Toronto Blue Jays Sign 2nd-Round Pick C.J. Van Eyk and 3rd-round pick Trent Palmer

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The Blue Jays DSL Facility. Photo by Pierre Lacasse
 

Shi Davidi had the juicy info today when he tweeted that the Toronto Blue Jays had signed second-round draft pick C.J. Van Eyk to a deal worth $1.8 million, just about $23,000 over the slot value.

 

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To me, the fact that the Jays were willing to go over slot value to sign Van Eyk indicates to me that they’re confident that they’ll have the room to sign first-rounder Austin Martin for an over-slot deal.

 

 

As we’ve mentioned before, Martin was expected to be drafted as the second overall pick but slipped to the fifth slot where the Blue Jays selected him. That means that would have lost well over $1.6 million in signing bonus money and will likely expect to have at least some of that made up by the Blue Jays, leaving the Jays to find cost savings with some of the other five picks.

As we reported earlier, the Jays signed fifth-round pick Zach Britton to a bonus that was well over $300,000 under the slot value, giving the Jays valuable room to go over-slot for Martin and while we don’t see the Jays getting more room for Van Eyk, I would think that the Jays woudn’t go over slot for Van Eyk if they didn’t think they would be able to sign Martin.

I’m not surprised that Van Eyk got above slot money, mainly because he was looked at as one of the better college pitchers in the draft and was trending up until he had a forearm injury.

 

In addition, the Blue Jays announced that they signed their third-round pick, righthanded pitcher Trent Palmer out of Jacksonville University. Palmer also signed for an over-slot deal, getting $850,000 when his slot value for the 77th overall pick was $805,600.

Palmer doesn’t have the prototypical build for a pitcher, coming in a 6-foot-1 and 230 pounds, he is thought to be ideal as a reliever but does have a three-pitch mix that profiles well as a starter and he did start the 2020 season in the rotation for Jacksonville, doing extremely well in the new role.

What do you think of the Jays’ signing Van Eyk and Palmer?

 

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