TORONTO — When JoJo Parker turns on a big-league baseball game, he watches hitters, of course, and how pitchers attack them. If the first-round pick is going to reach his potential and make an impact in the major leagues, he needs to understand those battles.
That’s not all Parker looks for in MLB players, though.
“The biggest thing is how they carry themselves,” the 19-year-old explains in a recent interview with Sportsnet. “Like even when they get out, what they’re going to do the next at bat.”
Take Shohei Ohtani, for instance. Like any hitter, he makes his share of outs. What’s interesting to Parker is how Ohtani responds to the out.
“He’s just so impressive to me,” Parker says. “Like even if he gets out. It’s just like, ‘All right, so what? I’m going to dominate this next at-bat.’ Which is why he’s probably one of the greatest of all time.
“It’s awesome to have that guy to look up to, that we both live in the same world, you know what I mean?”
The ability to absorb lessons like that helped make Parker the eighth-overall pick out of Purvis, Mississippi, last summer and, so far in 2026, the left-handed hitting shortstop is succeeding in his first attempt at professional baseball. Through 68 games at Class A Dunedin, Parker has nine home runs and an .845 OPS, making him Toronto’s top-ranked prospect less than a year after signing pro. And, internally, the Blue Jays believe he will become a big-league difference-maker because his passion for baseball and relentless work ethic may be just as uncommon as his swing.
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“He’s our most advanced teenager since Bo (Bichette) and Vladdy (Guerrero Jr.),” says Joe Sclafani, the team’s director of player development. “In my 10 years here, I just haven’t seen anybody who’s that locked in and knows themselves that well.”
The Blue Jays really started to get to know Parker a year ago, when he was a draft-eligible 18-year-old. Other teams were showing serious interest too, but the Blue Jays were consistently involved, sending 14 scouts to watch him in person as the draft approached.
As decision day approached, Blue Jays amateur scouting director Marc Tramuta had one pressing question.
“What kind of worker is this kid?” Tramuta recalls asking area scout Don Norris. “I don’t want to hear ‘good.’ I want to hear ‘elite.’
“That’s the one thing that I want to hear. The performance will come, but if they’re not good workers, if they’re not prepared in that first off-season, then that’s going to be a little bit of a struggle as they go. They may have to take two steps back before they take the step forward.”
The answer Tramuta got from Norris was clear: yes, this is an elite worker. The Blue Jays took him with their top pick and Parker got started right away. Thanks to a winter spent in the gym, he added 10-15 pounds of muscle — so much that Sclafani “walked out of the room like, ‘holy (crap)” after their first check-in of 2026.
But even so, it didn’t take long for Parker’s resilience to be tested. For starters, he’s spending a full season apart from his parents and his twin brother, Jacob, for the first time. He talks to them pretty much every day, and he had the chance to visit with Jacob recently, but it’s still a significant change.
On the field, there have been adjustments, too. The season started well enough, with hits in 10 of his first 13 professional games, but midway through April, pitchers regained the advantage. Suddenly, the hits weren’t falling in anymore.
Simply put, the quality of competition was far stronger than what Parker was facing as a high-schooler last summer. In pro ball, everybody has at least three pitches, Parker noticed. And then there’s what players call ‘vert’ — fastballs that appear to rise as they approach the plate. He didn’t see many of those back home. In pro ball, they’re a daily challenge.
“I kind of hit a slump to where I didn’t really know what to do with my swing or approach,” he recalls. “It’s baseball. It’s a game of failure, so you’ve just got to learn how to deal with it.”
While Sclafani worked with Parker during this time, he didn’t see any panic, just a player who kept working on his swing and doing everything he could to prepare for the next game. Maybe most impressively, he stayed consistent on defence instead of letting frustration impact him at shortstop.
As the slump continued, Parker tinkered with his swing a little, trying six or seven variations to make sure he felt as athletic and comfortable as possible. He also gave himself a mental cue to make sure he stayed through the ball: aim for the second baseman’s feet.
Throughout it all, he stuck with his plan — and kept working.
“I saw a very mature 19-year-old,” Sclafani recalls. “And you never know. Guys have to struggle a bit. It’s part of the development curve. You get punched in the face for the first time. Figure out how to respond and then, hopefully, you learn strategies for when it happens in the future because, unfortunately, our game is ruthless.”
The adversity will keep coming at every level of the minors, and even in the big-leagues, which is why Blue Jays manager John Schneider has been encouraged to hear that the organization’s top prospect is proactively looking for ways to strengthen his mental game.
“There are some intricacies that go into this, and how you respond from failure is a big one,” Schneider says. “So the fact that he’s talking about that is, I don’t want to say it’s surprising, but it’s really encouraging.
“It’s not just, ‘Hey, I need this exit velo, this arm strength or this bad speed.’”
During those early-season struggles, Parker also leaned on his support network. Along with his family, he stayed connected to close friends, including Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Konnor Griffin, the ninth-overall pick in 2024 who has already graduated to the majors, gotten off to a strong start and signed an extension worth $140 million. A fellow Mississippi native born just four months before Parker, Griffin spent years playing travel ball with JoJo and Jacob, who’s now a slugging outfielder for Mississippi State.
Every off-season, Griffin and Parker still get together to hang out or hunt. And once the 2026 season began with Griffin in the majors for the first time and Parker just starting his pro career, they stayed in touch regularly.
“We’re really good friends,” says Griffin. “We always check in and see how things are going. I try to give him little tips.”
“He doesn’t need many,” Griffin replies with a smile. “He’s just a baller. He’s one of the best hitters I’ve seen, so he’s going to be just fine.”
If anything, Griffin says he draws inspiration from the way Parker plays.
“Just the way he walked off the field after a game as dirty as can be,” Griffin says. “He’s always playing hard. He’s a guy you want on your team. So he inspired me to never leave the field without a lot of dirt on your jersey.”
As it turns out, Griffin appears to be right — Parker may be just fine. Those early-season adjustments have been paying off, as Parker hit six home runs in June on the way to a .297 batting average, a 1.092 OPS and a spot in the upcoming Futures Game.
“Super proud of him,” Sclafani says. And it’s not just because of the results. The farm director points to a game late last month where Parker was at the peak of his hot streak. But as good as Parker’s swing must have been feeling, he refused to expand the zone that day, drawing four walks.
“So even though he’s feeling great and in the zone and mashing everything, he wasn’t willing to go outside of himself,” Sclafani recalls. “That discipline pays off.”
It helps that Parker is obsessed with baseball. Not only does he watch big-league games and collect baseball cards, he enjoys talking about the sport and can do so at a high level despite his relative inexperience.
“He loves it,” Sclafani says. “I think genuinely he’s in love with the preparation part, the cat-and-mouse game and putting himself in the best position to do damage.”
Those efforts are paying off beyond the offensive side of the game, too. Parker is not a burner but he has stolen 21 bases in 25 attempts, a high success rate he attributes to his ability to steal off pitchers who are slow to the plate.
On defence, his work at shortstop has encouraged the Blue Jays. Now six-foot-two and 210 pounds, he’s not going to have the same first step quickness as smaller, lighter shortstops. Yet he makes up for it with strong anticipation, good hands and athletic movements.
He’s playing some third now and may end up there, but the Blue Jays aim to keep him at short, trusting his work ethic and athleticism. Plus, there’s his competitiveness — a strong drive to get better wherever he can.
“That’s all he cares about,” Sclafani says. “He wants to be great. And when the intention is that pure because he loves the game and he wants to be one of the all-time greats, usually we have a lot to work with. He makes people around him better, and he’s going to continue to do that as he learns himself.”
Asked about his goals for the season, Parker says he’s simply aiming to build on this recent performance. Others will decide when and where he advances, but if this keeps up, a promotion to Class A Vancouver would likely follow at some point this summer. By next year, he should be in big-league spring training with the upper minors not too far off.
In the meantime, Parker is enjoying his time in Dunedin with a group of players and coaches he’s gotten to know well. Along with highly regarded prospects Juan Sanchez, Blaine Bullard and Jake Cook, Parker is providing hope that the Blue Jays’ farm system is turning a corner “because we’re seeing guys explode everywhere,” as Sclafani puts it. It may be the strongest the system has been since Bichette and Guerrero Jr. graduated in 2019.
From Parker’s standpoint, it’s work — but it’s also fun.
“We’re playing a kids’ game and kind of joking around, but at the same time being serious,” he says. “Because it’s a career and we have to do what we’re good at. But at the time, keep it light and joke around.”
So far the combination of talent and resilience is working. Already, Parker is inspired to be playing in the same world as Ohtani. If this progress continues, it won’t be too long before they’re playing in the same league.