By Aidan Joly
The first round of the 2020 MLB Draft took place on Wednesday night, and the two big winners of the night were the Detroit Tigers and Toronto Blue Jays, who both helped their farm systems in a huge way and made them even more frightening for their American League foes.
The Tigers, after going 47-114 in 2019, had the first overall pick and shocked nobody by going with Arizona State 1B/3B Spencer Torkelson with that selection.
Torkelson is easily the most established power hitter in this year’s class, hitting .337 with 54 home runs in just 129 career games. He hit a school-record 25 home runs as a freshman in 2018. The previous record holder? Just some guy named Barry Bonds. He hit 23 home runs last season, and had already hit six before the coronavirus pandemic shut down the season after they played just 17 games. Torkelson is just 20 years old and figures to go into the middle of Detroit’s lineup. He makes the Detroit farm system much better and helps in a massive way when Detroit is ready to contend again.
The biggest part of the Detroit farm system is the pitching. Casey Mize, Matt Manning and Tarik Skubal are all expected to hit the big leagues in the next two years or so and will make a lethal 1-2-3 starter combo, all of them in the top 41 prospects in the league according to mlb.com. All three finished the year with Double-A Erie. We already knew that Mize and Manning were great and Skubal was the lowest guy in that group, but Skubal has increased his velocity and now can throw close to 100 MPH after topping out at about 97 MPH before this (extended) offseason. Joey Wentz and Alex Faedo can complement them at the back of the rotation if both of them go into Detroit and perform as expected.
Having their three pitchers they had to focus on offense, which they have done in the past few years. They snatched up outfielder Riley Greene in last year’s draft who is also projected to be a middle-of-the-lineup guy. Infielder Isaac Paredas can also hit for average and power, and Willi Castro, who can play both middle infield positions, can either be the leadoff hitter or someone who extends the bottom of the lineup. It can go either way. Daz Cameron has potential to be an everyday center fielder as well.
The Blue Jays, who had the fifth selection after a 67-95 season, struck gold. After Baltimore surprised and took Arkansas outfielder Heston Kjerstad with the second pick after he was projected to go in the 7-11 range, and Miami and Kansas City took pitchers Max Meyer and Asa Lacy, the consensus second-best player in the draft, Vanderbilt’s Austin Martin, fell right into their laps. They decided to go with him.
Martin is the best pure hitter and most well-rounded player in the draft. He can hit for power and average and on top of that rarely strikes out — only 12% of the time among all plate appearances over his college career, and just twice in 69 plate appearances in the shortened 2020 season. In 16 games this season before the pandemic shut down the season, he slashed .377/.507/.660.
He’s also an excellent defender who can play any outfield position as well as shortstop, third base and second base. With Toronto’s young talent in the infield, he will probably end up in the outfield or being a super-utility type of player.
He joins a Toronto organization that already has a plethora of young talent at the major league level in Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Cavan Biggio and Bo Bichette on offense. In addition, Jordan Groshans, a shortstop who spent 2019 with Single-A Lansing can add value on both sides of the ball.
They also have high-level starter at the top level of the minor leagues in Nate Pearson, who finished the year with Triple-A Buffalo and will most likely make his debut at some point in 2020 or 2021, depending on how long the season is. Simeon Woods Richardson, who ended 2019 with High-A Dunedin, figures to be a middle-of-the-rotation starter. They already have established big league pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu heading into the first year of a four-year deal, too.
All being said, you still have the top teams in the American League right now will probably stay up there for at least a few more years. However, the Tigers and Blue Jays are two teams that those squads should be scared of, because both of them are going to be very, very good.
AJ Hoops 