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From the always reliable Ben Badler at Baseball America, the Toronto Blue Jays are expected to sign the #8 International Prospect, shortstop Manuel Beltre, as ranked in order of expected signing bonus by Baseball America.
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Beltre, who turns 16 on June 9, has been called the “most famous player in the 2020 class,” mostly because he’s got over 52,000 followers on his Instagram account. Badler notes that Beltre is also one of the top hitters in his class. While he isn’t as “tooled-up” as some of the other international players, Badler likes the fact that “he has a ton of game experience relative to his peers.” He trains with Jaime Ramos and Banana and Badler suggests that the bonus will be “somewhere in the $2-3 million range.”
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This is obviously great news as the Jays have been consistently building their middle-infield depth through the international free agent market. In 2017, the Jays signed slugger Miguel Hiraldo and slick fielder Leonardo Jimenez and in 2018, the Jays got one of the top infielders and hitters in Orelvis Martinez, who is shooting up the prospects board. In 2019, the Jays signed Rikelvin de Castro and Estiven Machado, both of whom are getting great reviews as they prepare to play in whatever they can in the 2020 season.
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MLB has now relaxed the restrictions on scouts having contact with players for both the draft and for the international market, and teams will be able to sign players come July 2 despite the number of unknowns regarding the draft.
One of Beltre’s most recent videos, coming today, is an impressive compilation of hitting drills he did, using a half-stability ball for a big chunk of the drills. There is one post from April 1 of him wearing Blue Jays gear taking infield practice and another from March 27 in which the second short video shows Beltre in Blue Jays gear putting a slo-mo swing on a giant ball (likely loaded with sensors). In fact, he’s wearing Blue Jays gear in quite a few of his videos, so it’s no wonder that Badler is concluding that Beltre has a deal in place with Toronto.
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What do you think about the Jays adding Beltre to their minor-league stable?
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