Pendleton

It's been a long season, but at least none of us have to live in Baltimore

I like the model of being built around great defense up the middle. In theory I think you can easily get away with lighter hitting/elite defender types in the 8-9 spots but that's contingent on your 1-7 holding their weight.

Read that the A's are receiving interest in their MLB OF's and that Henry Bolte may be seen as their CF of the future. I'm not sure where that leaves (currently injured) Toronto native Denzel Clarke, would guys be interested in acquiring him for the ++ CF defense? The bat is obviously suspect...

Hope the kid is alright, one of the scariest things that can happen in sports

Only one way to watch these games anymore

I've been tracking the signings in this thread Round 18 pick announced he is staying in college, round 20 says he will sign. Already about 1.6M in savings between Carlon and rounds 5-10

He had a monster year (1.250 OPS) with 19 HR in 43 games. The panel described him as a likely 1B/DH type and not a future catcher but they said he posts huge exit velocities along with the huge counting stats. It's a low value profile but sometimes these dudes just keep on hitting.

Per the MLB.com draft signing tracker https://www.mlb.com/draft/tracker/2026/all/team/bluejays 1 - 39 - LHP Cole Carlon - Signed - $2,400,000 (slot value = $2,571,700) 3 - 103 - SS Ryan Cooney - Signed - $597,500 (slot value = $762,900) 4 - 131 - C Will Brick - Signed - $2,500,000 (slot value = $581,100) 5 - 164 - RHP Nolan Higgins - Signed - $2,500 (slot value = $421,030) 6 - 193 - SS Gable Mitchell - Signed - $5,000 (slot value = $330,300) 7 - 222 - OF Dean West - Signed - $196,730 (slot value = $262,300) 8 - 252 - C Jake Bennett - Signed - $1,000 (Slot value = $219,500) 9 - 282 - OF Joey Urban - Signed - $2,500 (slot value = $202,100) 10 - 312 - OF Bryan Chance - Signed - $2,500 (slot value = $191,900) 11 - 342 - 3B Brayden Martin - Signed - $197,500 (slot value = $150,000) 12- 372 - LHP Santiago Garcia - unsigned 13 - 402 - RHP Mathis Nayral - unsigned 14 - 432 - RHP Connor Kelley - unsigned 15 - 462 - RHP Oliver de la Torre - unsigned 16 - 492 - RHP Carson Cormier - unsigned 17- 522 - RHP Landon Waters - Signed - $50,000 ( slot value = $150,000) 18 - 552 - LHP Jake McCoy - not signing 19 - 582 - SS Cole Travers - Unsigned (slot value = $150,000) 20 - 612 - OF Eddie Rosado Jr - Signed - $150,000 (slot value = $150,000) 18th rounder LHP Jake McCoy stated in an interview that he intends to remain in college.

I went with Rice

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

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.

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.

Brick and Sprock (sounds like a building method) is a big upgrade to our young catcher pipeline in short order

Toronto kid Elliot Lascelles to SD with pick #60

Looks like a promising arm, pipeline ranked him #26 overall

After predicting the JoJo Parker pick last year, I have ran all of the data and concluded that our first pick this year will be RHP Jensen Hirschkorn

https://torontosun.com/sports/baseball/toronto-blue-jays/josh-donaldson-trading-card-collection-worth-35-million Josh Donaldson says his sports card collection is worth about $35M...

Vlad

https://www.mlb.com/amp/news/shannon-stewart-talks-blue-jays-career.html MLB.com interview with Shannon Stewart about his time in Toronto

The A's really seem to have a knack for finding bats out of nowhere. Soon to be 29 year old career minor leaguer Carlos Cortes, with just 99 career PA (all last season) coming into the year, has been on absolute fire. He's slashing .377/.433/.689 with just four strikeouts in 67 PA, almost entirely going against righties. It will be interesting to see how he's deployed now that Rooker ( who had been struggling) is back from injury