Blue Jays Minor League Report: A couple of 2022 draftees hit homers on Friday, Enmanuel Bonilla has a 14-game on base streak, and more!

5 months ago

It was the start of the second half for two teams on Friday.

With that being said, the Blue Jays affiliate teams had a rough day, finishing 2-3 on top of a big league team loss to the Oakland Athletics.

Let’s look at the standouts from Friday.

Triple-A:

The Buffalo Bisons beat the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders 5-3, brining their season record to 33-40 with only two games remaining in the first half.

The Blue Jays Nation Player of the Game: L.J. Talley

On Friday, the 26-year-old utility infielder went 3-4 with two RBIs and his third home run of the season.

With this homer, he raised his wRC+ over 100 as it now sits at 105. Moreover, he’s slashing .275/.385/.405 with those four homers in 156 plate appearances. He also has a 15.4 BB% and 19.2 K%.

After a tough start, he’s slashing .295/.382/.453 with three homers, plus a 12.7 BB% and a 16.4 K% in 110 plate appearances since May 10th.

Players worth mentioning:

Nathan Lukes’ impact on the Bisons’ offense cannot be understated. On Friday, he went 1-5, but also hit his second home run of the season for the Jays Triple-A team. For the season, he’s slashing .325/438/.575 with two homers in 48 plate appearances for a 155 wRC+.

Davis Schneider hasn’t appeared on the reports for a little while, but he had a good game Friday. The 24-year-old went 2-4 with a strikeout and a run scored. For the season, he’s slashing .263/.387/.521 with 14 homers in 261 plate appearances.

Zach Thompson had his best game in the Blue Jays organization on Friday. The 29-year-old finished with a line of 5 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K and now has a 5.79 ERA and a 5.93 FIP in 60.2 innings pitched this season.

Double-A:

The New Hampshire Fisher Cats fell 12-1 to the Somerset Patriots, who clinched the first half title on Friday evening. New Hampshire’s record now sits at 34-32 with only two games remaining in the first half.

The Blue Jays Nation Player of the Game: Riley Tirotta

The 24-year-old utility player was the only source of offense for the Fisher Cats on Friday. He went 1-3 with his third homer on the Fisher Cats.

In Double-A, he’s slashing .230/.360/.443 with three homers in 75 plate appearances for a 119 wRC+. He has a 16 BB%, but has had some swing and miss in his game with a 29.3 K%.

In Vancouver, he slashed .303/.411/.539 with three homers in 107 plate appearances for a 149 wRC+. His BB% sat at 14%, while his K% was double that at 28%.

Players worth mentioning:

Orelvis Martinez had a single Friday going 1-4 with no strikeouts. On the season, he’s slashing .220/.321/.512 with an organization-leading 17 homers in 248 plate appearances. His K% sits at 20.6%, while his BB% is at 12.5%.

Phil Clarke is one of few prospect catchers in the upper minors, and he went 1-3 with a strikeout Friday. For the season, he is slashing .227/.357/.328 with three homers in 145 plate appearances.

Trevor Schwecke didn’t have a great game with the bat, going 0-4 with four strikeouts. However, Schwecke also pitched in this game. Trevor Schwecke is notably not a pitcher. He had a line of 1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K.

High-A:

The Vancouver Canadians fell 2-1 in extra innings to the Eugene Emeralds. Their second half record sits at 0-1, while their overall season record stands at 38-28. As you know, they have already clinched the first half title.

The Blue Jays Nation Player of the Game: Cade Doughty

The 22-year-old hasn’t had the best first full-season, but it’s important to remember he has plenty of power in the bat.

On Friday, he hit his seventh home run of the season, going 1-4 with a strikeout. This season, he has a .242/.332/.419 slash line with those seven homers in 214 plate appearances for a 99 wRC+.

His 29.9 K% is worrisome, but he’s shown a better walk rate of 9.8% this season, compared to 8.4% last year.

Since May 16th (yes, I use this sample size a lot, I don’t know why), the 22-year-old third baseman/second baseman has a .283/.374/.443 slash line with three homers and an 11.4 BB% and 26.8 K%.

Players worth mentioning:

Dasan Brown went 1-4 with a a strikeout on Friday. For the season, he’s slashing .223/.287/.317 with four homers in 225 plate appearances. To his credit, he has been heating up lately.

Gabriel Martinez is also heating up quite a bit. He went 1-3 with a walk on Friday evening. The 20-year-old is now slashing .246/.308/.369 with five homers on the season in 225 plate appearances.

Single-A:

The Dunedin Blue Jays fell 7-5 to the Clearwater Threshers, bringing their first-half record to 0-1. Their overall record sits at 32-35.

The Blue Jays Nation Player of the Game: Tucker Toman

Tucky T is getting hot! The 19-year-old shortstop/third baseman went 1-4 on Friday, with a walk, a strikeout, and his fourth home run of the season. Notably, this was his second home run this series.

For the season, the former 77th overall pick is slashing .237/.347/.362 with four homers in 265 plate appearances. His K% is a little bit high at 29.4%, but that’s no unusual for a 19-year-old in Single-A, and the 13.2 BB% is encouraging.

Players worth mentioning:

Glenn Santiago went 2-5 on Friday with two singles and a strikeout. For the season, he’s slashing .241/.347/.337 with three homers in 196 plate appearances. It’ll only be a matter of time before he’s in High-A.

Edward Duran is a name to keep an eye on. He’s bounced between the FCL and Single-A this season, and went 1-5 on Friday evening. With the FCL Jays, he’s slashing .400/.571/.467 with a double in 21 plate appearances for a 190 wRC+.

Jean Arnaez went 3-3 with a walk and an RBI on Friday, and could have realistically been the Player of the Game. For the season, he’s slashing .327/.361/.364 with no homers in 61 plate appearances.

Dominican Summer League:

The DSL Jays defeated the DSL Padres Brown 5-4, bringing their season record to 7-6.

The Blue Jays Nation Player of the Game: Adrian Meza

The 2023 international free agent signee went 3-4 with three singles and two runs scored.

The 18-year-old switch-hitting shortstop is slashing .190/.358/.214 with a double, a 20.8 BB% and a 15.1 K% in 53 plate appearances with the DSL Jays this season.

Players worth mentioning:

Enmanuel Bonilla is having a good season, as he had another multi-hit game on Friday, going 2-4 with a walk and a strikeout. Including Saturday’s game, he’s reached base in all 14 games, and has a hit in 10 of his last 11 games. Heading into Saturday’s game, he was slashing .265/.379/.347 with a 12.1 BB% and a 25.9 K% in 58 plate appearances.

David Guzmán also went 2-4 with a walk and an RBI on Friday. For the season, the 5’7” outfielder is slashing .227/.404/.364 with a 17.5 BB% and an 8.8 K% in 57 plate appearances. He’s also hit a homer.

Daniel Pérez appears in these reports often. On Friday, he went 1-3 with a strikeout and 2 RBI. The 21-year-old first baseman is dominating the DSL this season, as he’s slashing .355/.474/.484 with a homer in 40 plate appearances.

Setting up for Sunday’s Minor League Report:

The Buffalo Bisons start their game at 6:05 PM EST, with Wes Parsons on the mound. The New Hampshire Fisher Cats’ game starts at 7:05 PM EST, with the reliable Adam Kloffenstein on the mound.

As for the Vancouver Canadians, they take on Eugene at 8:05 PM with Dahian Santos taking the mound. The Dunedin Blue Jays have Eliander Alcalde starting when their game kicks off at 6:30.

The rookie league teams have already played, but we’ll get to that in tomorrow’s report!

As always, you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram @Brennan_L_D.