A seventh, reliever Esmil Rogers, entered the game later while Jonathan Diaz, born in Miami to a Dominican dad, was also on the roster.
Seven years later, the shortstop prospect landed a Blue Jays jersey of his own when he signed for $2.35 million, the club’s biggest commitment of the 2020-21 international free agency signing period.
In the draft, the high school and collegiate players that have most separated themselves within their cohort are usually taken in the top third of the draft.
Internationally, though, if scouts on the ground do the legwork and the team is willing to ante up, any team can get the eligible top-five, top-three talents.
Now, it isn’t that easy to just pluck a superstar from the pool of eligible players 16 and up, of course, and such elite talent isn’t always within a given class.
At the same time, it’s also very challenging because in a lot of cases we’re making decisions on these players when they’re ultra-young.
The Blue Jays began signing their latest crop of players when the 2021-22 signing period opened Saturday, reaching terms with their prime target, Venezuelan catcher Luis Meza, at slightly over $2 million.
Most prominent in that regard was the 2018 signing of shortstop Orelvis Martinez for $3.5 million, which was roughly 70 per cent of their bonus pool that year.
“You have to be really thorough, obviously, and your scouts have to do a really good job of getting to know the players and getting to know their make-up,” Tinnish says more generally of the team’s approach.
He posted a .741 OPS in 53 Dominican Summer League games in 2021, a stat-line skewed by a 6-for-46 opening month.
“I had to learn in the middle of the season that it’s OK to fail.