Better Know Your Blue Jays 40-man: Adam Macko

Adam Macko is a 23-year-old, left-handed pitcher. The Jays added him to the 40-man roster in November at the deadline before the Rule 5 draft.

He was part of the Teoscar Hernandez/Erik Swanson trade with the Mariners. They picked him out of the Vauxhall Academy here in Alberta in the 7th round of the 2019 draft. He was born in Slovakia, and then his parents moved to Ireland and then Alberta (because, of course, if you can live through an Alberta winter, you can live through anything). Vauxhall Academy does a good job training young baseball players.

Last year, Macko pitched in Vancouver, making 20 starts with a 4.81 ERA. In 86 innings, he allowed 76 hits, 7 home runs, 40 (10.8%) walks and 106 (28.5%) strikeouts. Batters hit .239/.335/.340 against him.

He did get better as the season went on. Adam made 5 starts in August with a 3.63 ERA. In 22.1 innings, he has 10 walks and 35 strikeouts.

Why add him to the 40-man when he’s three steps from the majors and start his option clock going? I suppose, being a lefty, there was a non-zero chance someone would grab and try to hide him in the bullpen.

He was #26 on our top 40 prospect list last year (this year?). Matt wrote:

Listed at 6’0” and 170 pounds, Macko now works with four pitches. His fastball is of the straight, riding variety, in the 91-95 velocity range, but that jumps on hitters and gets ample swing and misses. His next most used pitch is a curveball that varies from more of a high-60s rainbow to more two plane movement in the mid-70s range. In the couple starts I watched, I thought he had a tendency to fall in love with it (doubling, tripling and even quadrupling up). It’s solid, but doesn’t really project as a true putaway.

The breaking ball I liked better was a harder and more horizontal slider, which is apparently more of a recent addition, and which I see as having more bat-missing/putaway potential at high levels. There’s also a change-up which at least flashes promise, in the one start I actually thought it was his best pitch for a couple innings, in the other he didn’t use as much and it’s wasn’t as sharp, so it’s probable a case where the feel isn’t there consistently.

All told then, the basic tools are there for a solid starter, with a useable four pitch mix. Beyond staying healthy and showing he can do it over a larger workload, Macko needs to iron out the control. He constantly fell behind in the count, lots of 2-0 and 3-0, and while was able to often fight back and get low-level hitters, it’s a recipe for disaster against better hitters beyond driving up pitch counts. That’s numerous yellow flags that point more in the reliever direction, and 2023 is a potential big year as becomes Rule 5 eligible.

PECOTA thinks he’ll play 58 games, 50 innings with a 5.51 ERA. I feel fairly safe saying he won’t get into 58 games with the Jays this year.

ZiPS has him pitch in 20 games with a 4.99 ERA.

Steamer doesn’t think he’ll play in the majors. I’m with them. I can’t see Macko making it to the Jays this year unless things go badly.

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