Blue Jays Prospects: #69, Simeon Woods Richardson

Baseball America recently published their 2021 Pre-Season List of the top 100 Prospects.  There were SIX Blue Jays on the list. The fourth prospect (BA # 69) was Simeon Woods Richardson.

As fans of the Toronto Blue Jays, I believe we have much to be happy about. The MLB team is young and highly talented with a bright future that began with a playoff berth in 2020. Their farm system overall is ranked 3rd best by Bleacher Report. Having six prospects good enough to crack the top 100 bodes very well for the future of the organization.

Check out Jim’s post on Baseball America’s #96 prospect, Orelvis Martinez

Check out Pete’s post on Baseball America’s #70 prospect, Alejandro Kirk

Here we look at a young pitcher with a good chance to contribute to that future. Let’s talk about Simeon Woods Richardson.

Woods Richardson was drafted in the second round of the 2018 amateur player draft, 48th overall, by the New York Mets. They must have seen something they really liked in the RHP who was only 17 years old on draft day.

His professional career began later that year with seven games at Mets’ rookie ball affiliates.  In 2019 he earned a promotion to the Mets A ball team, the Columbia Fireflies, and in July of that year he was traded to the Blue Jays along with another pitching prospect Anthony Kay in exchange for all star Marcus Stroman.

After the trade, Woods Richardson pitched for Toronto’s advanced A ball affiliate the Dunedin Blue Jays. He has impressed at every level he has played at, with FIP at xFIP numbers under 3.00. He also has good career numbers for BB/9 (2.03) and K/9 (11.03). The K/9 numbers went down a bit to 9.21 at Dunedin but that is to be expected as the caliber of his opponents improves.

Woods Richardson throws a fastball in the low to mid 90s, slider in the 80s and curveball in the 70s as well as a changeup. MLB Pipeline rates his fastball and changeup as 60 grade and his curveball and slider as 55 grade. Add to that 60 grade control and Woods Richardson has a chance to be something special.

Often, pitching prospects have terrific stuff but they lack command of the strike zone which keeps them from being successful. Some others find success as “finesse” pitchers whose pure stuff might not be overpowering but mix pitches, throw strikes and change location and speed. Woods Richardson has a combination of four above average pitches and above average control that you just don’t see every day. Scouts rate his ceiling as a solid number 2 or 3 MLB starting pitcher.

It is very unfortunate that there was no MiLB season in 2020 due to COVID 19.  The Jays management thought enough of Woods Richardson to include him in their 60 man player pool. He spent the summer of 2020 at their alternate training site in Rochester where he gained valuable experience facing MLB and near MLB ready hitters.

So when can we reasonably expect to see Woods Richardson in a Blue Jays uniform? There is some disagreement about that. Fangraphs lists his MLB ETA as 2023 whereas MLB Pipeline says we could see him with the big club this year in 2021. Whatever happens, I wouldn’t expect him to break camp with the big club. At age 20, with 33 MiLB games of experience, I’m sure they will want him to face some tougher competition first.  I expect him to start the season at AA (assuming of course that there is a minor league season in 2021) and if he performs well, maybe they move him up to AAA during the season.

Whenever he gets the call up to MLB it will be exciting to see what he can do.