Better Know Your Blue Jays 40-Man: Brandon Valenzuela
· Yahoo Sports
Brandon Valenzuela is a 25-year-old switch-hitting catcher born in Hermosillo, Mexico (he has a good role model as a Mexican-born catcher in Kirk). The Blue Jays picked him up from the Padres in trade for Will Wagner. MLB.com has Valenzuela as #24 on their Jays top 30 prospect list. He was added to the Jays’ 40-man last November.
The Padres signed him as a 16-year-old in 2017 for a $100,000 signing bonus. He has all three options left.
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Last year, splitting time between Double-A San Antonio and Triple-A Buffalo, he hit .224/.309/.383 with 15 home runs. As a switch-hitter, he’s been pretty even on each side (last year a .725 OPS vs. LHP and .680 vs. RHP). He struck out a lot (24.0% of the time) but then walked a fair bit (10.9%). He has a bit of pop.
But offense isn’t what has put on prospect lists. His defense is what has him on the edge of a major league job. Last year, he threw out 34% of baserunners. He’s said to good at blocking balls in the dirt and that he calls a good game.
Baseball America says:
The switch-hitting Valenzuela is a glove-first catcher without a lot of offensive upside. Valenzuela’s righthanded swing is better than his lefthanded swing, leading to average results against lefthanded pitching. He shows below-average contact skills with an advanced approach that should lead to at least an average walk rate. There will be a fair amount of strikeouts as Valenzuela is a well below-average contact hitter against righthanded pitching. He hit 15 home runs in 2025 and shows fringe-average game power. To Valenzuela’s credit he has average exit velocity data with lofty launch angles. Behind the plate he’s a plus defender with an above-average arm that keeps runners in check
He’s having a good spring, with 4 hits and 3 walks, in 12 at-bats, and, to my eyes, has looked good behind the plate.
If Tyler Heineman hits like he did last year (and he’s also a good defensive catcher) and stays healthy, we won’t see much of Valenzuela, but if Heineman goes back to hitting the way he has in the past, well, the team is still likely to stay with the catcher they know. Then, catchers do tend to hit the IL at some point during a season, and Brandon would be next in line. Ali Sánchez got into 20 MLB games last year.
Valenzuela is nine years younger than Heineman. All things being equal, I’d rather have Valenzuela on the major league team than Heineman, but Tyler would likely either retire or look for a job with another team if the Jays wanted to send him down. Valenzuela pretty much has to do whatever the Jays tell him to.
Heineman didn’t get his first MLB at-bat until he was 28. And, before the age of 30, Heineman only played 20 games. If Brandon doesn’t get any major league time this year, he’s got lots of time to ‘make it’.
Steamer figures he’ll play 8 games this season, hitting .201/.272/.315 with 1 home run.