MLB: Conine plans to repay Jays with fewer Ks

The Blue Jays have signed Duke University outfielder Griffin Conine, their second-round pick from this year’s draft.

Conine, 21, hit .278 in his junior year at Duke University with 18 homers, 52 RBIs and a 1.006 OPS in 62 games. He did have a slow start to the season and dropped down the draft boards of most major websites.

But the previous summer in the Cape Cod league, where they use wood bats, Conine was an all-star. That was the impression that stayed with the Jays when their turn came in the second round, 52nd overall.

Conine’s strength as a ball- player is his power bat. His outfield arm is above average, although his speed is suspect and he strikes out too much. It is projected that he can make it as a right fielder at the next levels.

“Something that I struggled with — especially junior year, but even summer in the Cape before that — is the strikeouts,” Conine admitted. “I think that turned a lot of people off, whether that was within the draft or just watching. But it makes sense to me. It’s something with all the analytics that we have nowadays, and all the value that can be seen with putting the ball in play with two strikes, that’s something that I absolutely will work on.”

Conine is yet another Jays minor-leaguer with majorleague bloodlines. Griffin’s father Jeff was an outfielder for 17 seasons with six organizations, mostly the Marlins and Orioles. Jeff, post-playing career, was in the front office of the Marlins until being let go by Derek Jeter when he took control of the franchise.

Griffin joins five other sons of major-leaguers: Vlad Guerrero Jr. (Vlad Sr.), Bo Bichette (Dante), Cavan Biggio (Craig), Dwight Smith Jr. (Dwight Sr.) and Lourdes Gurriel Jr., whose father Lourdes Sr. was a star in the Cuban major leagues.

“I didn’t really know the full extent of the bloodlines in their system,” Conine said. “It was really kind of cool to see that develop after the fact. I saw MLB posted a photo on Instagram that was the five or six of us that all had dads that had careers in the big leagues.

“That was really cool to see and it’s just really awesome that we’re all kind of still pretty early in the system. We’re all within a couple of years of age, so if we all keep advancing on the path that we should I’m looking forward to playing with a lot of those guys at the big-league level.”

Conine is expected to be assigned to the Jays’ Vancouver affiliate in the short season Northwest League.