February 21, 20179 yr They've already made some pretty big changes by replacing Deron Johnson. Jay himself wasn't a bad pick and he had a lot of helium at the time, he certainly wasn't a reach. The rumors had the Twins on him, Carson Fulmer, Daz Cameron and Kolby Allard, IIRC. The Jay pick - like the Stewart pick - were high upside gambles. Jay arguably had the best stuff in the entire draft (Klaw specifically said so). Most observers thought he could make the transition to starter and his floor looked like a knock-out relief pitcher. The rub on Benintendi was his build - 5'10" - and weak arm. I agree with this take, and it backs up my own memories of that draft. Jay might have been a tiny bit of a reach at #6, but almost every single draft prosnosticator had him in their top-10. And almost everybody was at least cautiously optimistic that he would be able to transition to a starter. For example, Keith Law, who is extremely biased against pitchers he pegs as future relievers (ex. he had super low draft rankings for Chris Sale (#47) and Carson Fulmer (#43) based on that concern), had Jay ranked #9.
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