Blue Jays Nation’s Pre-Season Prospect Countdown – No. 7: Alan Roden

There isn’t a faster riser in the rankings from the start of the 2023 season to now than today’s prospect.

This is Blue Jays Nation’s annual pre-season list, in which I’ll take a look at the top 50 prospects in the organization. We’ll look at the player’s stats, my observations, and other publications’ scouting reports if available.

Let’s take a look at Alan Roden.

Getting to know Alan Roden…

Position: Outfield/First base

Bats: Left

Born: December 22, 1999

Acquired: 3rd-round, 2022 draft (Blue Jays)

2023 Team: Double-A New Hampshire

Previous Ranking: 12

In his first glimpse of professional action, Roden slashed .233/.374/.311 with a homer in 115 plate appearances with the Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays in 2022. Furthermore, he walked (14.8 BB%) more than he struck out (11.3 K%) and finished the year with a 105 wRC+.

The Jays saw it fitting to start Roden in High-A to start the 2023 season, which evidently was the right call. With Vancouver, he slashed .321/.437/.459 with four home runs in 323 plate appearances, along with a 13 BB% and a 9.9 K%. He finished the level with a 150 wRC+.

After his promotion to Double-A New Hampshire, Roden slashed .310/.421/.460 with six homers in 209 plate appearances. While the team and Roden are working on unlocking more power with his swing, the short porch for left-handed hitters at Delta Dental Stadium in New Hampshire certainly helped a bit. On top of the nice slash line, Roden walked 12.4% of the time and struck out 15.3% of the time.

Roden ranks on all three lists we’ve been looking at in this series. TSN’s Scott Mitchell has the 24-year-old outfielder as the ninth-best Blue Jays prospect, the same spot Baseball America has him ranked. Interestingly, Fangraphs has him ranked all the way down as the 19th-best Jays prospect, but they’ll come around to him hopefully.