The 2017 season for the Toronto Blue Jays hasn’t gone as planned. The Jays sit eleven games under .500 and are on pace to finish dead last in the American League East.
After starting the season with a woeful 1-9 record, the Jays were hit hard with the injury bug and currently have the fourth highest amount of missed games, according to the website Man Games Lost.
But it hasn’t all been bad news for the blue birds. Justin Smoak and Marcus Stroman have had fantastic seasons, given Toronto fans some definite positive takeaways when reflecting back on the campaign.
Perhaps the most encouraging sign has been down in the farm system, particularly with Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Most minor league seasons have concluded, and it’s time to look back at which budding prospect had the best season. If you’re a Jays fan, this will surely help you ease the frustraion of what he's been a legitmate disappointing season.
After being ranked 8th during the midseason and 48th at the start of the year, ESPN prospect insider Keith Law ranked Guerrero Jr. as the 2017 prospect of the year.
That’s a pretty astonishing feat for the 18-year-old. Now, there’s a few caveats here: Law omitted a plethora of prospects that were called up to the big leagues, meaning that his rankings consisted only of players that were still honing their craft in the minors. Law assigned more credence to younger players flourishing in certain classes in how they fair against their peers, while factoring in previous minor-league experience. Since Guerrero just completed his second year of professional baseball, extra points were given to the son of former Montreal Expos great Vladimir Guerrero Sr.
Guerrero Jr. was promoted from the Dunedin Blue Jays (high A) after starting the 2017 season with the Lansing Lugnuts. In the two levels of A-ball, he produced a .323/.425/.485 slash line with an OPS of .910 while driving 13 home runs, 76 RBIs and 43 extra-base hits in 527 plate appearances spread over 119 games. Law points that Guerrero Jr. encompasses great place discipline by walking more (76) than striking out (62), something his father did in only four seasons of his 16-year career.
The Jays have done a nice job in developing pitchers in their system over the recent years, but haven’t graduated really any premium bats to the big league level.
Based on this report, it’s entirely plausible that Guerrero could graduate his way through Double-A and Triple-A next season. The well-rounded hitter could be a potential September call-up in the 2018 season if he continues to progress at his current rate.
While we should taper our expectations just a little considering a lot can happen between the stages. Guerrero Jr. is already a highly valuable asset to the Jays organization and represents a large portion of the future for the ball club, a team that started the season as the oldest squad in all of baseball.
Guerrero and the Dunedin Blue Jays findthemselves down 1-0 to the Tampa Yankees in the best-of-three playoff series with the winner grabbing the North Division championship and the Flordia State League co-championship.
(h/t to ESPN)
