With the 77th overall draft of the MLB 2022 Draft, the Blue Jays selected high school fielder Tucker Tolman, a member of South Carolina’s LSU, as a second-round compensation selection for the loss of Marcus Semien . He was one of the top 50 agreed-upon talents, so getting him on that spot was not only a surprise, but a potentially significant setback.
In a draft characterized by prospects who were descendants of former MLB players, athletes or coaches, Toman is one more player who grew up around the game as a son of Liberty University and the current head coach of Middle. Tennessee Jim Toman. As such, he received praise for being more advanced in translating dirty tools into field skills than most drafted ones.
In fact, Toman was constantly linked to the Jays in the first round, and it turned out that there was a real fire behind all that smoke. This selection is very likely to reach significantly in the $ 846,500 range. There are some nuances of the situation with Bo Bichette in 2016, who was connected with the Jays in the mix for their first selection, and ended up going to them later, though he could probably have gone higher elsewhere. because there was a strong fit between player and organization where that was the priority.
With reports that first-team player Brandon Barreira will also be coming too far, it will be interesting to see how the Jays work their draft group. While they can exceed 5% with financial sanctions alone (giving them ~ 425K of flexibility), the second day is likely to see several options to save space.
Toman’s value lies in the bat, as he is a switch hitter although he is considered more advanced from the left side. His significant batting speed gives him a share of the highest offensive advantage given the combination of advanced current power and remaining projection. As with most high school bats, there is a significant risk of impact tools, with some swing issues and missing the showcase circuit last summer. Keith Law points to the ability to handle high-end professional-level speed, but he has trouble breaking things.
The defensive side is the biggest question mark, with the final landing point in the air. Reports point to a future speed below average that limits it to second or third base, in the hope that it would have enough strength for the arm for the latter. Except this would be moving to the outside, where if his bat plays professional ball there should be enough offense upside down to carry him. But it will have given him every chance to stay and find a home on earth.
As noted above, there are more than a few parallels with Bichette regarding the bat-first profile, defensive question marks, first-round links before going to the Jays with the third pick, and family baseball ties that allow for a more sophisticated understanding of the project. process and importance of organizational adjustment. That doesn’t mean there’s the same advantage here, but we’ll have to see if Toman touches the ground running with a professional ball like Bichette did.