Blue Jays prospect Johnny King is off to a strong start in the farm system

King is a model darling. He features an exquisite four-pitch mix, highlighted by a lively 4-seam fastball that produces plenty of glove-side run, a dominant hammer curve, which he uses as his main put-away pitch, and he rounds out his arsenal with a slider and a changeup – both of which he continues to harness and project to be average or better pitches.

King made his professional debut at the Florida Complex League at the beginning of May with the FCL Blue Jays. He’s made three starts and accumulated 11 2/3 innings. So far, he owns a 0.00 ERA/2.25 FIP/2.62 xFIP/40.4 K%/6.4 BB%. That’s exactly the kind of results you’re hoping an arm of King’s calibre delivers in the FCL. There are some similarities between King and Ricky Tiedemann in terms of what type of pitchers they were when they were drafted. Tiedemann, like King, was a third-round pick as well, although the biggest difference is that King was drafted out of high school while Tiedemann was a JUCO product. However, Ricky was also labelled as a guy with a lively low 90’s fastball with glove side run and a dominant breaking ball.

By no means am I saying Johnny King = Ricky Tiedemann, but it’s fascinating that we’ve already gotten reports that King has added velocity from the time he was drafted. If King can continue to add velo while maintaining the advanced pitch-ability he possesses, there’s no telling the heights he could reach.

Kiley McDaniel just recently put out his updated top 50 prospect ranking for ESPN and while King didn’t make the cut, he did receive an honorable mention in Kiley’s (picks to click): “I’d also keep an eye on Blue Jays LHP Johnny King and Cardinals C Rainiel Rodriguez (both on the team lists) as my summer picks to click.”

It remains to be seen how many more starts King gets in the complex before he’s inevitably promoted to Dunedin. Once he receives that promotion, we’ll all be privy to public statcast data, which will finally allow us to gloss over his pitch characteristics and the relevant information to see how his pitches are being utilized and break things down further.

Once that occurs, please hurry and save yourself a seat on the Johnny King Rocketship to prospect stardom; it’s going to sell out fast.