Brock grad and VP Andrew Tinnish discusses team he’s worked with for over two decades. Photo Credit: Brock University
Andrew Tinnish was finally able to exhale Wednesday night at 6:01 pm.
The Toronto Blue Jays Vice-President of International Scouting, and Brock University graduate, had just wrapped up major league baseball’s trade deadline, and that came just two weeks after the MLB Draft.
“Recovering is probably the best way to put it,” said Tinnish who was travelling with his family on a much needed mini-vacation when contacted by The Niagara Independent.
“We certainly had a busy month with draft meetings, the draft, trade deadline prep, and the trade deadline the other day.”
Tinnish pointed out two players in particular he feels have the most upside going forward from the draft.
“The kid (Johnny) King in the third round, and then it was Carson Messina in the 11th round. Two high upside, high school pitchers.
The Jays signed their first round pick Trey Yesavage to a $4,177,500 signing bonus on Thursday.
As for the MLB Trade Deadline, where the Blue Jays traded away eight rostered players – Yimi Garcia, Danny Jansen, Nate Pearson, Trevor Richards, Justin Turner, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Kevin Kiermaier and Yusei Kikuchi – Tinnish pointed to a few players of the 14 prospects they got in return.
“Fourteen players, it’s a huge change to our system, and certainly in a positive way,” Tinnish said.
“Jonathan Clase from the (Seattle) Mariners who’s a very toolsy switch-hitter who can do a lot of things on the baseball field, and Joey Loperfido from Houston. Those are very toolsy, high upside exciting players that can do a lot of things on the field.
Tinnish echoed many of General Manager Ross Atkins comments from earlier this in regards to the disappointing 2024 season.
“I think we felt like we had a good team coming into the year,” explained Tinnish. “Certainly based on how players had performed historically, and how our projections were for this team, where we felt this team might be.
Projections don’t mean everything, and players certainly aren’t always going to live up to those projections. Part of it was having a handful of very good players struggle at the same time. It’s very difficult for any team to overcome.
And certainly not going to make excuses, every team has injuries, but some of the injuries we had and maybe some of the struggles we had in the bullpen were difficult to overcome.”
The new look Blue Jays, post trade deadline, took to the field Wednesday afternoon in Baltimore and more than 10 players in that game had spent time in the minor leagues this season.
Tinnish will continue to scour the globe looking for hopeful baseball stars. He’s off to the Dominican Republic later this month.
It could take years to see if any of the 14 prospects the Jays traded for prove to be bonafide big leaguers, but one thing is for sure, Andrew Tinnish’s tenure and legacy with Canada’s only major league baseball team continues to grow.
Rod Mawhood is a lifelong Niagara native who has had the pleasure of working in all three mediums – Radio, Print and TV – for over 20 years. His first announcing gig was with the then St. Catharines Stompers. Since then he’s worked in radio and TV in Toronto, and currently is the announcer for the Niagara IceDogs and Niagara River Lions.
Rod also covers the Buffalo Bills for FOX Sports and the Buffalo Sabres for NBC Sports.
