With the 244th overall pick, the Blue Jays have selected Braden Barry

Photo credit: Chole Paugh/WVUsports

Jul 10, 2023, 17:25 EDTUpdated: Jul 10, 2023, 18:46 EDT

Well, the Blue Jays finally went off the board in the eighth round.

With the 244th overall pick, the selected West Virginia’s Braden Barry, a 6’4”, 190 lbs outfielder. As of now, there is very little information on the 21-year-old right-handed batter in terms of scouting reports.

Ryley Delaney

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Braden Barry is the Blue Jays' 244th pick. He slashed .290/.383/.511 with eight homers in 281 plate appearances. More info on him later. #BlueJays #NextLevel

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9:03 PM · Jul 10, 2023

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This season with West Virginia, he slashed .290/.383/.511 with eight homers in 281 plate appearances. Barry also had an 11.7 BB% and a 20 K% this season.

His 2022 season was quite impressive as well, as he slashed .289/.374/.497 with eight homers in 174 plate appearances. He had a similar 19.5 K% and a lower 10.3 BB%, so he’s at least consistent.

From the video I can find, he appears to have great range in the outfield with some athleticism, as evident by the catch below.

WVU Baseball

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Did it with the bat earlier, now with the glove! Great catch @barry_braden! #HailWV

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9:10 PM · May 20, 2023

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With the bat, it appears he has a fluid swing and some raw power to all fields, as evident from this home run in early April.

WVU Baseball

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🍓🍓 @barry_braden puts the Mountaineers back on top with a two-run blast! #HailWV

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6:45 PM · Apr 2, 2023

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Interestingly, the last time the Blue Jays selected a player from West Virginia University was when they selected Alek Manoah with the 11th overall pick in 2019. You have to say it worked out pretty well last time.

This draft pick was likely an under-slot pick, as he didn’t rank on MLB Pipeline’s top draft prospects list, nor on Baseball America’s top 500 draft list. When more information becomes available, I’ll update this article!