Who’s the next “CALL HIM UP” prospect?

We’ve been screaming CALL HIM UP for over a year now and it’s finally happened. Vlad Jr’s service time has been adequately manipulated, he’s, uhhhhh, figured out how to run the bases which he could only do in Buffalo, and he’s played in back-to-back-to-back games in the field. On Friday, Canada’s Large Adult Son will finally make his much-anticipated Major League debut.

Now that Vlad is up and playing with the Blue Jays, the fanbase is going to need another Large Adult Son to yell about. You know, the kind of player that, even if he’s years away from realistically making the jump to the Major League level, does something good and everybody quote tweets it and posts CALL HIM UP.

Who’s it gonna be?

Bo would make the most sense, but, unfortunately, he’s going to be out for the next month-and-a-bit after suffering a broken hand in a Triple-A game last week. This sucks especially because Bo had found his swing in Buffalo over the past few games after a little bit of a slow start at Triple-A. Still, when he comes back, he’s the logical choice to take over as the CALL HIM UP focus given he’s taking Vlad’s throne as Toronto’s top prospect on the farm.

Unfortunately, we won’t be able to post videos of Bo doing incredible things while yelling to call him up while he’s on the disabled list. I feel like this injury might keep Bo from joining the Blue Jays this year. I’m not sure if the front office planned to do the same service time dance with him as they did with Vlad, but, it’s much easier to do so now that this injury is pushing his arrival date back a little bit.

With Bo injured and Vlad on the big league team, Cavan Biggio likely becomes the most interesting prospect in Buffalo. Given the fact he’s older and a more refined all-around player, I think it’s more likely we see Biggio join the team at some point during the season than we see Bo recalled.

Biggio enjoyed a breakout season at Double-A New Hampshire last year as he made a change to his swing that resulted in him focusing on putting the ball in the air more. He ended up smashing 26 bombs and slashing a .252/.388/.499 line for the Fisher Cats, helping the team win the Eastern League championship. This year, he’s got a whopping 1.142 OPS through 16 games at Triple-A Buffalo.

There’s obviously no way that Groshans, Toronto’s first-round pick from the 2018 draft, will be called up any time soon, but he seems primed to become the organization’s next riser through the system. Groshans hit the ground running in Rookie Ball as an 18-year-old last year and he’s currently dominating Low-A with the Lansing Lugnuts. Groshans is slashing a .387/.465/.581 line with a couple of bombs in 16 games in Lansing and it seems he’ll probably get advanced to Dunedin sooner rather than later.

The scouting report on Gorshans is that he’s a ridiculously advanced hitter for his age, which is why he could rocket through the system quicker than most high school drafted players.

Realistically, he’ll do the Bo Bichette path through the system. Bo played Rookie Ball after the draft in 2016, dominated in Lansing as a 19-year-old, got called up to Dunedin after 70 games at Low-A, and then spent all of his 20-year-old season in Double-A. Since Groshans is so advanced at the plate, we could feasibly see him jump all the way up to Double-A this year.

Toronto’s top pitching prospect is thriving this year after having his entire 2018 season derailed due to a freak injury. Pearson broke his arm after getting hit by a line drive in his first outing of the season last year and didn’t pitch again until he joined the Arizona Fall League.

This year, Pearson started at Single-A Dunedin, but I imagine he’ll be in New Hampshire pretty soon. Pearson has a 1.29 ERA over four outings in Dunedin, and he’s striking out a whopping 12.9 batters per nine innings. Though you can’t always trust minor league radar guns, Pearson has apparently been eclipsing 100 miles-per-hour routinely. Though it isn’t realistic that we see him for another year or so, I figure we’ll see a lot of CALL HIM UP in response to videos of him chucking 100 mile-per-hour gas.

So, in conclusion, the next guy in line for the CALL HIM UP response to everything he does throne should be Bo, but his injury complicates that. The most sensible next in line would be Biggio, but, honestly, feel free to yell CALL HIM UP whenever anyone does anything well, even if they’re playing in Single-A. Fuck it, the Large Adult Sons are great.