How 2024 Draft can move Toronto's farm forward

This story was excerpted from Keegan Matheson’s Blue Jays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

TORONTO -- It stretched deep into the signing period, but the Blue Jays and first-round pick Trey Yesavage finally agreed to terms.

Yesavage was one of 19 Draft picks signed by the Blue Jays from their 2024 class, which also included 11 non-drafted players. This group is down at Toronto’s player development complex in Dunedin, Fla., now, part of a 10-to-14-day camp to get them all acclimated.

“We’re excited that we were able to lean into a lot of player development traits that we’re valuing, a lot of size, physicality, fastball shape and strikes with this group,” said Shane Farrell, the Blue Jays’ director of amateur scouting.

Part of this camp is about setting baselines, too. The Blue Jays can use their fancy new pitching lab to establish how much a pitcher’s slider breaks. They can have a hitter step into the cage to measure their bat speed or capture video of how their hips move through a swing. This is all “day one” data, a starting point for the player development staff to begin from.

It’s a long journey from here, but Toronto’s farm system is reaching a crucial point in this organization’s timeline. The Blue Jays don’t just need a development success story … they need a dozen.

Draft and develop
The group that handles the Draft (amateur scouting) is separate from the player development staff, who will work hands-on with these players beginning in Dunedin, but the two groups each maximize their value when they work together.

“That’s something we’ve really tried to adjust and evolve over the years, like a handoff between amateur scouting and the Draft to our player development folks,” Farrell said. “That’s really important, making sure that everyone is up to speed on the strengths and weaknesses we’re seeing in a player, what development opportunities we’re seeing on the scouting side, then the player development group taking that and running with it.”

All eyes will be on the top of the class -- as they always are -- where the Blue Jays landed Yesavage with the 20th overall pick out of East Carolina and right-hander Khal Stephen in the second round out of Mississippi State, but both carried heavy workloads in their final NCAA seasons.

“Given the amount they threw, I wouldn’t expect them to rush to an affiliate and pitch much this season, if at all,” Farrell said. “I think the important thing is getting a better understanding of who they are, their work ethic and things like that.”

Changing the narrative
This hasn’t been a good year for the Blue Jays’ farm system. Three of their highest-upside pitchers in Ricky Tiedemann (No. 1 prospect), Brandon Barriera (No. 5) and Landen Maroudis (No. 14) have all undergone season-ending elbow surgery. Tiedemann, who just underwent Tommy John surgery on July 30, could miss most or all of next season, too.

“Health can be unpredictable,” Farrell said. “There have been some bumps in the road when it comes to that. You can look at some of the high school pitchers that we’ve taken over the years and there have been some victims to injury and things like that. They’ll come back stronger, and I know that group is working hard. We’re going to have a good core of pitchers coming back with the likes of Landen Maroudis, Brandon Barriera and Ricky Tiedemann when those guys get back and get healthy.”

There has been some success in the upper levels, with players like Spencer Horwitz, Leo Jiménez and Addison Barger getting a long look down the stretch, but the Blue Jays need to develop a new core for 2026 and beyond.

“These development paths are not over and there are going to be ups and downs along the way, some performance related and some health related,” Farrell said. “What we’re excited about with this group that we drafted this year is the size, physicality and some of the core development pieces that we value that are in place. You can look at Khal Stephen and point to his fastball shape, durability and things he did in the SEC. It’s the same thing with Trey Yesavage, someone who has built very good workloads through his time at East Carolina. We feel like there are some fundamental pieces already in place for these guys to hit the ground running.”

That’s what the Blue Jays need after a difficult 2024 season -- at every level -- and this Draft class brings with it the hope that things will change.