November 21, 2021

By Jay Blue

Blue Jays from Away

It's that time of year that we begin our reports summarizing the season for the Blue Jays' minor league affiliates. And so we begin our first post-season report in two years with the Florida Complex League Blue Jays.

If you're new to Blue Jays from Away, we summarize all six of the Blue Jays' minor league teams in four parts: The Blue Jays from Away Awards, Starting Pitchers, Relief Pitchers and Position Players. Players are discussed with the team that they spent the most time with (by innings pitched for pitchers and at bats for batters).

The FCL Blue Jays, under manager Brent Lavallee had a mediocre season, finishing in third place in the North Division with a 25-29 record, 12 games back of the FCL Yankees and four games back of their neighbouring rivals, the FCL Phillies. The club finished well below their Pythagorean record of 31-23, scoring 361 runs and allowing 301. Of the 18 teams in the Florida Complex League, the Blue Jays had the second best runs scored per game, scoring 6.69 runs per game which well above the league average of 5.17 runs per game with an offence that averaged 19.6 years old (just below the league average of 19.9). The pitching finished 13th, allowing 5.57 runs per game, which was above average, with a pitching staff that averaged 20.2 years old with a league average of 20.9 years.

Blue Jays from Away Player of the Game Champion

For those of you who followed the minor league reports here, you’ll know that I “awarded” Player of the Game (PotG) accolades on a game-by-game basis. It should comfort you to know that I’ve been keeping track of these daily awards and my rationale for the system is as follows.

The Player of the Game Awards were determined by a number of factors that included who I thought had the most impact on the game and who might have gone “above and beyond.” Many nights, there was just one Player of the Game. If there was, he earned one point. If I thought that either a) no one stood out enough to merit a single PotG, or b) two or more players were outstanding and deserved mention, I split the point up into two, three or four shares. If two players earned PotG mention, they each received 0.5 points and if three players earned mentions, they each received 0.33 points, etc. There were occasions that I felt that no one merited the award and therefore, I did not give out any points.

Here are the final standings for Blue Jays from Away Player of the Game for the FCL Blue Jays:

Gabriel Martinez 4.17

Adriel Sotolongo 4.17

Rikelvin De Castro 3.5

Glenn Santiago 3

Amell Brazoban 2.83

Angel Del Rosario 2.5

Yaifer Perdomo 2.5

Victor Mesia 2.17

Darlin Guzman 2

Kendry Rojas 2

Dahian Santos 1.83

Geison Urbaez 1.5

Damiano Palmegiani 1.33

Jonatan Bernal 1

Emmanuel Sanchez 1

Jose Rivas 1

Will Robertson 1

Rainer Nunez 1

J.C. Masson 1

Leonardo Jimenez 1

Brock Lundquist 1

Peniel Brito 1

JJ D’Orazio 0.5

Manuel De La Rosa 0.5

Jiorgeny Casimiri 0.5

Jhon Solarte 0.5

Gabriel Moreno 0.5

Wilgenis Alvarado 0.33

Bejardi Meza 0.33

Trevor Schwecke 0.33

Congrats to the winners of the Blue Jays from Away Player of the Game Championship for 2021 in the FCL: Gabriel Martinez and Adriel Sotolongo!

Blue Jays from Away Player of the Year

We decided to choose a player who made his professional debut for the FCL Blue Jays in 2021 as our Player of the Year. 23-year-old Cuban Adriel Sotolongo was outstanding, playing a lot of third base, some first base and some outfield for the FCL Blue Jays. While he was a bit old for the level, he made a huge impact on the competition, hitting .386/.464/.687 (for a 1.151 OPS) while posting a 12.4% walk rate and a 21.6% strikeout rate. He led the club with seven home runs in just 97 plate appearances and was 2-for-11 with a double in his three games in Dunedin.

Honourable Mention: Amell Brazoban, Gabriel Martinez, Rainer Nunez

Blue Jays from Away Pitcher of the Year

Running away with the Pitcher of the Year award was lefty Yaifer Perdomo. Perdomo, a Venezuelan who turned 20 in August, was by far the best starting pitcher on the FCL Blue Jays but the Blue Jays sent him and J.J. D'Orazio to the Diamondbacks in September as players to be named later from the trade that brought Joakim Soria to Toronto at the trade deadline. Perdomo was among the FCL club leaders in innings, throwing 33 innings over eight games (seven starts) and had a 2.45 ERA and 1.00 WHIP, striking out 59 batters and walking just 14.

Honourable Mention: Jonatan Bernal, Dahian Santos, Kendry Rojas

Blue Jays from Away Reliever of the Year

The winner of the Reliever of the Year award this year pretty much ran away with it, as the next closest competitor actually pitched more innings with another club than the FCL Blue Jays. Therefore, Soenni Martinez is our Reliever of the Year. Martinez threw 20 1/3 innings for the Blue Jays over 15 games (one start) and had a 2.21 ERA and 1.18 WHIP, striking out 25 and walking 10.

Honourable Mention: Jiorgeny Casimiri

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