Blue Jays select Jared Spencer 322nd overall

The Toronto Blue Jays have selected a top 250 prospect with their 11th-round pick.

They were indeed saving up some slot money with their previous picks, as they’ve gone for a massive upside play in the 11th round, taking Jared Spencer out of the University of Texas. This is a home run swing by the Blue Jays, taking what was a 1st round talent before injury, in the 11th round, signalling a potential massive over-slot deal coming his way.

Spencer, 22, was tracking towards being a Day 1 selection this spring before a shoulder injury wiped out his season early. MLB Pipeline had him as their 113th-ranked prospect. Wielding a 3 pitch mix, Pipeline grades out his arsenal with a 55 grade fastball, 65 grade slider, and a 55 grade changeup. That’s three plus to potentially double-plus offerings right off the bat.

His fastball has steadily been trending up; he added a couple of ticks in velocity and was sitting comfortably in the 93-96 range while touching 98. Spencer’s slider is one of the best singular pitches in the draft; it sits 87-89 with a gyro shape to it, inducing a 37.1% miss rate in zone, and a 40.1% chase rate. It is by far his most-used pitch as he threw it 111 more times than his heater this spring.

The Longhorns worked with Spencer to clean up his pitching mechanics, while still funky, he now has a more direct path to the plate and on top of his pitches, which has helped drastically improve the shape of his offerings, particularly his slider.

Prior to his injury Spencer had logged 53 innings with the Longhorns producing a 4.08 ERA while allowing only 43 hits and striking out 72. He walked 33 batters so command is an issue but as we’ve mentioned teams will always bet on loud stuff and work with guys on fixing command issues as they mature. Opponents hit just .216 off of the lanky left hander and had next to no chance against his slider which is a truly d0minant offering.

Spencer could command an extremely hefty signing bonus, which will dig into the savings from the previous rounds. But between him and Tim Piasentin, they’ve allowed themselves to take a couple of home run swings as well here on Day 2.