ATLANTA – The Toronto Blue Jays selected Mississippi prep shortstop JoJo Parker with the eighth overall pick Sunday evening to open their first draft under new amateur scouting director Marc Tramuta.
Parker, who bats left-handed, hit for both average and power at Purvis High School and has a good arm, but may eventually grow out of shortstop. They’d been linked to high-school shortstops throughout the spring and ended having their choice between Parker and Billy Carlson, a gifted defender out of Corona, Calif.
Parker’s twin brother, Jacob, is also eligible for the draft.
The assigned value for the No. 8 pick is $6,813,600, the vast majority of their $10,314,600 signing bonus pool, which was the 20th largest bonus. They don’t have a second-round pick, the penalty for signing Anthony Santander in free agency over the winter.
Commissioner Rob Manfred unveiled the selections at the Coca Cola Roxy, where the vibe was aspirational-nerd-tries-to-throw-a-party-worthy-of-the-cool-kids, with commensurately awkward results. The lights, presentation and venue were slick and the draft is certainly worth building up, but with only a small handful of mascots roaming the crowd, no draftees in attendance and lots of airtime to fill, there was way too much filler and precious little killer.
Still, for the hardcore, the draft itself provided the intrigue, with the Washington Nationals blowing up the leading mocks immediately by selecting high-school shortstop Eli Willits first overall. The Angels further demolished expectations by taking University of California, Santa Barbara right-hander Tyler Bremner, a San Diego native born to Canadian parents, second.
At No. 3, the Seattle Mariners took LSU lefty Kade Anderson, projected to go first overall, before the Rockies selected shortstop Ethan Holliday, the son of the one-time Colorado outfielder Matt and younger brother of 2022 No. 1 pick and Orioles infielder Jackson. Next, the St. Louis Cardinals chose Tennessee lefty Liam Doyle, whom the Blue Jays were interested in if he reached them.
The Pittsburgh Pirates took high-school righty Seth Hernandez sixth before the Miami Marlins grabbed Oregon State shortstop Aiva Arquette at seven, leaving the Blue Jays to choose between high-school shortstops or a college arm.