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Toronto Blue Jays Prospect Profile: Left-handed pitcher Jimmy Burnette

Originally posted on Bluejaysnation | By Ryley Delaney | Last updated 5/25/24

Who doesn’t love left-handed relief pitchers?

There are a lot of interesting relievers in the Blue Jays organization. One is Hagen Danner, who is a converted catcher who has already made his big league debut and is on the 40-man roster. Another is Connor Cooke, who has some of the nastiest stuff in the organization, featuring a slider that regularly hits 3000 RPM, as well as a mid-90s fastball.

In the latest edition of the Toronto Blue Jays Prospect Profile, we’ll look at left-handed pitcher Jimmy Burnette.

Getting to know Jimmy Burnette

Burnette was selected in the 18th round of the 2021 draft out of Saint Leo University for a signing bonus of $50,000. He briefly spent time in the Florida Complex League where he gave up four earned runs in 2.1 innings pitched, but ended the season with the Single-A Duendin Blue Jays.

There, he finished his 12.1 innings pitched with a 2.19 ERA and a 2.99 FIP, along with a 34.7 K% and a 14.3 BB%. Those are pretty typical numbers for the 25-year-old, as we’ll come to learn.

He started the 2022 season with the High-A Vancouver Canadians, where he had a 3.79 ERA and a 3.56 FIP in 19 innings pitched, with an incredible 44.7 K%, but once again struggled with a 12.9 BB%. Burnette finished the season in Double-A New Hampshire, where he had a 4.58 ERA and a 3.36 FIP in 37.1 innings pitched with a 33.9 K% and a 15.2 BB%.

Here's Jimmy Burnette (@Burnette_Jimmy)'s strikeout thread from this evening.

94.6 mph fastball for the swing and miss.#BlueJays #NextLevel pic.twitter.com/hhaIKmdDig

— Ryley Delaney (@Ryley_L_D) June 23, 2023

To start the 2023 season, Burnette repeated the Double-A level, where he pitched in just 13 games and posted a 2.63 ERA and a 2.10 FIP in 13.2 innings pitched, along with a 41.3 K% and a 14.3 BB%. His tenure with the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons didn’t go as well though, as he had a 10.36 ERA and a 6.26 FIP in 28.2 innings pitched, along with a 25.2 K% and an 18.4 BB%.

This season, Burnette has started his season with the Fisher Cats once again, where he’s had success as a high-leverage reliever. He has a 2.16 ERA and a 2.51 FIP in 16.2 innings pitched, or 15 total appearances. The K% is still great, as it sits at 32.4%, while his BB% has dropped to a career-best 11.8%.

With rurnners on first and second with one out, Jimmy Burnette strikes out two straight batters to keep the game tied. pic.twitter.com/2I4euRaabf

— Ryley Delaney (@Ryley_L_D) April 18, 2024

The best way to describe Burnette for the time being is “wildly effective”. Although he’ll walk a ton of batters, he more than makes up for it with his astronomical K%. Since the 2021 season, Burnette’s 33.5 K% ranks sixth in the organization, behind Ricky Tiedemann, Dahian Santos, Adrián Hernández, Connor Cooke, and Lazaro Estrada. His K-BB% of 18.4 ranks tied for 12th in the organization during this time.

Burnette’s pitch mix is a fastball, slider, changeup, and slider, and averaged a tick under 93 mph with the fastball, but has maxed out at 97 mph before.

The next step for Burnette is to have success in Triple-A, as well as lowering the BB%. However, the makings of an effective left-handed reliever are there with his consistently high strikeout rate.

me on Twitter @Ryley_L_D.

This article first appeared on Bluejaysnation and was syndicated with permission.

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