TORONTO – The chatter started late last week, with suggestions that the Baltimore Orioles might go off the draft board with the second pick.
“There’s a smokescreen there,” one agent said.
Still, as Wednesday night’s first round approached, the consensus among experts remained that the Orioles would take Austin Martin from Vanderbilt, a predominantly third baseman/outfielder widely considered the best pure hitter available. “His profile is as complete as it gets in the 2020 class,” Baseball America wrote of him in their rankings.
But at the moment of truth, the Orioles defied the predictions and chose Arkansas outfielder Heston Kjerstad, possibly to create room in their signing bonus pool for use on later picks.
The Miami Marlins offered up another surprise when they chose Minnesota right-hander Max Meyer at No. 3, taking the flamethrower pegged by some to land with the Blue Jays. The Kansas City Royals then chose Texas A&M left-hander Asa Lacy, who was expected to land in South Beach.
Then it was the Blue Jays’ turn, the unexpected windfall of Martin staring them in the face, and there was little hesitation for amateur scouting director Shane Farrell, who 10 years ago was Toronto’s 46th-round pick and on Wednesday was running a draft for the first time.
“We were a little surprised,” that Martin was available, Farrell admitted on a conference call. “Obviously we’re keeping an eye on the mock drafts as they come out throughout the week and are aware of industry consensus, but it really started to shake up at picks two and three and we were surprised a bit but certainly prepared to make that selection.
“We were ecstatic to have the chance to pick Austin.”
