Better know your Blue Jays 40-man: Reese McGuire

Reese was picked up along with Francisco Liriano and Harold Ramirez from the Pirates, in the trade for Drew Hutchison, back at the trade deadline in 2016. I’m willing to put that one into the win column, even if Reese and Harold never make the majors.

Reese is a 23-year-old, left-handed hitting catcher, who earned the #15 spot on our top 40 prospect list this year. As Matt said, his 2017 season was really 3 act play. He had a crappy April, missed a couple of months with a knee injury, then came back to the Fisher Cats and had a terrific last month, hitting .324/.411/.594. Now, it was just one month, and he’s never hit like that before, but we can hope that he’s figuring it out with the bat.

His glove is what should carry him to the majors. He is a good defensive catcher, has a good arm, does it all well behind the plate.

Reese is having a good spring. 3 hits in 10 at bats, with a home run.

The question is will we see Reese in Toronto this season?

Since he is on the 40-man roster, and since catchers tend to get injured, I’d imagine we will see him. I can see him being a better choice as backup catcher than Luke Maile, but Maile already has his backup catcher union card, so he’ll get the job out of spring training. Once Reese gets that card, he’ll have a long career in the majors, but he doesn’t have it yet.

There is a question of where Reese starts the 2018 season. I can’t see the Jays wanting Danny Jansen and Reese on the same team. They will be wanting both to get a lot of at bats. I’d think Jansen will start in Buffalo and McGuire in New Hampshire.