There’s a growth spurt and then there’s Lucas Carroll.
Standing next to the 6-foot-1, 201-pound backstop at his first Blue Jays Academy Canadian Futures Showcase, you’d never imagine that just a couple of years ago, he was a 5-foot-8, 150-pound prospect trying to make it with Webber Academy.
Yet here he was, suiting up with Team Red and facing some of the most talented high school players in Canada.
Read More Got Milk?He was on the brink of being an afterthought during the 2024 Major League Baseball Draft.
Eric Hartman has made the Atlanta Braves look really good by taking a chance on him with their 20th round selection.
And now he’s the Minor League Baseball Breakout Player of the Year.
Read More The Breakout BraveGabe Fink flew to Vancouver for the Blue Jays Academy Canadian Futures Showcase with one thing on his mind: retribution.
A year earlier, the highly touted Edmonton native struggled with his command in his one outing at the showcase.
Undeterred and buoyed by being among the first 50 players invited to this year’s event, he wanted to make amends and did so in a big way.
Read More Fink Around and Find OutFive days. 12 stories written (and more to come). 15 stories edited (and more to come). Five podcast episodes (you get the point).
And an experience that you won’t find anywhere else.
Joe McFarland has more on his experience at the Blue Jays Academy Canadian Futures Showcase.
Read More OPINION: Showing Out in VancouverThey came. They saw. They conquered.
The Blue Jays Academy Canadian Futures Showcase saw 150 of the best high school baseball players from across the country converge on Rogers Field at Nat Bailey Stadium in Vancouver for five days of action.
Read More The New Blue CrewHe was left almost speechless.
Dayne Liske couldn’t believe what just transpired and even his Blue Jays Academy Canadian Futures Showcase teammates were wide-eyed.
The Drayton Valley hit two home runs in two innings in Saturday morning’s Team Royal win over Team Navy.
Read More Showcasing with … Dayne LiskeStepping onto the mound at Rogers Field at Nat Bailey Park in Vancouver, Jake Trask had two things on his mind.
Throw strikes and do it for his home province.
The New Minas, Nova Scotia native proceeded to make his competition uncomfortable in the batter’s box at the Blue Jays Academy Canadian Futures Showcase.
Read More Up to the TraskThe old saying goes that you have to be lucky to be good and good to be lucky.
Luck really didn’t have anything to do with the first home run hit during game play at the Blue Jays Academy Canadian Futures Showcase, which came off the bat of Vauxhall Academy product Hudson Nikkel.
Read More Showcasing with … Hudson NikkelThe target is squarely on the back of Daril Rodriguez and he’s more than okay with it.
The Red Deer native became the third-straight player with Alberta ties to claim the Blue Jays Academy Canadian Futures Showcase Home Run Derby in 2025, belting 17 roundtrippers during two rounds to take the crown.
Read More Daril’s Derby DesiresHe is one of the smallest players at the Blue Jays Academy Canadian Futures Showcase but he’s determined to show he has the biggest heart.
Red Deer’s Brooks Froese stands 5-foot-11 and weighs in at 152 pounds, which is just two pounds heavier than the lightest player at the showcase.
Read More Showcasing with … Brooks Froese