As the Toronto Blue Jays finish out the first half of the regular season in San Diego this weekend, the Jays' executives will be navigating the MLB Draft, which also takes place this weekend in Philadelphia as a precursor to the MLB All-Star Game festivities. 

While the Blue Jays have been big spenders in free agency over the last several years, the draft is an important resource for all organizations.

If Toronto can hit on homegrown talent, they may negate the need to spend so much in free agency because they'd have more internal answers. Furthermore, if they hit on talent in the draft, they may be able to use that prospect capital in trades, which is always helpful to organizations that want to win.

Here's what you need to know ahead of the draft for Toronto.

Draft dates: Saturday, June 11 and Sunday, June 12

Draft time: 1 p.m. ET on Saturday and 11:30 a.m. ET on Sunday

Television network: Picks 1-10 on NBC/Peacock.... Picks 11-40 on MLB Network and MLB.com.... Picks 41-135 on MLB.com. 

Day 2 will air on MLB.com

*It should be noted that Peacock is not available in Canada.

How many rounds?: 20

How many picks per day?: Rounds 1-4 will happen on Saturday and Rounds 5-20 on Sunday

How many picks do the Blue Jays have on Day 1? Three. They'll pick at No. 39, 103, and 131.

Most recent first-round choice: JoJo Parker (High school, Mississippi)

How much slot money do the Mariners have overall? $5,543,100, which is the 29th-most in baseball

Need to know: The Blue Jays were penalized heavily in the draft for their spending habits.

1) The Blue Jays had their first selection dropped from No. 29 to No. 39 for exceeding the second surcharge of the Competitive Balance Tax.

2) The Blue Jays lost a traditional second-round pick as a result of signing Dylan Cease in free agency.

3) The Blue Jays would have received a comp pick after the fourth round for losing Bo Bichette, but lost it for signing Cease.

Each pick in the Top 10 rounds of the draft comes with a slot value attached. You can use your total allotment how you want, but you can't go over in total.

Meaning, if the Blue Jays want to give $2 million to their first round pick, they can, but they'll only have $3 million left for the rest of rounds 2-10. Teams have to be smart about who they draft, and if they are going to offer them an overslot or underslot deal. It's a balancing act.

Well, by virtue of playing so deep into the season in 2025, the Jays are inherently given less money. They are picking at the end of rounds, which carries lower slot values than those picks at the top of rounds.

Also, by forfeiting draft picks as a result of signing high-priced free agents, the Jays not only lose real players that could help the system, they also lose the money associated with those picks.

It means that the Blue Jays are fairly pigeon-holed into what they can do. They'll likely have to sign almost exclusively college players that don't have the leverage to negotiate deals because they don't have the option of going back to college.

The Jays can still get good players, but they likely won't be able to get as much upside in the draft.

And again, if they want to buy a high school player out of a commitment, that will have a ripple effect.

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