Uncertainty about the future isn’t easy, and the 18-year-old left-hander was eager to understand where he was going. He didn’t expect it would take more than two hours for his name to be called. He didn’t know the Toronto Blue Jays were really on him until two picks before it was their turn. Emotions ran high as soon as it became official. He hugged his family. He broke down on TV during his first post-selection interview and then vowed to make the other 22 teams regret passing on him. What a ride. “I’m going to stick with it until I make my major league debut and even then, it’s going to make this game a lot easier now,” Barriera said in an interview. “I’m really thankful for all these teams because I’m going to use it and work to get better and be the best player I can be.” That combination of confidence and competitiveness made for quite the first impression and, combined with his athleticism, mid-90s fastball, as well as slider, changeup and breaking ball, helped attract the Blue Jays. His skill set checks a lot of the boxes they look for in pitchers, even if “there’s more risk when you’re picking a high school pitcher in that area,” said director of amateur scouting Shane Farrell. “Someone like Brandon, with the mix of the pitch, we’re excited about the quality of things he’s going to bring to the pitch.” Picking in the final third of the first round left the Blue Jays unable to zero in on some players, instead building a pool of picks they thought would be available in that range. A major surprise early in the draft – the Texas Rangers taking right-hander Kumar Rocker at No. 3 – had an effect that led to several other changes. As the machinations took place, Barriera waited and waited – “it’s not a great feeling just sitting there,” he said – and once his name was called, “there was a lot of relief on my shoulders. That was the hard part. Now comes the easy part. I have to go play baseball.” The Blue Jays were an unexpected landing spot, but it was also a welcome one. Barriera, identified by area scout Adrian Casanova, is committed to Vanderbilt, but No. 23 is worth $3,075,300. In the second round, at No. 60 overall, they took Josh Kasevich from Oregon, at No. 77 they selected forward Tucker Toman from Hammond High School in Columbia, SC, before taking Cade Doughty, a second baseman from Louisiana State an option later. The Blue Jays will have a total signing bonus of $8,367,700 to work with, with nearly $1.7 million from compensatory picks at Nos. 77-78 for the departures of Marcus Semien and Robbie Ray. “We feel like we’re in a good place,” Farrell said of signing all four picks. “We don’t foresee much difficulty in keeping things the way they are now.” The infielders were projected to go higher than third basemen, and the Blue Jays had to “manage our bonus allocation in a way that allowed us to get two players we believe in and some upside in getting two high-school players and today,” Farrell said. Drafted by area scout Ryan Fox, Kasewicz is a high-contact, walkable, low-strikeout hitter with a chance to stick up the middle. Toman, selected by Mike Tidick, is the big swing here, someone Baseball America described as “one of the best high school players in the hit/power class” but also a “high-end defender.” Doughty, scouted by Chris Curtis, has shown increased power this season, driving balls into gaps “at higher exit velocities than we’ve seen before,” per Baseball America. “We got three different types of hitters,” Farrell said. “Josh, very contact oriented. Tucker we think has some power potential and Cade is just a good player in his own right. We are excited about all three.” Barriera was born in New York and grew up a Yankees fan enthralled by lefty Andy Pettitte, but moved to Florida when he was nine years old. At 11, he joined the Cannons Baseball Academy, where director Nick James worked with him on his pitches and coached him in travel ball. Their bond is such that he was with Barriera and his family at the draft and praised the person as much as the “good things.” “Most of this year has been 94-97, even 99 at times. Real power regulator. We had it above 3000 RPM several times this spring in practice. Good breaking ball, figure 11-5 on this one. His best pitch might be his changeup,” James said. “But what people will find they love about Brandon in Toronto is what a great teammate he is. “Everywhere he’s ever gone, he’s a team-first guy, he’s a program-first guy, he wants to do whatever it takes to win and he celebrates his teammates while enjoying his own success.” That way, he’ll fit right into the culture the Blue Jays are trying to maintain, with a chance to bolster the potential of the young arms the team has in double-A New Hampshire and single-A Vancouver. Like Ricky Tiedemann, who has emerged as the club’s top prospect, Barriera is comfortable throwing any of his pitches at any time, with a “bulldog on offense” mentality on the mound. “I’m not going to take anything out just because you’re the guy who hits the ninth hole, or if you’re 0-for-3 with three shots — I’m going to keep going at you the same way,” he said. he said. “At the end of the day, in a way, I want to make the players look stupid. That’s pretty much my mindset out there.” While Barriera focused on Pettitte when he was young, in recent years he has locked down more of Luis Severino, the electric right-hander who “isn’t the biggest guy on the field, but he plays big, his stuff plays big and he goes. out there with a lot of emotion and plays with a lot of energy.” That admiration for Severino and the Yankees will have to change, which he showed as he wore a crisp new white Blue Jays jersey over his suit and a blue hat on his head. “Oh yes,” said Barriera. “I’m 100 percent Blue Jays now.”
