The Road to The Show™: Jordan Groshans

Each week, MiLB.com profiles an elite prospect by chronicling the steps he's taken to reach the brink of realizing his Major League dream. Here's a look at Toronto Blue Jays infielder Jordan Groshans. For more player journeys on The Road to The Show, click here.

Two-and-a-half years into his professional career, Blue Jays No. 3 prospect Jordan Groshans has only played in 71 official games. He's nevertheless one of the most promising hitters in the Minor Leagues.

Toronto raided the Magnolia (Texas) High School squad in the 2018 First-Year Player Draft, selecting Groshans with the 12th overall pick and returning in the third round to take right-hander Adam Kloffenstein, now its No. 10 prospect. The first two Magnolia products taken in the top 20 rounds of the Draft, they both debuted that summer with the Blue Jays' affiliate in the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League. While Kloffenstein was limited to two scoreless innings, Groshans posted a .331/.390/.500 line with four homers and 39 RBIs in 37 games before earning a late-season promotion to Bluefield in the Appalachian League. His GCL stint was highlighted by a six-RBI outing against the Tigers on July 31 in which he went 3-for-4 with a homer and a double.

The right-handed hitter, now 19, opened the 2019 campaign with Class A Lansing in the Midwest League and got off to a blazing start, collecting hits in 15 of his first 16 games. After his 19th game, however, he went on the Injured List with a foot problem. Though he came back for four more contests in mid May, the Blue Jays opted to shut him down for the season. While the nature of the injury wasn't fully disclosed, Groshans described it as "a flare-up of a tendon" in his ankle to MiLB.com's Gerard Gilberto.

Groshans was confined to a walking boot for six weeks, then spent the rest of the summer doing rehab workouts at the Blue Jays' Spring Training facility in Dunedin, Florida. He said he was eager to return in late August or perhaps in time to participate in the fall instructional league, but Toronto opted to play it safe.

"It was frustrating as hell," Groshans said. "At the end of the day, I was willing to sacrifice last season to be able to have a healthy career."

He finished his first full pro season having compiled a 337/.427/.482 slash line with a pair of homers in 23 games with the Lugnuts. Little did Groshans or anyone else know that May 13, 2019 would mark the last day he'd see game action for quite some time.

Though Groshans didn't play in any Grapefruit League games in spring 2020, he was pleased with his results against live pitching before the COVID-19 pandemic brought baseball to a halt. He and Kloffenstein ultimately drove back to Texas together, where Groshans spent the first part of the quarantine working out at his home batting cage and weight room, then reported to the Jays' alternate training site in Rochester, New York, in late July.

"Having missed almost all of 2019, he got thrown right into a big league environment in Toronto (Summer Camp)," Jays director of player development Gil Kim told MLB.com. "There were some struggles at first, but he really impressed by staying resilient and focused on development throughout the summer and made some big gains with the consistency of his mentality and focus.

"The ball jumps off his bat and he was able to show a good understanding of utilizing the whole field. There's legit power in there, and he ended up leading the group with six home runs. He worked just as hard on his defense, as his footwork continued to improve at shortstop."

The question of where Groshans ultimately will play on the field remains to be answered. Though drafted as a shortstop and having little experience elsewhere, he's considered a strong candidate to move to third base as he further fills out his 6-foot-3, 205-pound frame. Indeed, FanGraphs has used the phrase "Josh Donaldson starter kit" to describe him and MLB Pipeline rates his power tool as the best in the Toronto system. That sort of profile would fit well at the hot corner.

Groshans is aware of how scouts rate him, although he doesn't necessarily agree that he has any limitations.

"It's not me trying to be cocky, this is me confident in my ability," he told MLB.com in June. "I don't walk a lot and I don't strike out a lot. … Everything I do in baseball is aggressive. When I go up to the plate, I don't go up there trying to hit a single."

Now MLB.com's No. 70 prospect, the 21-year-old has a lot to be confident about. With any luck, Groshans will be able to demonstrate it on the field before long.