Conine could be coming to the C’s
Son of two-time World Series champion a second-round pick by parent Blue Jays
Griffin Conine could be joining the list of Vancouver Canadians with a big-league dad.
The Toronto Blue Jays are the C’s major-league parent club and selected the 20-year-old son of former Florida Marlins outfielder Jeff Conine with their second-round pick, 52nd overall in baseball’s amateur draft on Monday night.
The younger Conine is a lefthanded hitting outfielder in his junior season at Duke University.
The draft continues today with rounds 11-40.
Jeff Conine spent 17 seasons in the majors, highlighted by winning the World Series with the Marlins in both 1997 and 2003. He retired in 2007, with a .285 average, 214 home runs and 1,071 runs batted in.
Toronto has been routinely sending their picks out of college programs to Vancouver. For instance, the Blue Jays assigned 17 of their 41 selections from last year’s draft to Nat Bailey Stadium’s short-season, single-A Northwest League team at some point last summer, including eight of their top-10 choices.
Among them was first baseman Kacy Clemens, son of former bigleague ace Roger Clemens. He was Toronto’s eighth-round pick out of Texas. In 2016, Toronto drafted second baseman Cavan Biggio in the fifth round out of Notre Dame and assigned the son of longtime Houston Astros stalwart Craig Biggio to Vancouver.
The Blue Jays also drafted shortstop Bo Bichette in the second round that year out of a Florida high school. His dad is Dante Bichette, the former Colorado Rockies slugger, and the Blue Jays opted to keep him in rookie-level ball that summer instead of sending him to Vancouver.
The Blue Jays did the same last summer with Hagen Danner, a California high school catcher they picked in the second round last June. That certainly suggests that Toronto won’t send their firstrounder from Monday, Texas high school shortstop Jordan Groshans, to the Canadians this season. He was the 12th-overall choice.
Vancouver, under new manager Dallas McPherson, begins its Northwest League campaign on June 15 with a visit to Eugene. The C’s home opener is June 20, against the Everett AquaSox. That game is sold out.
Duke continues its NCAA playoffs this weekend, facing Texas Tech in the best-of-three NCAA Lubbock Super Regional.
Duke is 44-16 on the season, and the six-foot-one, 200-pound Conine leads the team in home runs (18) and runs batted in (52) while hitting .278. Conine’s possible time with the Canadians will be tied to how deep Duke goes into the post-season and how quickly he comes to an agreement with the Blue Jays. According to mlb.com, he’s in line for a signing bonus of $1.4 million.
Toronto used the 22nd-overall pick last June on North Carolina shortstop Logan Warmoth. He spent six games in rookie ball before being assigned to Vancouver, where he debuted on July 13.
The Blue Jays also had the 28th overall choice a year ago and used it on Central Florida junior college right-hander Nate Pearson. He made one start in rookie ball before coming to Vancouver. His first appearance with the team last season was July 23.
Catcher Noah Naylor was the first Canadian player selected in this year’s draft, the Cleveland Indians using the 29th-overall choice on the Ontario native on Monday. He was the top-ranked player from this country, according to the canadianbaseballnetwork.com. The website had Surrey native Kyle Stubbins, a right-hander with Douglas College, as B.C.’s best prospect, slotting him at 10th overall across the country.