Tim Piasentin’s journey to Major League Baseball begins in Dunedin, Florida.
The hard-hitting Coquitlam infielder is at the minor league complex of the Toronto Blue Jays for the team’s introductory camp of prospects it selected in the MLB Draft on July 13 and 14.
Piasentin, 18, was the Jays’ fifth-round pick — 143rd overall — and on Monday, July 21, the team announced it had agreed to terms with the former Coquitlam Little League All-Star, along with several other of its recent draft acquisitions and non-drafted free agents.
According to MLB Pipeline, a website that tracks prospective Major Leaguers, Piasentin received a signing bonus of $747,500. That’s almost $250,000 more than the assigned value of $503,800 for a player picked 143rd overall.
Piasentin’s contract means he’ll forgo his prior commitment to attend the University of Miami in the fall.
Instead, he’ll likely begin his long and uncertain journey to the Major Leagues playing with Toronto’s rookie-league affiliate, the Florida Complex League Blue Jays, that is based in Dunedin.
As Piasentin continues to develop he could eventually find himself back near home with the Vancouver Canadians, the Jays’ High-A team, its third-highest minor league affiliate.
When he was 12, Piasentin helped take his Coquitlam team to the Little League World Series in Williamstown, PA. He drove in all five runs in its 5-3 win over host Little Mountain in the final of the provincial championship and he hit a home run at the Canadian national championship in Ancaster, Ont.
Piasentin progressed to the Coquitlam Reds program in the BC Premier Baseball League and last spring he graduated from the Okotoks Dawgs Academy program in Alberta that plays in the Western Canadian Baseball League, a top summer circuit for prep school players. He was also part of Canada’s national junior team.
In 2024, Piasentin won the Rawlings home run derby that was part of the Canadian Futures Showcase at the Rogers Centre in Toronto for the country’s top young baseball players.
Scouting assessments praise the bat speed and power of the 6’3”, 200-pound hitter but question whether his defensive capabilities might be better suited to playing first base or right field rather than third base.
Piasentin is the seventh Coquitlam Little Leaguer to crack an MLB organization. The first was catcher Don Gurniak, who was signed by the Montreal Expos in 1970 but never ascended beyond the team’s A-League affiliate before he was released in 1972.
More recently, pitcher Curtis Taylor continues to work his way toward an MLB roster spot. He’s currently playing for the Memphis Redbirds, the AAA affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals, which signed him to a minor league contract last spring.
Taylor was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2016 and has since toiled in the minor league systems of five other MLB teams, including the Jays, Tampa Bay Rays, Washington Nationals, Chicago Cubs and Minnesota Twins. He also played two seasons in the Mexican League.
MARIO BARTEL 