The Blue Jays selected their first pitcher of the day.
With the 89th overall pick, the Blue Jays selected Oklahoma State’s Juaron Watts-Brown.
The Blue Jays select Juaron Watts-Brown with the 89th overall pick! pic.twitter.com/BM6faCrXDN
— Brennan Delaney (@Brennan_L_D) July 10, 2023
The 21-year-old right-handed pitcher is insanely athletic, having played baseball, football, and basketball in high school. He also played on the gridiron in college, leading to a shoulder injury which made him miss the 2021 baseball season.
In terms of his stats, he had a 5.03 ERA in 82.1 innings pitched, appearing in 17 games and starting 15 of them. Moreover, he had a 33 K% and a 12.8 BB%.
𝔇𝔢𝔞𝔩𝔦𝔫’
Big 12 K 👑 @JuaronWatts was 💪 again today to get his 3rd W
6 1/3 IP
13 Ks
4 H
2 R#OurStandard #GoPokes pic.twitter.com/qFPPAV6mXJ
— OSU Cowboy Baseball (@OSUBaseball) March 26, 2023
His best pitch is his 83-86 mph slider which misses plenty of bats, he also sits in the low 90s with his fastball that has touched 96 mph. Furthermore, he has a low-80s curveball and a mid-80s changeup.
He ranked as MLB Pipeline’s 67th best draft prospect and Baseball America’s 46th best draft prospect. Below are his grades according to each publication.
Tool | Baseball America grades: | MLB Pipeline grades: |
Fastball | 55 | 50 |
Slider | 60 | 60 |
Curveball | 50 | 55 |
Changeup | 50 | 50 |
Control | 45 | 45 |
Overall | N/A | 50 |
The Blue Jays still have seven picks remaining, and we’ll be covering each of those picks on day two of the draft, before moving to a live blog format on day three of the draft.
It’ll be long but fun day, so buckle up!
The Blue Jays previous picks:
As always, you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram @Brennan_L_D.