First of all, during spring training Daniel Norris lives in a Volkswagen Westfalia van nicknamed “Shaggy.” The Tennessee native is as interesting a person as he is a prospect. This offseason he was rated as baseball’s #17 prospect by MLB.com, number #18 by Keith Law, and #17 by Baseball Prospectus. The adventurous Norris may have value on your fantasy team at some point this season, and he is definitely a player to keep an eye on during spring training.

Norris will play this season at age-22, having already made his MLB debut last season in the form of 6.2 innings – mostly in relief – at the tail end of last year. Throughout three minor league levels last year, Norris threw 124 innings with a 2.53 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 11.8 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9. Those are pretty staggering numbers, and they support why Norris has been rated so highly by so many publications.

As for the scouting reports, Norris  has all four pitches and his slider and changeup are rated “plus” by Law. His fastball sits in the low 90’s, and while he does have command problems, he absolutely has the stuff to be a front line starter in the majors in the very near future. His ability to throw a quality changeup is why scouts are so confident that he can stick in the rotation. Left-handers need to throw a number of other quality pitches to have the ability to get right-handers out and stick in the rotation, and the likelihood is that Norris will do just that.

The question about the rotation is less about whether he will stick in it in the distant future and more about when he will be able to push his way into it in the near future. Veterans R.A. Dickey and Mark Buehrle will be the workhorses of the rotation along with youngsters Drew Hutchison and Marcus Stroman. Of those four, the least likely to hold a rotation spot all season is Hutchison, who started 32 games last year. While his 4.48 ERA was unimpressive in this run environment, his peripherals suggest he should lower that mark this season.

Norris’ main competition for the final spot in the rotation, assuming Hutchison is essentially guaranteed a spot of his own, is fellow prospect Aaron Sanchez. Manager John Gibbons has stated his temptation to want to utilize Sanchez as the team’s closer this season since they lack any sort of power right-handed arms in the bullpen. The goal for the Blue Jays has been to utilize Sanchez as a starter and they plan to stretch him out during the spring. So, if someone steps up in the bullpen during spring , if Sanchez performs extremely well as a starter or if Norris struggles, it may be a while before we see Norris on the hill for the Blue Jays.

While the rotation of the Jays looks rather strong on paper, two of their starters are quite old and the others have not shown sustained success for more than a season. Combine that with the fact that pitchers get injured all of the time, and it should not be too long until Norris has a rotation spot, regardless of whether he wins one out of spring training.

Certainly there are playing time problems, but Norris is worth keeping an eye on in deeper leagues and in standard leagues as a potential waiver pick up during spring training or during the season. His performance in the minors last year was incredibly impressive, and it is only a matter of time before he starts to perform as a mid-rotation quality starter with top-end potential.