Blue Jays Prospects That Have Turned Their Seasons Around
A few Jays prospects have turned their seasons around recently.
Hector Perez had a dreadful April where in 5 starts he produced a 10.69 ERA. He did manage 24 strikeouts in 16 innings so the dominant stuff was still there, but he completely lacked command which led to 15 walks and 29 hits. Since the start of May he has a much improved 3.78 ERA. He is still struggling to find the strike zone with 4.34 BB/9. The lack of control has led to an inconsistent June and will probably result in him being moved into the bullpen, but it's still nice to see him starting to see better results.
Demi Orimoloye is the toolsy prospect that the Jays received for Curtis Granderson. By the end of May he had an atrocious .187/.255/.253 batting line. He caught fire in June, batting .342/.407/.644 and won Florida State League player of the month. For the season he is now hitting .229/.298/.368 which may not look good at first glance, but in the offense suppressing Florida State League it is good for a 99 wrc+. To get his batting line up to essentially league average after such a horrible start is a positive sign. As a high strikeout player he will be a streaky hitter so it's too early to get excited because of one hot month, but fingers crossed what we saw in June was Orimoloye finally tapping into his tools and turning them into results.
Samad Taylor was acquired along with Thomas Pannone in exchange for Joe Smith. The speedy middle infielder had an inconsistent start to his season before missing 2 weeks at the end of May. At the time he was hitting .168/.291/.256. Since coming back, he has hit .300/.403/.517. Taylor draws a lot of walks and can steal a lot of bases. He may not have the total offensive package to be in the starting lineup of a winning team, but as a speedster who can swipe a base as a pinch runner, grind out at bats as a pinch hitter and play both middle infield positions, he could end up a valuable bench piece for the Jays when they hope to be contenders.
