The latest C’s Chat is with 2024-2025 Vancouver Canadians utilityman Jay Harry.
Born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Harry compiled a solid high school resume at Metuchen High School in the Garden State. He had a career. 443 batting average and was caught stealing just once in 15 attempts. In his junior season of 2019, he batted .508. As a pitcher, Harry had a career 1.76 earned run average with 70 strikeouts in 63 innings. He lettered in all four years and was a first-team All-State, All-County and All-Division selection twice. Prep Baseball Report Game ranked Harry the second-best shortstop in New Jersey and the seventh-best overall player in the state.
Harry would attend Penn State University, following in the footsteps of his George Harry who played college ball at Wake Forest in the early 1980s. Jay would establish himself with the Nittany Lions by becoming the starting shortstop in his freshman year of 2021. After batting .268 in 42 games at Penn State, Harry got more exposure in the summer college circuit by hitting .303 with an on-base-plus-slugging percentage of .826 with the Fond du Lac Spiders of the Northwoods League.
The 2022 season saw Harry take a leap offensively by batting .333 and slugging .470 in 54 games with 17 extra-base hits and 24 runs batted in. He then joined the Bristol Blues of the New England Collegiate League and batted .316.
In 2023, Harry was mentioned in the Brooks Wallace Award Midseason Watch List for top college shortstop honours. He batted .299, kept his OPS 38 points above .800 and continued to be a tough out by being the third-toughest to fan in the Big Ten Conference in 2023. One more turn in summer college followed where he batted .324 in a dozen games with the Cotuit Kettleers in the Cape Cod League.
Baseball America rated Harry as the 426th-best prospect in the 2023 MLB Draft.
“Harry is one of the more difficult hitters in the country to strike out. He hit .299/.376/.463 in 229 plate appearances with 20 walks and just 20 strikeouts for a 9% strikeout rate this spring. Harry also doesn’t turn 21 until just after the draft, putting him on the younger side for a college junior. A hard-nosed player who generally eschews batting gloves, Harry has minimal movement to get his swing started. He lifts his front foot up, stays relatively still with little rhythm in his swing before punching his hands at the ball. The result is one of the lower swing-and-miss rates in college baseball, trusting his hands to produce a contact-oriented swing with the ability to serve breaking balls into play. Harry can occasionally turn on a ball for power, but it’s a contact-oriented, spray approach with well below-average power that will be tested against better pitching. He has a solid sense of the strike zone, though he’s not an especially patient hitter for a hitter whose offensive value will have to come from his ability to get on base. Harry played shortstop at Penn State, but his range and arm strength will likely shift him elsewhere in pro ball, possibly to second base.”
Instead of having an advisor represent him for the 2023 MLB Draft, Harry negotiated a $175,000 signing bonus for himself when he was selected by the Minnesota Twins in the sixth round. His professional debut came with a three-game trial with the Florida Complex League where he had three hits in eight at-bats and that led to a promotion to the Low-A Fort Myers Mighty Mussels. Harry slashed .337/.419/.465 in 27 games to finish up his first pro season.
The 2024 season saw Harry go up to the High-A Level after going 5-for-9 with the Twins during spring training. With the Cedar Rapids Kernels of the Midwest League, he batted just .214 but he did show some pop with 22 extra-base hits, including eight home runs over 82 games during his time in Iowa. His stint in the Twins organization came to an end when he was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays for reliever Trevor Richards at the MLB Trade Deadline on July 30. Then he had to sing his way out of Cedar Rapids before reporting to the Blue Jays. The trade meant he would join his 2021 Penn State teammate and 2022-2024 Canadians pitcher Conor Larkin in the Jays organizational nest.
Harry’s debut in the Jays organization was a memorable one as he belted the first pitch he saw as a Vancouver Canadian for a home run against Tri-City on August 3.
That was not the only highlight that month for Harry. He went 3-for-4 with three RBI in a victory over Everett on August 22 and slugged a game-tying home run that produced an extra-innings win over the AquaSox on August 24. Harry also slugged a two-run homer and two-run double in a win at Hillsboro on August 28. He also put together a strong effort in the Northwest League Championship Series with a home run and single against Spokane in Game 1 on September 10. In the C’s only postseason win in Game 2 on September 11, Harry had two singles, a walk, two runs scored and a stolen base. His postseason batting line checked in at .313/.353/.500.
The spring of 2025 saw Harry make memorable plays with the bat and glove. He homered off Tampa Bay’s Joey Krehbiel on March 9 and robbed his former Fort Myers teammate and current Twins infielder Luke Keaschall of a hit from deep in the hole at shortstop in the Spring Breakout Game on March 16.
Back in Vancouver to start his first full season in the Toronto system, Harry opened the year with an eight-game hitting streak. That helped him earn a promotion to Double-A New Hampshire. He announced his arrival with the Fisher Cats with a single in his first plate appearance and opened the scoring with an RBI base knock for the winning run as New Hampshire blanked Binghamton on April 25.
C’s Plus Baseball spoke with the 22-year-old Harry during the Canadians’ Opening Homestand. This interview has been edited for clarity.
C’s Plus Baseball – When you got traded, I heard that you even sung “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” in Cedar Rapids afterwards. How did you find out about the trade?
Jay Harry – It was a very surreal, crazy experience. I finished my first round of batting practice before a Tuesday game, I believe, and my manager pulled me aside, walked me into his office, and informed me I was traded. I was sad to leave my friends but excited for the new opportunity. Yeah, I had to wait for my parents to send my passport from home so I had to wait there two or three days and ended up sticking around in the stands to watch some of those games and was talked into singing that. It was a really crazy experience but I’m glad it all happened.
CPB – At least it says something that the Blue Jays were interested in you trading an established major leaguer for you and that they saw something in you.
JH – Yeah, I guess so. It was a great opportunity, as I said, and I was glad for it to happen. And I love the organization so far. Everyone’s been really great.
CPB – Has there been a big difference between the Twins and Blue Jays organizations in how they they go about things? Have you noticed any huge differences?
JH – It’s all pretty similar. The Twins are great. They gave me a lot of opportunities and they taught me a lot. Same with the Blue Jays. They’ve been very welcoming. All the staff’s been great and all my teammates have been awesome as well.
CPB – Take us through a timeline of how you eventually got to Penn State. You played high school ball in Jersey. How did it all start for you?
JH – I wasn’t really recruited heavily. They were the first school to offer me and I just took it right away. I loved what Coach Cooper (Rob Cooper) at Penn State had to offer. He’s one of the best men I’ve ever met in my life and it ended up working out for the best. I had a great time there, made a lot of lifelong friends, played some good baseball and yeah, that worked out perfectly.
CPB – When you look back at your time in the Big Ten, any experiences or moments that stand out for you?
JH – Making the Big Ten tournament for the first time in I think 10 years in that program was really special. It didn’t go as we wanted it to, but just being there was awesome and getting to spend that time with my brothers and the coaches there was awesome.
CPB – Being teammates with Conor Larkin at Penn State, did he get a hold of you or you got a hold of him when you found out you’re going to Toronto?
JH – I think I reached out first. I was super excited to see him again. I haven’t seen him in years and he really took me under his wing at Penn State. I actually ended up living with him for a month at the end of my freshman year. He was one of my good friends and a super great guy.
CPB – You arrive here in Vancouver. The first pitch you see, you hit a home run. What a debut. What do you remember about that game?
JH – It was a cool moment. It was a good first impression, I guess. But yeah, it was obviously weird coming to a new team, especially that late in the year, meeting everyone. But they’re all super welcoming and everyone’s been great to me so far.
CPB – How did the experience compare from your playing in the Midwest League to the Northwest League? Did you see a huge difference?
JH – Similar competition, but obviously Vancouver is a beautiful place, a lot different than Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I loved my time there, but it’s been cool to be able to go around Vancouver and sightsee a little bit.
CPB – You joined the team in time for the playoff run. What were your thoughts on the playoff series? All one-run games, and you had a really good postseason yourself. What do you remember about it?
JH – It was great baseball. I mean, we were close, but we were in every game. It would have been great to get those wins, but it was a great experience. You can learn a lot from that.
CPB – You got your first season with the Blue Jays under your belt, heading into your first full season now. Anything you worked on in the offseason?
JH – Not trying to change too much but I’m just starting to get back to how I used to feel hitting, be more contact-oriented, and just putting the barrel on the ball as much as possible.
CPB – I know offseason is kind of the time where maybe you kind of perform surgery on things that you’d like to work on. I know you mentioned contact approach, but I guess in terms of your stance, what you’re looking for, how you read the pitcher or anything like that?
JH – Not really too much. I’ve just been trying to keep things as simple as possible this year and just doing what makes me feel comfortable and not thinking too much about it.
CPB – Anything that stood out to you as far as the Player Development Complex?
JH – I mean, it’s pretty surreal. You have everything you could ever imagine having, all the newest technology, so much staff that are very helpful. The place is beautiful and it’s a really cool place to spend the spring.
CPB – Launch angle, exit velo, it seems like there’s stats for everything nowadays. Is there anything maybe that jumped out at you?
JH – I try not to look too much at those numbers. I mean it’s good to see once in a while but if you look at it too much, you’ll drive yourself crazy. So I just try to keep it as simple as possible and just do what makes me good at the game.
CPB – I think the Blue Jays also gave you good indication of what they thought of you by putting you in the (Spring Breakout) game against the Twins, as it turns out. What do you remember about that experience?
JH – It was cool to see all those guys. It was also great we got the win, but it was great seeing my old friends and teammates, being able to say hi to them before the game at all. That was a really cool experience.
CPB – You made a really nice defensive play on Luke Keaschall, who just got called up. Did you have a chance to talk to him afterwards about that?
JH – Yeah, of course. He’s one of my best friends. He’s an awesome player and a great guy, but it was cool to be able to make that play on him. It definitely got me a little bit of bragging rights.
CPB – This year back in Vancouver, off to a really good start. What’s been the key to your success so far?
JH – Just keeping everything simple. Learning how to stay even-keeled, not get too high on the highs, too low in the lows, and just playing as hard as I can and trying to help the team win.
CPB – Defensively, you’ve been at shortstop, but we’ve seen you in the outfield. I think the first time you were here, first time in center field as a professional. What do you prefer, shortstop or center field? Those are really kind of considered the glamour positions in the sport.
JH – I love playing everywhere. Wherever I can play to help the team win. It’s fun bouncing all over. It’s fun to learn new positions and get comfortable, and I really enjoy playing anywhere on the field.
CPB – How do you find it playing here in Nat Bailey Stadium with the new grass to work with. Have you noticed a big difference as compared to last year when you were here?
JH – Oh, yeah, the field’s great, and it’s so cool playing here. The fans are awesome. You never really get this experience in minor league baseball as much. Getting 5,000, 6,000 fans a game, it’s a super cool experience.
CPB – If you had to give a scouting report on yourself, how would you describe yourself?
JH – I’d like to think of myself as a tough out. Run hard, play hard, can play multiple positions well, and just leave it all on the field every day.
CPB – Have you set any goals for the season?
JH – I try not to set too many goals. Just try to play as hard as I can and not stray away from what makes me a good player and just have fun with my friends.
CPB – Favorite major league team or player growing up?
JH – Yeah, I was a Phillies fan growing up. That was a fun team to watch. But my favorite player growing up was Brandon Crawford, shortstop for the Giants. I just liked the way he played the game.
CPB – Do you have any other favorite pro sports teams you cheer for?
JH – The Phillies and Eagles are my teams. I was an Eagles fan growing up, too. It was cool to see them win a Super Bowl. I was able to go to the parade in 2017, so that was pretty cool too. But yeah, Phillies and Eagles for me.
CPB – Final question. The Canadians have lots of different uniforms. White, red, black, blue, grey, lumberjack. Do you have a favourite?
JH – I like the blues. I think they look pretty nice.
Jay Harry File
- Born – July 18, 2002 in New Brunswick, New Jersey
- Height/Weight – 5-foot-11, 190 pounds
- Bats/Throws – Left/Right
- Uniform Numbers – Wore number 1 with Penn State from 2021-2023, wore number 61 with the Florida Complex League Twins in 2023 and number 1 with the Low-A Fort Myers Mighty Mussels. Wore number 5 with the High-A Cedar Rapids Kernels and number 4 with the Vancouver Canadians in 2024.
- Professional Debut – July 27, 2023, Florida Complex League Twins at FCL Atlanta – Drew walk against Juan Sánchez, stole a base and scored a run.
- 1st Professional Hit – July 28, 2023, FCL Twins at FCL Red Sox, Singled off Luis Cohen.
- 1st Professional Home Run – September 1, 2023, Fort Myers at Clearwater versus Paxton Thompson.
- Instagram – @jay_harry5
Thanks a million to Jay Harry and to C’s play-by-play announcer Chris Georges for this chapter of C’s Chat.
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