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Blue Jays prospect Landen Maroudis dominates in his first professional outing for Dunedin

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The Dunedin Blue Jays put forward an interesting lineup today against the Lakeland Flying Tigers, with pitchers Alek Manoah and Erik Swanson getting some work in as the Major Leaguers continue their rehab assignments. While Manoah’s outing was wild at times, Swanson put forward a solid outing with the reliever striking out two while throwing 11 pitches, 1o for strikes.

Also taking the mound was right-hander Landen Maroudis, the Blue Jays fourth round pick in last year’s MLB Draft. The Calvary Christian grad did not pitch in affiliated ball following his draft year but followed Swanson in today’s contest, entering the game in the top of the sixth inning with Lakeland leading 7-4.

In Maroudis’s first professional outing, the 6-foot-3 righty shoved against the Detroit Tigers single-A affiliate, the Lakeland Flying Tigers.

“I thought it went really well,” said Maroudis, speaking to Blue Jays Nation. “I felt like I was commanding everything well and I was happy our team could come out with the win.”

Through four innings, the Blue Jays prospect did not allow a single hit or walk while striking out five batters. Maroudis immediately struck out John Peck on five pitches, getting a called strike three on an 80 MPH curveball for his first strikeout in the first batter he faced. He was then tasked with the Tigers’ #1 ranked prospect Max Clark stepping into the batter’s box and he made quick work of him, getting Clark to ground out to second on a 94-MPH fastball.

Blue Jays prospect Landen Maroudis dominates in his first pro outing

The top of the seventh went even better for the Blue Jays #12 ranked prospect, with Maroudis getting all three Flying Tigers batters to strike out swinging, using just 14 pitches in the inning. His second strikeout was against Christian Jarvis, the Tigers 26th ranked prospect. All three punchouts came via his curveball, with the Tigers prospects unable to make contact with his breaking ball that he got every batter to chase low and out of the zone.

The eighth and ninth innings were just as impressive, as Maroudis never found himself in too much trouble and was able to generate balls in play that the Jays defence was able to work with, keeping the hits column empty. The finisher was his final strikeout of the evening with one out in the ninth, where the right-hander was able to sit down Clark on just five pitches, with the Tigers’ top prospect swinging and missing on three separate offerings from the Blue Jays pitcher. Similar to his teammates, Clark chased the curveball down and out of the zone and was sent back to the dugout.

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For Maroudis, it was as impressive of a debut as a pitcher could hope for, with the 19-year-old working his arsenal around some tough opponents to keep them from getting on base.

He sat in the mid-90s with his fastball while mixing in his slider and changeup to keep hitters off balance, and then finished opponents with his plus curveball, which had the Flying Tigers hitters looking foolish in the batter’s box. He generated eight swings and misses on the day and the opposing batters produced zero barrels, with Maroudis finishing with a 73.7% strike rate through 38 pitches in four innings. The Blue Jays bats also came alive for their pitcher late in the game, with Manuel Beltre hitting a walk-off home run in the ninth inning, which notched Maroudis his first win on the year as well.

We saw a glimpse of the Blue Jays pitching prospect in the Spring Breakout series earlier in Spring Training but scouts and analysts across Major League Baseball have been raving about the right-hander’s makeup and his ability to command the zone. He faced a tough test against some top Tigers prospects and came out unscathed, and had Manoah not been rehabbing with Dunedin, he likely would have gotten the start. The Florida product projects to be a starter given his frame and ability to pitch deep into games and is definitely one pitching prospect to keep an eye on in the Blue Jays farm system.