The Blue Jays didn't have a first-round pick this year thanks to their World Series run and the payroll that came with it, so the supplemental first-rounder at No. 39 was basically their whole draft in one selection. They used it on Cole Carlon, an Arizona State lefty who checks every box teams look for in a projectable starter: big frame, big fastball, wipeout breaking ball.
Jim Callis broke the signing news, and the number matters as much as the player. Toronto gave Carlon $2.4 million, which comes in below the assigned slot value of roughly $2.57 million for that pick. That's a manageable underslot deal for a club that just spent big to build a champion and now needs to stay disciplined with its draft pool.
Jim Callis laid out the bonus number and the scouting profile that made Carlon worth the pick.
The stuff is what got the Blue Jays excited in the first place. Carlon's fastball sits in the low-to-mid 90s and has touched as high as 98, but it's the slider, an upper-80s bullet with tight, late break, that scouts keep pointing to as the best in this draft class. Pair that with a strikeout rate that ranked fifth in Division I this spring and you've got a lefty who looked like a steal at 39.
Carlon made the jump from Arizona State's bullpen into a full-time starting role this season and didn't miss a beat, piling up strikeouts at an elite clip over a career-high workload. That kind of transition, from short relief stuff to a starter's innings total, is exactly the swing skill teams love finding on Day 2 of the draft, because it usually means untapped upside nobody fully priced in yet.
For Toronto, this is about restocking a farm system that just helped fuel a pennant run and, in doing so, thinned out. A power lefty with a plus-plus slider and a fastball that flirts with triple digits is the kind of arm that can move quickly if the command holds. Now it's on the player development staff to sharpen the changeup and see how fast Carlon climbs the minor league ladder.