Blue Jays prospect watch: Simeon Woods Richardson brings the heat at Double-A

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This article was published 15/05/2021 (1643 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Alek Manoah and Simeon Woods Richardson.

Simeon Woods Richardson and Alek Manoah.

They were almost interchangeable at spring training — both navigating their first big-league camp with the Blue Jays, pitching on similar schedules and hardly looking out of place among, and against, big leaguers.

The hard-throwing right-handers — Woods Richardson ranks fourth in the Jays’ system according to MLB Pipeline, Manoah sixth — possess the kind of stuff and swagger that had the Jays’ fan base itching for their major-league debuts.

That conversation continues to swirl, but more around Manoah, who was assigned to the Triple-A Buffalo Bisons to start the year and hasn’t missed a beat.

The buzz about Woods Richardson, now with the Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats, has cooled a bit since he’s one step further down the ladder, but that doesn’t mean he has been any less impressive.

Two starts into the season, the 20-year-old — set to make his home debut Sunday against the New York Yankees’ Double-A affiliate, the Somerset Patriots — has posted a 2.00 ERA over nine innings with 18 strikeouts. His command has not let him down, just like at spring training when he pitched eight scoreless innings, all against the actual Yankees.

In deciding on minor-league assignments, the Jays valued spring training data more than in years past because the 2020 minor-league season was wiped out by the pandemic, Jays director of player development Gil Kim said.

It would be easy, then, to question why Woods Richardson didn’t head for Triple-A along with Manoah, after both got crucial development time at Toronto’s alternate site in 2020 and excelled this spring. But Woods Richardson — drafted out of high school in the second round by the New York Mets in 2018, then traded to the Jays in the Marcus Stroman deal a year later — is a couple of years younger than the 23-year-old Manoah.

“(Woods Richardson) has the stuff to be a very good starter,” Kim said. “With the assignment to Double-A, he’s probably following the progression that he would have followed coming off a High-A season, and we fully expect him to do well there and continue to progress.”

Progress means working on a better breaking ball in New Hampshire. He has a good handle on his fastball, which has been sitting in the low 90s, and Kim says his changeup is one of the best in the organization.

His presence, on and off the mound, has also earned rave reviews from inside the club.

“It was awesome to see him go to summer camp. It was great to see him handle himself the way he did with the maturity he did at the alt site last year, and then coming to spring training not missing a beat, either,” Kim said.

Woods Richardson knew in the spring that his path to the majors would take time.

“There’s something I need to do every day to get better,” he said in late March. “I’ve been in the rotation, I’ve been getting innings under my belt, I’ve been facing competition. I can only control what I can control … Executing those pitches every time I get on the mound and putting a zero on the scoreboard is my main goal.”

Keep pitching like he has been and a reunion with Manoah at Triple-A — with the chatter that will inevitably follow — may not be far off.

DOWN THE PIPE

The Blue Jays’ prospect pipeline is among the best in baseball. Here’s a look at one player at each level who excelled over the past week:

Triple-A

RH Alek Manoah

Buffalo Bisons

Named the Triple-A East pitcher of the week on Friday after 12 scoreless innings over his first two starts. The Jays’ No. 6-ranked prospect leads the division with 17 strikeouts and a .081 opponents’ batting average.

Double-A

C Gabriel Moreno

New Hampshire Fisher Cats

Toronto’s top catching prospect has been the story of the Fisher Cats’ season so far, leading Double-A with a .500 average. This is the 21-year-old’s first season at this level.

High-A

C Ryan Gold

Vancouver Canadians

The 24-year-old catcher had driven in five runs in as many games going into Saturday. His average (.333) and on-base percentage (.475) rank among the top five in High-A West.

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Low-A

OF Zach Britton

Dunedin Blue Jays

The 22-year-old outfielder ranks sixth among Low-A Southeast batters with a 1.217 OPS and .704 slugging percentage.

Laura Armstrong is a Star sports reporter based in Toronto. Follow her on Twitter: @lauraarmy