What drew Blue Jays to first-round pick Brandon Barriera

Brandon Barriera has the physical tools to succeed, but the Blue Jays were also impressed by his confidence and compete level.

Video Transcript

- --drew you to him. And what [AUDIO OUT]

When did you guys start putting him on your radar? And what kind of do you-- what kind of initially drew you to Barriera in the first place? Barriera, sorry.

SHANE FARRELL: Yeah, we first saw Brandon last summer on the high school showcase circuit. He pitched at all the major events. I think what initially drew us to him, obviously, the arm talent that Brandon possesses, the big velocity, the plus slider. But, most importantly, the athleticism I think is what really stood out, you know, to all of us. Because we started watching him this summer, and then scouted him through the spring and, obviously, leading up to the draft. So we're really excited about Brandon.

- He seems like a pretty confident guy in the broadcast. He was just saying that he was going to make the other 22 teams regret passing over him, and he wanted to be the best pitcher in baseball. What can you say about his personality and just competitiveness that you saw in him as well?

SHANE FARRELL: Yeah, the compete level is something we definitely noticed and something that drew us to him. You know, we look forward to seeing that play out on the field and in our uniform, and excited for him to get his career started.

- Great. Thanks.

- Go ahead, Keegan.

KEEGAN MATHESON: Hey, Shane, thank you for doing this. When you look two, three, four years down the road, where do you see the biggest opportunities for potential growth with him?

SHANE FARRELL: I think with any high school pitcher, it lies probably within executing pitches and their overall control and command. There's a greater risk when you're selecting a high school pitcher in that area. But somebody like Brandon with his pitch mix, we're excited about the quality of stuff that he's going to bring to the field.

KEEGAN MATHESON: All right, thank you.

- And Kaitlyn.

KAITLYN MCGRATH: Hey, Shane, just your thoughts quickly on how the draft has unfolded so far. And did you expect to land him where you guys were?

SHANE FARRELL: Yeah, we came in into tonight pretty open-minded. Picking as late as we are, I don't think we were zeroed in on necessarily one individual player. We had a group of players we were hoping and expecting a few of them to be in our range. Luckily, that came true tonight and we were able to make that pick.

KAITLYN MCGRATH: Awesome. Thank you.

- And last one here from Mitch.

MITCH BANNON: Hey, Shane, thanks for the time. You just talked about sometimes the risk with taking a high school pitcher. What traits do you look for in a high school pitcher that makes him kind of draftable? And does Brandon have those?

SHANE FARRELL: Yeah, I think, you know, overall, the delivery and athleticism that Brandon possesses is what really stood out in addition to the advanced pitches he has. The sliders is a plus pitch. And, you know, he's thrown in the mid to upper 90s at times. So the athleticism is really what we were drawn to overall.

MITCH BANNON: Thank you.

- All right, thanks for doing this, Shane. You still got three times the work to do here, man, so we'll see you after it.

SHANE FARRELL: Yeah, thank you guys.

- OK, thank you everybody.