Jeff Blair talked about Toronto’s first two draft picks today on his radio show with Ben Nicholson-Smith.
You can listen to the segment here, but to paraphrase, Blair mentioned Mark Shapiro and Ross Atkins in their previous two drafts going with safer college picks rather than high school players with potential signability concerns. He referenced 2013 first-round pick Phil Bickford, who didn’t sign with the Jays, as an example of what can happen with a high school player.
I don’t want to criticize Blair for creating a false narrative as there is validity to what he’s saying in regards to high school picks being riskier than college picks, but I don’t think we have to worry about Groshans not signing. According to The Courier of Montgomery County, Groshans is excited to join the Blue Jays:
“It still hasn’t hit me yet,” Jordan said shortly after he was drafted. “It’s been an unbelievable experience, and I’m just really happy that I can go to such a great team like the Blue Jays.”
Groshans, who signed with Kansas last November, said his plan is to sign with Toronto and forgo college baseball. An official deal was not yet in place Monday night.
The moment Magnolia SS Jordan Groshans was drafted by the #BlueJays with the 12th overall pick of the #MLBDraft. @FOX26Houston pic.twitter.com/xB6MSG2EAJ
— Danny Mata (@DannyMataJr) June 5, 2018
Here’s the video of Groshans finding out he was selected by the Blue Jays. His family and friends are ecstatic but he doesn’t jump up and down like some players do. Why? Because all players are different people. Different people respond to things in different ways. There are already a few tweets flying around about him looking unhappy. Let’s not do that.
Groshans has explicitly said he plans to forgo college and begin his professional career with the Blue Jays. The front office isn’t going to take a reach on a player with their 12th overall pick if there’s a huge doubt he’s going to sign.
My understanding is that teams usually give a guy a heads up beforehand, but they’re supposed to keep it quiet. It’s why if you watch any draft the players don’t even jump up and down and just take in the moment.
I’m assuming this is what happened here, because there’s no other reason for a guy who wasn’t supposed to be a first round pick by most assessments not being stoked on getting drafted 12th, regardless of what team takes him (unless it were the fucking Rays, who are trash)
Yeah I imagine he had known for quite some time the Jays were going to pick him. I bet it was just a relief to get the moment over with.
To add to that point he is also a ball player, which tend to be the most reserved of all athletes.
Ball players are?
Have you ever seen an NHL player give an interview? 98% of them are fucking robots.
Yeah exactly. He said “athletes”. Not “robots”.
Jk. I love me a good hockey interview. We used to pause the tv between the question and the answer and try and guess what they’d say. It’s a fun game.
I used to play the hockey cliche drinking game whenever a Staal was interviewed.
I’d get drunk every time.