Blue Jays select Canadian Dasan Brown in 3rd round of MLB draft

The Toronto Blue Jays selected Canadian outfielder Dasan Brown with the 88th pick in the third round of the 2019 MLB amateur draft on Tuesday.

Brown, an Oakville, Ont., native who attends Abbey Park High School, is the first Canuck to be selected in this year's draft. He took the day off school because he didn't want to disrupt his teachers by getting a phone call from an MLB front office during class, according to Scott Mitchell of TSN.

The 18-year-old, who's listed at 6-feet and 185 lbs, has committed to Texas A&M University and played for the Canadian junior national team.

"He's got game-changing speed," Baseball Canada director Greg Hamilton said. "He's probably going to be one of the fastest guys in the draft, regardless of who's in there. Game-changing speed on defense and game-changing speed offensively. Rarely do you see that kind of speed on (the) baseball field.

"Is he a finished product as a hitter? Not yet. But there's certainly the hand speed to handle good velocity and he's shown that he's able to make some adjustments now and show some productivity as a hitter."

For the first time since 2012, no Canadians were picked in the first two rounds of the draft. Mississauga's Bo Naylor was the highest Canadian selected in 2018 when he went 29th overall to the Cleveland Indians.