Projected Rosters #3: Dunedin Blue Jays Pitchers

Miguel Castro looks to reach the major leagues starting from Dunedin, just like Daniel Norris did last year. Photo: Jay Blue

 

This post is the third part of an eight-part series that will be my attempt to predict the Opening Day rosters for the Blue Jays’ four full-season minor league teams which start their seasons on April 9.

 

Each post will have a complementary “Countdown to Baseball” profile of one of the players. You can see this post by becoming a registered member of Blue Jays from Away for free! Just click on the link and follow the simple instructions!

 

Stay tuned for today’s potential Dunedin Blue Jays profile in our Premium Content section. It belongs one of the lesser known pitchers in the Blue Jays’ system but one who I think is poised to have a good year: Francisco Gracesqui.

 

 

I’ve usually found that the Dunedin Blue Jays’ roster is one of the easier ones to predict. Generally, players who were successful in Lansing the previous year, combined with players who may have gotten their feet wet in Dunedin a bit will make up the bulk of the roster. There are certainly a few question marks but we’ll get to those shortly.

 

I’ll preface this post by saying that I’ve been having a tough time putting all of the puzzle pieces into place for the Buffalo and New Hampshire pitching staffs. I’m expecting to see some pitchers assigned to Dunedin who are probably ready for Double-A thanks to a “trickle-down” effect from the big league club. Consider that there are 23 pitchers on the Jays’ 40-man roster and 10 non-roster invitees. Accounting for three pitchers who I’m not expecting to be in either Buffalo or Toronto (Jayson Aquino, Miguel Castro and Roberto Osuna), that gives us 30 pitchers fighting for 12 or 13 spots in Toronto and another 12-14 spots in Buffalo. Not all of those 30 pitchers will be in the system at the end of spring training but the fact that there are so many will result in pushing some pitchers who would otherwise have started the season in Triple-A down to Double-A and even some pitchers who would have started the season in Double-A down to High-A Dunedin.

 

As usual, there’s no way I’ll get everything right. There are also going to be surprises; there’s always at least one player who skips Lansing and goes straight to Dunedin.

 

Starting Pitchers

 

Brad Allen
Miguel Castro
Chase De Jong
Jeremy Gabryszwski

 

Allen was excellent in Lansing  last year, with pitching coach Vince Horsman looking after him. An unsung hero, he was my Pitcher of the Year for the Lugnuts and was able to neutralize hitters in the Midwest League. He’ll be in Dunedin, reunited with Horsman in 2015.

 

Miguel Castro is a guy that just about everyone has their eye on. The tall, lanky, hard-throwing Dominican has everyone abuzz with his 97 mph heat but he still has a few things to work on and, while he could end the season in Toronto, he’ll be in Dunedin for at least the first half.

 

Chase De Jong
Chase De Jong

Chase De Jong had some ups and downs in Lansing last year and was shut down early with a shoulder injury. He’s highly regarded by the club’s staff and will probably get moved up to Dunedin after 97 innings in Lansing.

 

Jeremy Gabryszwski
Jeremy Gabryszwski

Jeremy Gabryszwski was the Lugnuts’ workhorse in 2014, throwing 141 1/3 innings in Lansing and getting a short taste of Dunedin. He doesn’t really have anything left to prove and will move up to High-A.

 

Other Potential Starting Pitchers

 

Shane Dawson
Francisco Gracesqui
Jeff Hoffman
Tom Robson
Starlyn Suriel
Ben White

 

Shane Dawson
Shane Dawson

Dawson was injured last year in Lansing but still managed to get 56 quality innings in the Midwest League. That said, he’s still just 21 and could head back to Lansing a for a while to start the season although I definitely see him in Dunedin by the time the season is out. The other factor is that he could move into the bullpen. He’s not a hard thrower (I’ve seen him top out at 90 mph but works more in the 86-88 mph range) and could gain some velo in short stints out of the bullpen. Combine that with the fact that he’s missed time due to injury for the past two seasons and you could have a bullpen lefty.

 

Francisco Gracesqui
Francisco Gracesqui

Gracesqui is an interesting case. I think he’ll be in Dunedin for sure since gaining some velocity and refining a breaking ball to go along with his good, lively fastball and excellent changeup and dominating hitters in Vancouver and Lansing last year. I have a feeling that with a third quality pitch in his slider, he might be starter material and get stretched out a bit throughout the season. He may not start the season in the rotation but he could finish there.

 

Jeff Hoffman is well known to Blue Jays fans as being the Jays’ top draft pick in 2014. Having already had Tommy John surgery, he’ll be out for the first part of the year. My gut feeling is that he’ll get his first taste of the pros in Dunedin having a little more experience pitching in high level college ball with ECU.

 

Tom Robson
Tom Robson

Tom Robson is another Tommy John survivor who put in some time (without much success) in Lansing last year. I’m choosing to believe that he struggled in Lansing because he wasn’t healthy and that when he comes back, he’ll join the D-Jays.

 

Starlyn Suriel
Starlyn Suriel

Starlyn Suriel could head back to Lansing but he could also move up to Dunedin. He threw 42 innings in Lansing after coming out of nowhere to be one of the organization’s better starters last year. I think the odds are at least 40% that he goes to Dunedin, especially if a lot of the players coming up from Vancouver and Bluefield make the Lansing roster. If that happens, Suriel’s one of my top candidates to move up to make room.

 

Ben White
Ben White

Ben White’s position is also going to depend on how the rosters on other teams shake out. His numbers weren’t fantastic with Dunedin and he got a taste of Double-A but I think that as the Buffalo roster fills and other pitchers filter down to New Hampshire, White ends up back in Dunedin in his Age-26 season.

 

Relief Pitchers

 

Jimmy Cordero
Matt Dermody
Brady Dragmire
Alonzo Gonzalez
Francisco Gracesqui
Phil Kish
Griffin Murphy
Scott Silverstein

 

This is pretty much the Lansing bullpen from 2014 and I think that most of these guys end up in Dunedin. The one qualifier is that when you look at this group as a whole, there are a LOT of lefties. Of this group, Dermody, Gonzalez, Gracesqui, Murphy and Silverstein are all lefties. I can see one or two righties jumping up from a projected Lansing roster spot or maybe moving White into the bullpen in order to balance things out a bit.

 

Jimmy Cordero
Jimmy Cordero

You’ve probably heard of Cordero by now. He’s a fireballer who’s hit 102 on the radar gun but is still trying to find his control and his slider (which can get into the 90s).

 

Matt Dermody
Matt Dermody

Dermody had a solid year both starting and relieving (which gives the bullpen a spot starter if necessary) in Lansing but was much better out of the bullpen.

 

Brady Dragmire
Brady Dragmire

Dragmire was our Reliever of the Year in Lansing and is most definitely ready for a higher level after logging 77 excellent innings in which he walked only nine batters.

 

Alonzo Gonzalez
Alonzo Gonzalez

Alonzo Gonzalez had a bounce-back year and while his numbers weren’t fantastic, the big lefty added some velocity and consistency to his control and offspeed pitches in 2014.

 

Phil Kish
Phil Kish

Phil Kish is another guy who people in the organization are high on. He gets a lot of sink out of his pitches and could very well be a sleeper thanks to a great changeup and a decent slider.

 

Griffin Murphy
Griffin Murphy

Griffin Murphy really impressed me last year in Lansing and he got a call up to Dunedin halfway through the year. I think he’ll benefit from being reunited with Vince Horsman but his ability to throw strikes with all of his pitches should benefit him. That said, Murphy is already 24 and could start the year in New Hampshire.

 

Scott Silverstein
Scott Silverstein

Scott Silverstein was a solid lefty out of the pen for Lansing last year, leading the Lugnuts with 11 wins while throwing 64 innings and finishing 25 games while striking out over a batter per inning. He’s another pitcher who has nothing left to prove in Lansing and will be 25 in May.

 

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