Richard Urena could be in for a big year. All photos: Jay Blue

By: Jay Blue

Blue Jays From Away

The New Hampshire Fisher Cats are the first Blue Jays minor league team to have released their tentative Opening Day roster which features a ton of top prospects. There are, however, a couple of interesting inclusions and omissions which leads us to believe that there may be some Buffalo assignments for a couple of players left off the initial roster.

Starters

Three of the Jays’ top 10 prospects are going to be in the Fisher Cats’ starting rotation with Sean Reid-Foley, Conner Greene and Jon Harris. Shane Dawson, Francisco Rios and Luis Santos will likely be in contention for the last two spots.

Interestingly, Jeremy Gabryszwski was omitted from the list but no transaction for him has been published.

Relievers

The relief corps looks to be another strong one with lefties Tim Mayza, Jose Fernandez and Alonzo Gonzalez leading the way. Carlos Ramirez reaches Double-A for the first time, having only made it to Lansing as a hitter, while Chris Rowley, Murphy Smith and John Stilson fill out the roster.

Rowley is the only surprise to be on the New Hampshire roster while I expected to see Brad Allen, Conor Fisk and Dusty Isaacs.

Catchers

Reese McGuire had been rumoured to be heading back to New Hampshire and he’s on the roster list and Raffy Lopez will probably be the backup.

I originally thought that Max Pentecost and Alex Monsalve would be on the club but both could be headed for Dunedin or Monsalve might be headed to Buffalo.

Infielders

Surprisingly, there are few players whom I didn’t expect on the list of infielders, except for shortstop Jonathan Diaz. He’ll likely be a utility guy backing up Richard Urena at short and Tim Lopes at second. Emilio Guerrero will probably play third and Ryan McBroom at first while Gunnar Heidt is versatile to back up.

I thought that Matt Dean might earn his way back to New Hampshire and I would think that Shane Opitz could be headed to Buffalo.

Outfielders

The outfield consists of another top prospect, Anthony Alford who will join Jonathan Davis, Roemon Fields and Harold Ramirez.

I expected to see Ian Parmley and Derrick Loveless on the roster but I think that Loveless might drop down to Dunedin but there are a lot of outfielders who need playing time in Buffalo, leaving Parmley in the lurch.

It’s looking like a very exciting roster for New Hampshire as several players look to make the jump to a higher level!

What do you think of the roster?

New Hampshire's tentative opening roster