Blue Jays announce 60-man player pool for 2020 season

Catcher Alejandro Kirk is one of the players the Toronto Blue Jays have selected for their 60-man player pool for the 2020 season. Photo: Jay Blue

June 28, 2020

By Jay Blue

Blue Jays from Away

Today was the day that teams, of course including the Toronto Blue Jays, submitted and announced their 60-man player pool for the 2020 season. As this is a season unlike any other, the roster rules in effect are going to be very different than what we've seen before.

First of all, there will be 30-man active rosters to start the season (either July 23 or 24) with that dropping to 28 players two weeks after that and 26 players two weeks after that and remaining there for the rest of the season. Teams will only be able to use players on the active roster who come from the 60-man player pool. Non-active players in the pool will work out at a secondary site. Teams will also be able to carry three players for a taxi squad who will be allowed to travel with the team but will be available for activation if necessary.

As usual, players will need to be on the 40-man roster to be eligible for the active roster and transactions are going to be necessary to get a player off the active roster or the 60-man player pool. Trades are allowed until August 31 and only players on the 60-player list can be traded (and must go on the receiving team's 60-man list). Players can be taken off the 60-man list (aside from injuries, suspensions or other reasons) but aren't able to return to the 60-player pool for the same team.

So who is in the 60-player pool for the Toronto Blue Jays?

Well, I did make my predictions about two weeks ago so we'll see how well I did.

Pitchers (33)

Chase Anderson
Anthony Bass
Travis Bergen
Ryan Borucki
A.J. Cole
Rafael Dolis
Wilmer Font
Sam Gaviglio
Ken Giles
Thomas Hatch
Anthony Kay
Elvis Luciano
Alek Manoah
Julian Merryweather
Justin Miller
Brian Moran
Patrick Murphy
Joey Murray
Thomas Pannone
Nate Pearson
Hector Perez
Jake Petricka
Sean Reid-Foley
Tanner Roark
Jordan Romano
Hyun jin Ryu
Matt Shoemaker
Trent Thornton
Ty Tice
Jacob Waguespack
Simeon Woods Richardson
Shun Yamaguchi
T.J. Zeuch

Whew. That's a lot of pitchers. In my prediction, I had all of the guys on the 40-man roster except for Yennsy Diaz, who is technically not on the 40-man roster, being on the 60-day injured list. Beyond those guys, I had Pearson, Bergen, Tice, Cole and Miller but I also added Kirby Snead, Zach Jackson and Phillippe Aumont. With the Jays not taking Snead, Jackson or Aumont on the 60-man player pool, that left room for a few more.

The pitchers whom the Jays took that I hadn't had on my list were: Alek Manoah, Brian Moran, Joey Murray (I did suggest that there was an outside chance he could get on the roster), Jake Petricka and Simeon Woods Richardson. Clearly there are two different groups here. Moran and Petricka are both veterans with some major league experience (Petricka with much more) while Moran is another lefty to have around.

Manoah, Murray and Woods Richardson are all significant prospects. While you might not think of Murray being a hard-charging prospect, he did play at three levels last year, baffling hitters at all of them with his "invisiball."

Catchers (5)

Riley Adams
Danny Jansen
Caleb Joseph
Alejandro Kirk
Reese McGuire

So clearly, I overlooked Caleb Joseph in my prediction but I did include Adams and Kirk in addition to Jansen and McGuire (both on the 40-man roster).

Infielders (12)

Bo Bichette
Cavan Biggio
Andy Burns
Brandon Drury
Santiago Espinal
Jordan Groshans
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Joe Panik
Travis Shaw
Kevin Smith
Ruben Tejada
Rowdy Tellez

So, clearly I didn't think the Jays would take Jordan Groshans but, as Ben Badler of Baseball America pointed out, the Jays took all of their high-ranking prospects who were on full-season clubs last year (except for Manoah). I also thought that Patrick Kivlehan, Kevin Vicuna and Logan Warmoth would get spots but I did correctly predict Burns, Ruben Tejada and Kevin Smith.

Outfielders (8)

Anthony Alford
Jonathan Davis
Derek Fisher
Randal Grichuk
Lourdes Gurriel Jr.
Teoscar Hernandez
Billy McKinney
Forrest Wall

Basically, I predicted that the Blue Jays wouldn't take many outfielders beyond the current 40-man roster although I did suggest that Josh Palacios would come on board in addition to Forrest Wall.

You may notice that those numbers do not add up to 60. 33+5+12+8= 58. The Blue Jays have just 58 players, leaving room for two more. One player who can't be added yet because he's still not under contract is Austin Martin, someone who I did predict would be in the 60-man player in my original article. The other spot could be for Yennsy Diaz if he's healthy or another player if needed. I think the Jays just might be trying to be flexible with those last two spots. I do think that taking Martin would be consistent with how the Jays have been placing their top prospects.

What do you think of the 60-man player pool for the Blue Jays?

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