LOS ANGELES – The wait to No. 23 was agonizing for Brandon Barriera, and not just because he was rocking a dark suit on a 34 C afternoon that was scorching even in the shade at the L.A. LIVE entertainment complex.
Uncertainty about the future isn’t easy and the 18-year-old left-hander was eager to figure out where he was going. He didn’t expect it to take two-plus hours for his name was called. He didn’t know the Toronto Blue Jays were really on him until two picks before it was their turn.
Emotions struck once it was official. He hugged his family. He broke down on TV during his first post-selection interview and then vowed to make the other 22 teams regret passing him up.
What a ride.
“I’ll stand by that until I make my major-league debut and even then, it makes this game a whole lot easier now,” Barriera said in an interview. “I’m actually thankful all those teams passed up on me because I’m going to use that and work to get better and become the best player I can be.”
That mix of confidence and competitiveness made for quite a first impression and, in combination with his athleticism, mid-90s fastball, plus slider, changeup and breaking ball, helped hook in the Blue Jays.
His skill-set checks many of the boxes they seek out in pitchers, even if “there’s a greater risk when you’re selecting a high school pitcher in that area,” said amateur scouting director Shane Farrell. “Somebody like Brandon, with his pitch mix, we’re excited about the quality of stuff he’s going to bring to the field.”
Picking in the bottom third of the opening round left the Blue Jays unable to zero in on a couple of players, instead building out a group of options they felt would be available in that range. One major surprise early in the draft – the Texas Rangers taking right-hander Kumar Rocker at No. 3 – had a trickle-down effect that led to several other changes.
As the machinations played out, Barriera waited and waited – “it’s not a great feeling just kind of sitting there,” he said – and once his name was called, there was “a lot of relief on my shoulders. That was the hard part. Now comes the easy part. I get to go and play baseball.”
The Blue Jays were an unexpected landing spot, but they were also a welcomed one.
“I’m glad they picked me,” he said of the Blue Jays. “It’s such a great organization and the development they have on that side is amazing, too. When you look at their team, they play their young guys, they’re not scared to bring up their young guys. That’s something that I would love to be a part of.”
Barriera is committed to Vanderbilt but the No. 23 pick’s assigned value is $3,075,300. The Blue Jays will have a total signing bonus pool of $8,367,700 to work with, boosted nearly $1.7 million by two compensatory picks at Nos. 77-78 for the departures of Marcus Semien and Robbie Ray.
They took shortstop Josh Kasevich out of Oregon with their second-round pick, described by Baseball America as showing “steady defensive ability at shortstop and solid production at the plate.”
