Several Canadians featured on MLB top prospects lists

Junior National Team and Ontario Blue Jays alum Jordan Balazovic (Mississauga, Ont.) is No. 89 on Baseball America’s Top 100 prospects list. Photo: Baseball Canada

August 26, 2021

Baseball Canada

OTTAWA – With the annual Major League Baseball Draft and trade deadline now in the rearview mirror, it’s that time where the prospect gurus of the world rejig their top prospect lists given the injection of talent into organizations via the draft, prospects switching clubs through trade and others graduating from prospect status to the big leagues.

MLB.com and Baseball America have both released updated Top 30 prospects lists for each of the 30 MLB clubs and have also unveiled new Top 100 prospect lists giving fans a preview of the next wave of MLB stars and who could be impacting their favourite team’s lineup in the not too distant future.

For Canadian baseball fans, these lists offer a glimpse into which players from north of the border are ones to keep an eye on as they chase their big league dreams.

As far as the Top 100 prospects in baseball there is consensus that Junior National Team grad and Minnesota Twins prospect Jordan Balazovic (Mississauga, Ont.) is among the group. He has been just inside the Top 100 for over a year now with Baseball America currently having him at No. 89 while MLB Pipeline ranks him notch higher at No. 88.

The right-handed pitcher didn’t make his season debut until June 5 but since then he’s put up solid numbers at double-A Wichita to the tune of a 4-2 record with a 3.42 ERA, 1.39 WHIP and 78 strikeouts over 15 starts and 71 innings pitched.

The 2019 Futures Game participant and Lima 2019 Pan Am Games silver medalist is coming off a start on August 21 where he threw six scoreless innings with six strikeouts.

Balazovic is the lone Canadian on a Top 100 list but there are plenty of Canucks on their respective clubs’ Top 30 lists from both Baseball America and MLB Pipeline. Here is a rundown:

Atlanta Braves

-RHP Indigo Diaz (North Vancouver, B.C.) BA-18 | MLB.com-21

Baltimore Orioles

-2B/SS Adam Hall (London, Ont.) BA-25 | MLB.com-15

Chicago Cubs

-OF Owen Caissie (Burlington, Ont.) BA-23 | MLB.com-9

-OF Jordan Nwogu* (Ottawa, Ont.) MLB.com-26

Cleveland

-C Bo Naylor (Mississauga, Ont.) BA-5 | MLB.com-6

Detroit Tigers

-SS Trei Cruz* (Toronto, Ont.) BA-21 | MLB.com-20

-OF Jacob Robson (Windsor, Ont.) BA-27 | MLB.com-29

Los Angeles Angels

-OF David Calabrese (Maple, Ont.) BA-26 | MLB.com-25

Milwaukee Brewers

-2B Tyler Black (Toronto, Ont.) BA-4 | MLB.com-7

Minnesota Twins

-RHP Jordan Balazovic (Mississauga, Ont.) BA-3 | MLB.com-3

-2B Edouard Julien (Québec, Que.) BA-28

New York Mets

-RHP Cal Ziegler (Heidelberg, Ont.) BA-12 | MLB.com-12

New York Yankees

-OF Jake Sanford (Dartmouth, N.S.) MLB.com-23

Oakland A’s

-OF Denzel Clarke (Pickering, Ont.) BA-14 | MLB.com-9

Seattle Mariners

-RHP Matt Brash (Kingston, Ont.) BA-9 | MLB.com-11

-LHP Adam Macko (Stony Plain, Alta.) BA-18 | MLB.com-13

Toronto Blue Jays

-INF Otto Lopez (Montréal, Que.) BA-6 | MLB.com-7

-OF Dasan Brown (Oakville, Ont.) BA-30 | MLB.com-20

*Born in Canada, raised in United States