Blue Jays' young arms beginning to take flight

DUNEDIN, Fla. -- While Spring Training this year hasn’t exactly been typical, the Blue Jays are grateful that some things have moved in a more “normal” direction.

This past offseason was really the first time the player development staff was able to use the newly renovated facilities in Dunedin to its fullest potential. It was opened for use in 2020, but not until after Spring Training, and the staff had to be extremely careful in using indoor spaces to be safe and conform to protocols. That continued into 2021, so it was really during instructs and this spring that the organization could really benefit from all of the bells and whistles, while still being mindful of COVID.

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“Getting to use the building in the full capacity is really exciting,” said new Blue Jays farm director Joe Sclafani. “A lot of guys showed up, a lot of guys were here throughout the offseason, which we were really excited about, and they were fully bought in and to see how it's translating out here is super exciting. We were just happy to have players out here. This is as normal as it's felt in a long time for us. Obviously, there's still a ton of uncertainty, but we'll figure those things out whenever we have to.”

This is the first year where figuring these things out falls more directly on Sclafani’s shoulders. The former Astros Minor League outfielder joined Toronto’s player development staff in 2016. Last year, he definitely did some heavier lifting as farm director Gil Kim pulled double duty as a Major League coach. It’s not an easy time to slide into that chair, but it helps that the Blue Jays are a veritable who’s who of former farm directors, with president and CEO Mark Shapiro and general manager Ross Atkins both having served in that role when they were with Cleveland.

“I've been lucky getting to work closely with Gil in the past and being involved in all these things,” Sclafani said. “And having Ross and Mark to lean on if ever I have any questions. It's definitely been challenging the last couple of years for sure. But it's exciting. It's well worth putting in all that effort to figure out how to make this as impactful as possible for all these players.”

Camp standouts: Arms off to a good start
It’s not uncommon to hear that pitchers are ahead of hitters early in Spring Training and even though the Blue Jays haven’t started games yet, there have been some arms who have really stepped to the fore with gains they’ve been showing every time they’ve toed the rubber.

There might not be a pitcher who has created more buzz than Ricky Tiedemann. The 6-foot-4 lefty, who was selected by the Blue Jays out of the junior college ranks in the third round of last year’s Draft, has yet to throw an official pitch as a professional, but if his early sessions in camp are any indication, he’s going to open a lot of eyes.

That started last fall in instructional league action when the athletic southpaw was sitting 96 mph and touching 98, while throwing all three of his pitches -- fastball, slider and changeup -- for strikes. This spring has been a continuation of this as Sclafani has been thrilled with how much Tiedemann, still just 19 years old, has bought into their philosophy and applied to his work.

“I think when we sat down with him in Draft camp, he was like, ‘Yeah, I worked out with free weights in my garage,’” Sclafani said. “He just didn't have access to anything, really. So he stayed here and worked out with us for most of the offseason. He's impressive physically, and he's just continuing to get better. He knows what he needs to do; he's on top of his routines. Coming into his first full season, it's about staying on top of the routines, staying healthy throughout the whole year and just seeing what he can do.”

Tiedemann isn’t the only 2021 draftee making a strong first impression. Connor Cooke was the club’s 10th-round pick out of Louisiana-Lafayette, with the Blue Jays really liking his athleticism on the mound. There was some variability in terms of his stuff and velocity, where he would be anywhere between 90 and 94 mph with his fastball, with his mechanics sometimes getting in the way. Like Tiedemann, he bought in to changes the Blue Jays suggested and the early returns have been staggering.

“We identified some things where we felt like there were opportunities for him to sync up better because he's a great athlete to begin with,” Sclafani said. “So he committed to everything that we talked about and he was sitting around 98-99 in his pen the other day. Granted, it's a bullpen in February. But I don't think he ever even touched that previously. So it's exciting. If he can get out there, stay in the zone with all of his pitches, we think he can do some good things.”

Prospect we’ll be talking about: Luis De Los Santos
The Blue Jays signed De Los Santos for just $10,000 out of the Dominican Republic in July 2015. He started off decently enough, hitting for average and showing some approach from the right side of the plate. He’s struggled to find offensive footing when he got to full-season ball in 2017 and has yet to get above A ball, a big reason why he hasn’t been protected on a 40-man roster. There were some strides made in High-A in 2021 as his power started to show up (12 homers, 25 doubles), all while developing into one of the best defenders in the system.

“The swing decisions were always something that he needed to focus on,” Sclafani said about the 23-year-old infielder. “I feel like he turned the corner a little bit in High-A. It’s a challenging league, they play the same teams, there's only six teams in the league, over and over again. And as they were making adjustments, he finally kind of clicked and sees it and makes adjustments to whatever they're trying to do to him. Physically he looks he looks like a grown man now. There's just a lot to like there.”

Something to prove: Adam Kloffenstein
A big right-hander who was taken in the third round of the 2018 Draft, the same Draft that saw his high school teammate Jordan Groshans go in the first round to the Blue Jays, Kloffenstein got late first round money ($2.45 million) to sign. He pitched solidly in short-season ball in 2019, then got some work in via the independent league route during the 2020 shutdown. A move to High-A in 2021 did not go so well, as he finished with a 6.22 ERA and 1.549 WHIP in 101 1/3 innings.

“Last year was challenging for him and certainly not the way he wanted it to go,” Sclafani said. "But I thought it was good for him and when he's reflecting on last year, he learned a lot. And he sees the importance of the routines and what he needs to do to stay at his best.

“So he's carrying a little bit of a chip on his shoulder. And I think that's a good thing. It's good to go through that now, before you're playing in front of 45,000 every single night and you're reading the stuff that people write about you. I think he's primed for a bounce back.”