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Getting to know Andrew Bechtold, the Blue Jays’ newest minor league signee
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Photo credit: Brian McLeod/MiLB.com
Ryley Delaney
Dec 4, 2023, 12:00 ESTUpdated: Dec 4, 2023, 19:39 EST
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Well, the Blue Jays made a transaction for a two-way player.
On Monday morning, it was reported by Milb Central that the Blue Jays were signing Andrew Bechtold.
Want to know a fun fact? Bechtold was drafted from Chipola Community College in Marianna Florida. There’s been a handful of Blue Jays drafted from that college, including Russell Martin and José Bautista. Moreover, current Blue Jay pitcher Bowden Brancis was drafted the same year that Bechtold was as they were teammates on the Community College World Series Champions.
Bechtold was selected in the fifth-round of the 2017 MLB draft by the Minnesota Twins, where he spent his seven-year career. For his career in the minor leagues, he’s slashing .244/.339/.391 with 56 home runs in 2167 plate appearances, along with a 27.6 K% and a 12.5 BB%
He most recently played in Triple-A, where he slashed .257/.335/.464 with eight homers in 206 plate appearances, with a 10.7 BB% and a 27.2 K% for a 97 wRC+. However, the 2023 season was the year he also started pitching.
Bechtold had pitched in a professional game prior to 2023, twice actually. However, he was a reliever in a blowout game twice, so nothing was expected of him except to throw pitches down the middle. This all changed when he stepped on the mound on June 22, 2023 with his team trailing 3-0.
The 27-year-old’s fastball averaged 97 mph on that day, with a slider reaching 89 mph and averaging 86 mph. He finished his season getting into 20 games, and posting an 11 ERA and a 6.85 FIP in 18 innings pitched, along with a 16.8 K% and 25.3 BB%.
As for his stuff, Bechtold has three pitches in his repertoire: a four-seam fastball, a slider, and a cutter. The fastball is his bread and butter, reaching 98.1 mph with the fastball and averaging 95.7 mph on it. The cutter is his harder off-speed pitch, averaging 88 mph from the 73 of them he threw. As for his slider, it averaged 84.3 mph while being thrown 60 times.
In terms of the swing and miss data, his slider generated the most whiffs as he had a 58.3 whiff% on the pitch. Coming in second was the slider with a 22.2 whiff%, while his fastball only had a 9.1 whiff%.
It’s evident that the Blue Jays saw something in the 27-year-old’s game that they think they can improve. The rough numbers can be explained away by the fact he literally only pitched two professional innings in his six years previous. But still, hitting 98.1 mph is no joke, and that cutter is also pretty darn impressive for a first-time pitcher.
I guess we’ll see!
As always, you can follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and Threads @Brennan_L_D.

ARTICLE PRESENTED BY BETANO

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