Dodgers get 2 PTBNL for Ross Stripling. Let’s look at some Blue Jays prospects

We won’t know the return for the Ross Stripling trade for a little while, but the Blue Jays will send the Dodgers two players to be named later to complete the deal.

By definition, players to be named later must be named within six months of the trade, so the latest this deal will be finished is the end of February. For practical purposes this season, only players from the 60-man player pool could be traded, so as a work-around PTBNL were used to deal players outside that pool. Fourteen MLB trades on Monday included at least one player to be named later.

The Dodgers already identified one player they will receive from the Blue Jays, acquiring pitcher Kendall Williams from Toronto on Tuesday. The other player will come from a list of agreed-upon names.

“We are definitely getting a guy that we like and feel like will fit in really well with our next crop of prospects that are coming. And then another guy that will come from a bigger list that we have some time to kind of work through,” Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said on a conference call Monday. “I think it will take a little bit of time.”

A lot of Toronto’s best prospects are either in the majors or in their player pool, but that leaves plenty who might fit the bill as a PTBNL. FanGraphs, Baseball America, and MLB Pipeline all updated their prospect lists after this year’s draft, so here’s a list of Blue Jays prospects outside of their player pool who were rated among the team’s top 20 prospects on at least one of those lists.

The return for Stripling might not include a prospect rated this highly in the Blue Jays system, but if it does here are some possibilities.

I included the preseason team rankings from The Athletic and ESPN as well.

Here are some notable names from the list:

Orelvis Martinez

The shortstop and third baseman signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2018 for $3.5 million impressed as a 17 year old last year in the rookie Gulf Coast League, hitting .275/.352/.549. He’s the only one outside the Blue Jays player poll to show up on an MLB top-100 prospects list, ranked 91st on Eric Longenhagen’s big board at FanGraphs. Martinez was also ranked 89th in the preseason by Keith Law at the Athletic, who wrote, “Martinez has impact tools across the board, with big-time bat speed and raw power already, as well as a 60 or better arm and great hands in the field.”

Gabriel Moreno

Kiley McDaniel at ESPN ruined the symmetry by ranking the catcher sixth among Toronto prospects in the preseason, since Moreno stacks up at No. 8 at the other four spots listed above. Moreno last year hit .280/.337/.485 with 12 home runs with Class-A Lansing at age 19. Ben Badler at Baseball America wrote, “Moreno is an athletic catcher with the excellent hand-eye coordination to make frequent contact.”

Miguel Hiraldo

The infielder turns 20 on Saturday. Last year he hit .300/.348/.481 with 20 doubles and seven home runs in the rookie Appalachian League. At ESPN, McDaniel wrote, “Hiraldo has a unique hand path in his swing, but has good feel and a group of above-average tools (bat control, raw power, arm strength) that might allow his aggressive approach to profile everyday at third base.”

C.J. Van Eyk

The highest-ranking 2020 draftee outside Toronto’s player pool, the right-hander from Florida State might sound familiar to you. In one of Law’s mock drafts at The Athletic, Van Eyk was projected to go to the Dodgers in the first round. He would have fit well with the Dodgers’ four pitchers drafted this year, posting a 1.31 ERA in four starts for the Seminoles with 25 strikeouts in 20⅔ innings, through he did walk 12.

MLB Pipeline’s draft profile of Van Eyk said, “Van Eyk has a solid three-pitch mix that he knows how to use extremely well. He’s been up to 95 mph, usually working in the 93-94 mph range, with his fastball and commands it well to both sides of the plate.”

Van Eyk was drafted in the second round by the Blue Jays, taken 42nd overall.

Adam Kloffenstein

Toronto drafted Kloffenstein in the third round in 2018 out of high school. To stay busy during the shutdown, and with no minor league season, the right-hander pitched for Sugar Land and a Team Texas squad managed by Roger Clemens and his son Koby in a pared-down independent league this summer.

Blue Jays farm director Gil Kim talked with David Laurila at FanGraphs about the arrangement three weeks ago:

“He’s one of our most intellectual pitchers,” said Kim, who shared that the Jays are receiving TrackMan data from Kloffenstein’s starts. “He’s always thinking about the game and analyzing different factors. We’re excited about Kloff. We’ve seen an increase in his fastball velocity to where he’s sitting in the low-to-mid 90s, and right now he’s focusing on executing his sinker and his slider in game action. He’s taken advantage of his time very well. Phil Cundari, who is our pitching coach in [Low-A] Lansing, and Kloff would routinely exchange video of his bullpen sessions, as well as Rapsodo data.”

Eric Pardinho

The 19-year-old pitcher from Brazil had a 2.41 ERA in seven starts as an 18-year-old with Class-A Lansing last season, with 30 strikeouts in 33⅔ innings. He had Tommy John surgery this February.

Rikelvin De Castro & Estiven Machado

Two of the Blue Jays’ top international signees from 2019, who have yet to play in a professional game. Both are shortstops, De Castro from the Dominican Republic and Machado from Venezuela.

De Castro signed for $1.2 million and Machado for $750,000 last year, per Jesse Sanchez at MLB.com:

Here’s what we know about De Castro: He is a high-energy athlete with an impressive set of tools across the board. De Castro is slender, but he’s strong. He’s a prospect with good hands, solid footwork, speed and a high baseball IQ.

He shows solid defensive actions and plus arm strength.

Otto Lopez

Lopez turns 22 in October. He hit .324/.371/.425 with 20 doubles, five home runs, and five triples for Class-A Lansing last year. He played mostly shortstop, but also saw time at second base and both outfield corners, which would scratch the Dodgers’ positional versatility itch. Lopez was rated the No. 18 prospect in the Midwest League in 2019, per Baseball America, who wrote:

Lopez, 20, expertly managed the strike zone against Midwest League pitching, adding in deceptive power and a mature eye on the base path. “I liked him a lot,” a scout said. “I liked the way he moved, the way he played, and I like the bat. His at-bat quality has to improve a bit, but for me, he was one of the best athletes on the field. He’s small, but he’s got some power and I think he’s going to grow into that power.”