Blue Jays farm report: Lefty Cole Carlon at centre of system boost

TORONTO — Hamstrung by the second-smallest signing-bonus pool and a 10-spot drop to their first-round pick due to 2025 payroll spending, the Toronto Blue Jays focused their draft resources on two players: Cole Carlon and Will Brick.

Carlon, the Arizona State lefty taken at No. 39 who signed for $2.4 million, and Brick, the prep catcher from Memphis picked in the fourth round who signed for $2.5 million, accounted for 88 per cent of the $5,543,100 available to amateur scouting director Marc Tramuta. To make it work, the Blue Jays spent only $13,000 of the $1,365,100 allotted to their choices in rounds 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10.

“I was OK, I think our staff was OK with this, getting what we thought were a couple of first-round talents in the top four rounds,” said Tramuta. “We had gamed out some of these strategies prior to the draft. We liked, obviously, Will Brick a lot. He was a player that we had spent a lot of time with, had worked out privately and once we got that figure nailed down, then the picture became a little clearer, OK, we can do this, what do we do, how do we proceed afterwards? Obviously our bonus pool had shrunk a lot once we knew what it, in all likelihood, would take to sign him. You game these strategies out.”

Carlon ranked as the Blue Jays’ No. 3 prospect, with Brick at No. 5, in Baseball America’s post-trade deadline update, underlining Tramuta’s goal “to get as much high-end talent” with the resources they had.

Combined with the trade deadline additions of lefty Dasan Hill (No. 7), righty John Klein (No. 29) and infielder Dameury Pena from the Minnesota Twins for Jeff Hoffman, and infielder Ty Southisene (No. 19) and Brett Bateman (No. 30) from the Chicago Cubs for Kevin Gausman, the Blue Jays widened their asset base , even after shortstop Arjun Nimmala was the centrepiece of a deal with the Los Angeles Angels for Jose Soriano.

“We feel like we've added some impact pitching to our group at the major-league level and all the way down to the lower levels of the minor leagues and some position player depth, as well,” GM Ross Atkins said once the deadline had passed. “Obviously, we had to give up some things to do that, but we feel we're in a healthier position moving forward.”

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Carlon, a six-foot-five, 230-pound lefty from Tempe, Ariz., is a big part of that.

The Blue Jays didn’t expect him to reach them at No. 39, as Tramuta had him among “the top 20-25 players” available. When he was sitting there, they pounced, sold on the mid-90s fastball and whiff-inducing slider he used to strike out 133 in 83.2 innings with Arizona State.

Carlon was a reliever in his first two seasons before jumping into ASU’s rotation, and while Tramuta described him as having now stuff, his seldom-used changeup — he was so overpowering, he didn’t really need it in college — will be a developmental priority, both to give him a third weapon and help the other two pitches play up.

That will help keep him starting in pro ball, a goal for the 21-year-old.

“I think I have the ability to do that,” he said.