Draft pick has mad hops ... and 97-mph fastball

TORONTO -- Blue Jays fourth-round pick Nick Frasso tried to stay away from reading the scouting reports leading up to the 2020 Draft, but he can offer a condensed version of his own.

Frasso is a tall, athletic pitcher with an electric fastball, he says, and he brings a level of intensity and competitiveness to the mound. It all sounds straightforward enough, but then we reach a point in the scouting report that can only belong to Frasso.

"I would say my best dunk right now is the between-the-legs dunk," Frasso said.

Frasso is the Blue Jays' dunking draftee, a former high-school basketball player who split time between the two sports until just three years ago. Listed at 6-foot-5, Frasso first dunked as a junior in high school, and he started to pull it off in games as a senior. He does it with style, too.

It wasn't until Frasso landed at Loyola Marymount University in California that he began to focus on baseball full time. A perfect example of a pitcher who benefited from the years of college development, Frasso first set out to change his physique from a thin multisport frame to a pitcher's build.

So Frasso did what so many of us have done; he went to college and gained some weight. His was just on purpose.

"I've gained 40 pounds in my three years at LMU," Frasso said, "and it's just something that helps me gain velocity, be more durable and just be better overall. That's something I really tried to change."

Now listed at 200 pounds, Frasso's body has caught up to his raw talent as his delivery has become more consistent. His fastball reaches up to 97 mph, and had the season not been suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic, Frasso would have had an opportunity to further establish himself as a starter. Some nagging "forearm and elbow tightness" limited Frasso early this season, but after pitching through it for a time then easing off for two weeks, he said he's feeling healthy and ready.

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There's still a basketball player in there, though, and Frasso is quick to link the styles of the two sports in how they isolate and amplify individual competition.

"That one-on-one with you and your defender just going at it, then that pitching matchup with you and the hitter," Frasso said. "That overall competitiveness goes either way, goes back and forth, and it translated between either sport."

Being selected by the Blue Jays wasn't a surprise for Frasso, as the club had kept steady contact with him throughout the scouting process, but the 21-year-old's next trip to Toronto -- and Canada -- will be his first.

Frasso has already heard great reviews of the city, though, from a former Blue Jays reliever. Frasso's high school coach at Palos Verdes Peninsula High School was Brian Bowles, a former 50th-round Draft pick of the Blue Jays in 1994 who appeared in 24 games for the Major League club between 2001-03 and later pitched a season for the Triple-A Ottawa Lynx.

So while Frasso doesn't know the city yet, he knows the names, and he's seen the excitement that Toronto's young core has brought to the Majors.

"I know they're very good at developing players and they really help players get better and reach their full potential," Frasso said, "so I'm excited for that."