National Post (National Edition)
Scouts vs. doubts in Jays’ draft of Bichette
CHOICE OF FUTURE STAR WAS NO EASY PROCESS
You may not know the name J.B. Woodman but he is what can happen when process and charts take precedence over old school scouting in baseball.
The Toronto Blue Jays’ second pick in the 2016 Major League Draft is 24 years old and is already out of baseball. He was taken 57th overall.
Nine picks later, many Jays scouts held their breath on the way to selecting Bo Bichette, whom they badly wanted, with their third pick of the draft. They were that excited and that nervous. They knew they wanted him but also knew that process was in their way.
With the 66th pick overall, they selected Bichette, whom GM Ross Atkins had never seen play.
This was Atkins’ first draft with the Jays. This was president Mark Shapiro’s first draft. Having had much success in Cleveland, they came up with a template of what they wanted to accomplish in that draft. The Jays’ scouting staff was essentially instructed — which happens often in sports — about what kind of player to look for and invest time in.
And what Shapiro and Atkins didn’t want — and were adamant about it — were high school players. They especially didn’t want high school position players.
Woodman, a position player, played his ball in the SEC at Ole Miss.
Bichette played his baseball at Lakewood High School, a pitch and a putt away from the Jays’ spring training home in Dunedin, Fla.
Most of the Jays scouts liked Bichette way better than Woodman — but that was a fight they would lose at the time. They had to pick their spots.
So here was the problem, especially for those who saw something special in Bichette, a year before he was draft age. The Jays watched him regularly. Area scout Matt Bischoff did much of the
background work, as area scouts often do.
Those who know this story best call Bischoff the star of the Bichette draft pick. He got to know Bichette. Got to know his habits, his high school, his parents, almost everything you could get to know about the young shortstop. Bischoff watched him play high school games, play in off-season all-star tournaments, watched him work out at times with Troy Tulowitzki and Josh Donaldson.
Then came the national crosscheckers. The more excited they were about Bichette, the more they watched him. The Jays paraded scout after scout to Florida. They never missed an at-bat.
Brian Parker, now with the Dodgers, watched. Dana Brown, now with the Braves, watched. Chuck LaMar, the former Tampa Bay GM, watched. Ross Bove, still with the Blue Jays as special assignment scout, was an influential voice in the process.
But still there was a problem: How did the scouts convince Atkins they were going to invest a reasonably high pick in Bichette? The teenager had some leverage regarding college, so they also had the concern they would have to overpay to get him.
It wasn’t an easy conversation. Depending on who you speak to, there were levels of contention here. And another perception to get over: Bichette’s older brother Dante Jr. had been a first-round draft pick of the New York Yankees five years earlier and that hadn’t turned out well. Dante Jr. never played beyond AA.
But the Jays scouts had put two full years into watching Bo play. They loved his exaggerated swing and the unlikely plate discipline that accompanied it. They pegged him more as a second baseman back then than the shortstop he has turned out to be. They liked the way he played against the highest level of competition and how his game always got better in those situations.
And even though he had a big swing, he was not described as a free swinger by the Blue Jays scouts.
The 2016 Major League Draft is not exactly one for the ages. Mickey Moniak went first to Philadelphia. Maybe he’ll play one day, maybe not. The best pick, Pete Alonso, went to the Mets two picks before the Jays nabbed Bichette. He’s got 47 homers and a home run derby win to his name. The 63 players taken before Alonso have combined for 52 home runs before Tuesday’s games. Bichette has hit 10 in 161 at bats — a 30-plus pace in his first big league campaign.
“We had great information on the kid, his makeup and his family,” said a scout involved in the process. “Through his dad, he got to know some of our players. And I think we were an attractive team to him because he had worked out with our players and because of what we were doing in the big leagues.”
On draft day 2016, there was no argument about what to do with Bichette. Those conversations had already taken place. Some of them heated, we’re told. By then, the scouting staff had convinced upper management that Bichette was worth the selection — even if they had to pay him significantly more than the slotted salary for the pick.
Now, the Jays have two future stars in Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bichette. One came via Alex Anthopoulos, now in Atlanta, and the background work of Ismael Cruz, now with the Dodgers.
Outside of Bischoff, most of the others involved in the scouting of Bichette have since moved on.
And two months after Bichette was drafted, scouting director Brian Parker, who fought for the selection, was fired.