Catching up with Blue Jays prospect Matt Scannell ahead of his first full professional season

One of those prospects is also one of their newest: Matt Scannell, a 24-year-old outfielder from San Antonio, Texas, who signed with the club last July.

Scannell attended Princeton University after high school, largely because the Ivy League school showed interest in him as a hitter.

“Honestly, it was my only option to play; a lot of my interest was in a pitcher coming out of high school,” Scannell recalled in a conversation with Blue Jays Nation. “Princeton was going to let me hold the bat in my hands. I thought I could get on the field as a freshman. It all came together right before my senior year.”

His experience at Princeton did not get off to a smooth start; Amid the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the Ivy League canceled all winter and spring sports for the ’20 and ’21 seasons. This included Scannell’s freshman season in college, and his senior year of high school was also cut short due to the pandemic.

With one year remaining, Scannell opted to spend his final collegiate season at Wake Forest University as a graduate transfer. At the time, the Demon Deacons were just a year removed from their trip to the College World Series, and that was a factor in Scannell’s decision to move there.

“It was a good thing. I went there to visit. I thought it was great. They had had some success in a College World Series run and just named it preseason No. 1 going into 2024,” Scannell said. “I felt like this was the place where they needed me and I needed them. I fell in love with the program and the people.”

It truly proved to be a fit, as Scannell set collegiate highs in home runs (12), RBIs (49), batting average (.300), slugging percentage (.543) and OPS (.978) during the 2025 season.

That put Scannell in a good position to attract attention from big league clubs, but the Blue Jays weren’t quite on his radar. “I knew they had some interest. If you had asked me who I thought I would end up with, they probably wouldn’t have been the team,” Scannell said. “I wouldn’t say it came out of the blue, but I wouldn’t say I had any inkling that I would end up in the organization either.”

“Matt has super high talent,” said Joseph R Guzman, MLPBA Certified Agent with Empowerment Sports Group. “He went to the Ivy League before transferring to Wake Forest and is such a dynamic player who has a lot of tools. He is exciting to watch with his excellent defense, speed and athleticism. He showed really well in the Tennessee Regional, and I had already drafted him before Round 10 of the draft.”

Lo and behold, he would officially sign with the Blue Jays on July 22, and even see action with single-A Dunedin just a week later. His first game went almost as well as it could have been, as he collected a single, double and a home run with two RBIs against Lakeland, Detroit’s Single-A affiliate.

Scannell played 10 games with Dunedin, slashing .269/.367/.577 with two home runs, two doubles and five RBIs. He was promoted to High-A Vancouver around mid-August and collected a home run, six RBIs and seven total hits in eleven games to end the season. Making such a quick transition from one level to the next struck Scannell, who was impressed with how quickly his eyes adjusted to the pitching at the next level.

“Coming out of the ACC, my eyes adjusted a lot faster than I thought. You make a jump in speed when you go to High A, but I was shocked at how quickly my eyes adjusted,” Scannell said, reflecting on last season. “But you also realize that there’s a reason why baseball is such a layered system, and that’s probably what makes it a great game and what makes it a frustrating game. You have to make adjustments quickly, you have to know what you’re doing quickly.

Personally, I left the high A and entered the offseason with something like ‘I know what I have to do, now I just have to do it.”

Scannell had high praise for the Blue Jays organization, especially the people he encountered during his first two months of pro ball who “care about winning.”

“The people they surround you with, whether it’s at the complex or at the affiliates, everyone cares about winning and your development, and that’s all you can really ask for as an athlete and competitor,” Scannell said. “You don’t want to be somewhere where they only care about development and not about winning. But you also don’t want to be somewhere where they only care about winning and not about your development. That’s where I think the Blue Jays got it right.”

“It was awesome. Being from Texas, you don’t necessarily have to ever follow the Blue Jays, especially not the way I do now. It’s cool to see how the inner workings of the organization and what they preached, especially offensively, blossomed and won in the big moments.”

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