has nothing to do with Austin Martin LOL. Teams are constantly talking to players and their agents during the draft and trying to strike deals, they aren't just randomly drafting players and hoping that they will sign.

Will Brick will ultimately sign for what I expect to be at least $2M, which is obviously MUCH more than 4th round draft money. The slot value at his draft pick is roughly ~$560K.

The Red Sox drafted a HS kid in the 9th round under the exact same pretenses (Martin Shelar). He is a ~top 2-3 round talent, and he didn't "fall" to the 9th round pick because every other team thinks he sucks. He "fell" because Boston deliberately took an under-slot kid in the 1st round, and gamed the draft so that they can pay Shelar what will likely be ~2nd round money.

By the way, when the Jays drafted Blaine Bullard in the 12th round last year and paid him $1.7M, it was the exact same strategy. Why would they pay a 12th rounder $1.7M? Could it be because the player wasn't actually a "12th round talent"? 

This is rudimentary draft knowledge.

[Olerud363.354]

3 hours ago, John_Havok said:

Or it's because the MLB draft is very difficult to predict, especially for high school kids and signability. And most prosepcts fail spectacularly. 

You just love making stuff up to suit your biases.

This place is insufferable.   No one is making s*** up.  It's like people here have never lived in the real world.  I thought I was the only in my parent's basement.  It's like you all have no experience with anything in business or stock trading or statistics or buying a used car or anything.

If the price falls then something is going on.  That's just life.  If something seems to be too good to be true it probably is.  If you get something for cheap, you didn't get it for cheap you got it for the right price.

Not saying this guy will be a complete failure or anything, just that on average these things aren't going to be an amazing deal. 

Reminds me of when Beiber took his option.  Most people were thrilled but the suspicious were right.  They mostly (but not always) are. 

[John_Havok]

26 minutes ago, Olerud363.354 said:

This place is insufferable.   No one is making s*** up.  It's like people here have never lived in the real world.  I thought I was the only in my parent's basement.  It's like you all have no experience with anything in business or stock trading or statistics or buying a used car or anything.

If the price falls then something is going on.  That's just life.  If something seems to be too good to be true it probably is.  If you get something for cheap, you didn't get it for cheap you got it for the right price.

Not saying this guy will be a complete failure or anything, just that on average these things aren't going to be an amazing deal. 

Reminds me of when Beiber took his option.  Most people were thrilled but the suspicious were right.  They mostly (but not always) are. 

99% of prospects suck. It's easier to bet on failure. 

Ditto Bieber, it's easier to bet on failure after multiple surgeries. People were cautiously optimistic as the downside risk for the price vs the upside potential for the same price was comfortable. Everything in baseball is a calculated risk

This isnt some revolutionary thing you've suddenly discovered and need to explain.

When you don't quite get the basics of the draft and therefore equate a high school kid being drafted lower than his draft ranking as some kind of failure in the Jays scouting that everyone else sees and equate it to another player that dropped like... 4 places and still hasnt developed into a star player (but is still playing), its hard to take any of your insights seriously. How's Tork doing? Kjerstad? Lacy? Even Meyer up until this season was a complete donut hole.

 

[Olerud363.354]

17 minutes ago, John_Havok said:

99% of prospects suck. It's easier to bet on failure. 

Ditto Bieber, it's easier to bet on failure after multiple surgeries. People were cautiously optimistic as the downside risk for the price vs the upside potential for the same price was comfortable. Everything in baseball is a calculated risk

This isnt some revolutionary thing you've suddenly discovered and need to explain.

When you don't quite get the basics of the draft and therefore equate a high school kid being drafted lower than his draft ranking as some kind of failure in the Jays scouting that everyone else sees and

Thanks for telling me what I don't quite get.  

No where did I say the Jays have any type of scouting failure here.  I'm just skeptical that there getting some elite player with pick 100.    Just as I was skeptical they were getting a good deal on Bieber.  Just as I was skeptical that they were getting a 1/1 with Austin Martin.  

And I'm not accusing you personally of being over-optimistic in any of these cases, but in all three you hear over-optimistic takes, whether it is twitter or here.  Like Bieber there was all this ******** about friendship, with Austin Martin there was talk that he was a great pure hitter and a 1/1 talent (again nor from you personally).   This catcher I heard somewhere was an elite first round talent. 

The reverse is also often true.  Like if next year Jays take a guy with their 7th pick (or whatever it ends up) that was projected 50, and everyone freaked out, I'd be the opposite.  Something there good we don't know about yet.  If Jays give Daulton Varsho the qualifying offer after a 1.5 WAR year, not a disaster, likely something still there they like.  

[jmomcc]

McCoy is expected to transfer to Tennessee apparently, 

Brick is a high school catcher so that could be part of the reason for his slide. It’s a risky demographic.

I don’t know if I agree that falling equals that they are probably wrongly ranked. Wait til you see what he actually signs for money wise. 

 

[metafour]

21 hours ago, Olerud363.354 said:

Thanks for telling me what I don't quite get.  

No where did I say the Jays have any type of scouting failure here.  I'm just skeptical that there getting some elite player with pick 100.    Just as I was skeptical they were getting a good deal on Bieber.  Just as I was skeptical that they were getting a 1/1 with Austin Martin.  

And I'm not accusing you personally of being over-optimistic in any of these cases, but in all three you hear over-optimistic takes, whether it is twitter or here.  Like Bieber there was all this ******** about friendship, with Austin Martin there was talk that he was a great pure hitter and a 1/1 talent (again nor from you personally).   This catcher I heard somewhere was an elite first round talent. 

The reverse is also often true.  Like if next year Jays take a guy with their 7th pick (or whatever it ends up) that was projected 50, and everyone freaked out, I'd be the opposite.  Something there good we don't know about yet.  If Jays give Daulton Varsho the qualifying offer after a 1.5 WAR year, not a disaster, likely something still there they like.  

The problem is that you really have no idea what you are talking about. You are trying to argue against common established knowledge.

The amount of money that a drafted player is actually paid is ultimately the tell as to what the talent level is of that player from the drafting team's perspective. Where they were selected is almost irrelevant. I say almost because obviously in most cases players are drafted in a general order according to their perceived ability/potential, because most picks are taken at or near slot value, so the guy who got drafted #25 overall is in most cases universally regarded to be a better prospect than the guy who was drafted #60 overall. 

However, when a top rated HS kid "falls" to lets pretend round #5 but then ultimately still signs for 1st or 2nd round money, that is almost always a clear case of the drafting team reaching an agreement with that player earlier or prior to the draft and then the player and their agent effectively taking themselves off of every other team's board to  make sure that they fall to the planned pick. This isn't hard to do at all: every team is shoring up signability BEFORE making their picks, so even if some other team expresses interest in drafting the same player in lets pretend round #2, the agent will just tell them that they won't sign, in which case why would that other team select them? Even if the pick is protected and you get it back next year for failing to sign the player, you're not benefitting because you are losing a year of development time and also a year where that drafted player can be used as value in a potential trade.

In the case of Will Brick, I'll repeat again: I would expect that his bonus from the Blue Jays will be at least $2 million. That is almost 4x the slot value at the pick that he was drafted at. This would mean that the Blue Jays obviously value him as a 2nd round or better talent, because they are paying him the equivalent of the value of a pick in that range, If they didn't perceive him to be a 2nd round or better talent, then they wouldn't have committed that much of their overall bonus pool to him. 

But the fact that he "fell" to the 4th round doesn't also indicate that every other team didn't perceive him to be a 2nd round or better talent. Why? Because the nature of the current bonus pool system is that there simply isn't enough money to pay every top prospect what they are theoretically worth, particularly on the HS side. This is exactly why players and agents are incentivized to SECURE deals if they truly want to go Pro. Once the Blue Jays reach a deal with someone like Brick for a premium amount of money (which $2M+ absolutely is), its not like every other team now has that much bonus space available which is unallocated to start counter-offering. Every other team is executing their own draft strategy: some teams are playing the draft straight up and simply don't have the money left over to pay $2M+ to a HS catcher even if they do believe he's worth that, and the other teams who are "saving" money along the way are zoning in on their own over-slot players (ie: they may simple prefer to spend that $2M+ on a HS pitcher instead).

And the strategy here is common knowledge and clear as day. Its already been learned that all of the Jays' college senior draft picks from rounds #5-10 are basically signing for nothing. They are getting ~$1,000-$5,000 dollars. Why? Because the combined money that they are saving on those guys who aren't actually "5th-10th round" talents are going to go to pay Will Brick WELL above 4th round money.

The Atlanta Braves are paying their 3rd round pick $4 million. That is literally the slot value in between the #22 and #23 picks in the 1st round. The fact that he allegedly "FELL" to the 3rd round means nothing. His case is even more extreme/obvious: he "FELL" because once he got $4 million secured from Atlanta, his agent shut it down.