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The stars aligned to bring Cole Carlon, Blue Jays together: ‘It’s been a real dream come true’
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Photo credit: © Joseph Rondone / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Thomas Hall
Jul 28, 2026, 16:30 EDTUpdated: Jul 28, 2026, 16:40 EDT
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TORONTO — The Blue Jays and left-handed pitcher Cole Carlon are a perfect match, and the stars aligned to bring the two sides together earlier this month.
Back at the draft in Philadelphia, the organization entered the event short-handed, having to operate creatively as a result of holding the second-lowest bonus pool ($5,543,100) in the sport — ahead of only the Los Angeles Dodgers’ ($3,951,900). They were, in essence, without a first-round selection. By exceeding the luxury tax by at least $40 million in 2025, they had their first pick in this year’s draft pushed back 10 places, bumping them to No. 39.
That meant Toronto’s brass didn’t select any players until one pick into the second round, and that’s where they found Carlon, who agreed to a signing bonus worth $2.4 million. He was a first-round talent, but remained on the board after the first 38 selections were made. The 21-year-old lefty fell right into their lap.
“I would say that I’m relentless. I’m going to go out there and I’m going to compete,” Carlon said via Zoom during Tuesday’s media availability. “I really just love to go out there and compete, and go right after guys with my stuff.”
Internally, the Blue Jays believed Carlon would be long gone at this point. They had him circled on their draft board, but didn’t think there was a chance that he’d still be available by the time it was their turn to step to the draft stage. But fate was on their side this time.
Carlon, standing at 6-foot-5 and weighing 230 pounds, features multiple elite weapons — a high-90s fastball that touches triple digits and a devastating wipeout slider from his over-the-top release point on the left side of the rubber — that should’ve translated into a first-round exit via the draft. But instead, every single team outside of the Blue Jays and Dodgers opted to pass on him.
You know what they say, though: one person’s mistake is another person’s treasure.
Carlon’s track record, or lack thereof, as a starting pitcher is likely one reason he ultimately slipped out of the first round. Before transitioning to a full-time starter in 2026, he spent his first two seasons at Arizona State University in the bullpen, making all but two of his 55 appearances as a reliever in that span.
There’s certainly some reliever risk regarding Carlon’s ceiling. Still, after pitching to a 3.87 ERA and 4.30 FIP with a career-high 29.1 per cent strikeout-minus-walk rate in 16 starts with ASU this past spring, the left-hander’s profile is certainly worth betting on here. If he can further develop a third pitch, either his curveball or changeup, it’ll help him stick as a starter and help maintain his results upon facing a lineup the second and third times through.
But there’s another advantage to his prior history in the bullpen, too. Because he worked as a one-to-two inning reliever, his workload never reached critical status in any of his three seasons in Arizona. Instead, his innings pitched were built up gradually, logging 40.2 as a freshman, 54 as a sophomore and 83.2 in his junior year.
This pitcher-friendly usage should create a fairly straightforward blueprint for Toronto’s brass moving forward, likely targeting around 100 innings for his first professional campaign next year.
“You always wonder about what we call ‘the fresh arm,’ and Cole really brings that to an organization because he doesn’t really have a lot of innings on his arm coming into the inception in his [professional] career,” Carlon’s agent Scott Boras said. “I think the benefit here is that his late development was not as widely known as you would expect it to be.
“So it’s a feather in Toronto’s cap to acquire someone of this ability where they got him.”
While there are always pros and cons to attaching yourself to a player represented by the Boras Corporation, one positive for the Blue Jays, at least, is that they continue to draw praise regarding their commitment to sports science and the amount of resources they’ve invested into technology and equipment for their players — information that helped land another Boras client, Dylan Cease, in free agency last winter, and that was also shared with Carlon’s camp before the draft.
Another Blue Jays connection for Carlon came via his ASU pitching coach, Jeremy Accardo, a big-leaguer for eight seasons before transitioning to coaching — five of which he spent in Toronto from 2006-10. So, naturally, he was an easy person to ask for answers about the organization that just drafted him.
Both he and Carlon developed a strong connection during their three seasons together, with the latter crediting him as one of two people who’ve made the biggest impact on his career thus far.
“He’s really helped me kind of turn into the pitcher that I am now,” Carlon said of Accardo. “Obviously, I had to put in the work myself, but he was really able to guide me in the right direction and give me a lot of good guidance.”
The other, of course, was his mom, Ashley.
Both of Cole’s parents attended ASU, as did his grandfather, making him a third-generation Sun Devil. The Arizona native, who grew up in Tempe, decided to stay close to home for his post-secondary education, allowing his mom to attend almost every home game he played.
“She’s always been my biggest supporter and someone who I’m always sharing good information with about my career, and I’m able to talk to her whenever I have a down day or a down start. So she’s been my biggest supporter, and I know I always have her in my corner,” Carlon said.
Moving from Arizona to Florida, where Carlon — who said he’s closely followed Tarik Skubal growing up and had an opportunity to meet with the two-time reigning AL Cy Young winner during his off-season training sessions at ASU — now trains at the club’s player development complex in Dunedin, will be quite the adjustment for him and his family.
But it’s one that the highly gifted hurler has welcomed with open arms. He’s ready for the next challenge and aims to be “pitching in the major leagues as soon as I can,” while also acknowledging that he has to approach this at his own pace.
Not everyone can be Trey Yesavage. For most college arms, it’s usually at least a few seasons before they start knocking on the door of the majors. That’s what made last year’s phenomenon a unicorn in that sense. However, it completely changed the way this sport views that conversation. So, perhaps it can create some sort of potential template for Carlon, too, if he nails the first half of his 2027 campaign.
“I’m really looking forward to kind of seeing what their culture is like and what the city’s like,” said Carlon, who admitted he’s never been to Canada before. “I’m really excited for it, and I’ve heard it’s a great, amazing fan base.”

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