Elliott: Jean made a good bet - himself, drafted 2,233 days after his previous selection
ABC and Junior National Team alum Antoine Jean (Montreal, Que.) was selected in the seventh round of the 2025 MLB draft by the Colorado Rockies. Photo: University of Houston Athletics
August 6, 2025
By Bob Elliott
Canadian Baseball Network
It has been said that the game should be called perseverance.
Take Antoine Jean for example.
He didn’t have to battle a bad-hop single or a bad call on the black by the umpire.
Drafted in the 17th round in 2019 by the Minnesota Twins he turned down life-changing money for a high schooler attending Academy Baseball Canada. He said no to $495,000 US NOT to pitch for the University of Alabama Crimson Tide. Initially he had committed verbally to Pitt.
At the ABC he was coached by Robbie Fatal and Maxime Hockoussen while Marc-Antoine Berube, now in charge at the ABC was his pitching coach and “big brother.”
“He bet on himself,” said Twins scout Walt Burrows who drafted Jean.
“He was a supremely confident kid, he made the decision. We talked directly. I wasn’t upset.”
And this past July 14 -- a mere 2,233 days after he was selected in the draft by the Twins -- Jean was chosen in the seventh round by the Colorado Rockies and given a $200,000 signing bonus by general manager Bill Schmidt and scout Garrick Chaffee.
In Jean, the Rockies gained the Big 12 Conference Pitcher of the Year -- the first reliever in Big 12 history to win the honour -- who walked 20 and struck out 110 in 67 innings.
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No to pro ball: Jean persevered from the stress of passing on roughly $633,210 Canadian. He wasn’t the first to chose school over cash. He won’t be the last.
“It was a hard decision ... but Alabama looked after me and gave me a full ride,” Jean said.
So, what happened to the $495,000 the Twins had ear marked for Jean household. Well, the check wound up in the same province. Minnesota gave 19-year-old Auburn sophomore Edouard Julien (Quebec, Que.), an 18th rounder, who was already on Cape Cod and set to return to school for his junior year. The Twins gave Julien a $493,000 signing bonus.
Did Jean (Montreal, Que.) ever tease Julien about helping Julien get his bonus?
“Not really, he’s a couple of years older than me,” Jean said, “when I was in high school I sent him a couple of texts, because he had been drafted before (37th round by the Philadelphia Phillies in 2017).
“My coaches never told me what to do. They left it up to me.”
The Covid season: After saying no to the Twins in 2019, Jean persevered through the shortened COVID season in the spring of 2020.
Recruited by Brad Bohannon he made four starts for Bama going 3-0 with a 3.18 ERA. He walked three and struck out 17 in 17 innings.
Alabama spotted Jean with the Junior National Team on a trip to the Dominican. In 2018, he was pitching for Greg Hamilton on the same team as Cleveland’s C Bo Naylor (Mississauga, Ont.) and the Athletics’ OF Denzel Clarke (Pickering, Ont.) in Panama. He pitched 7 2/3 scoreless for Canadian at the Worlds facing Venezuela, Panama and Nicaragua, which Canada beat to win bronze.
A trip to the doctor: Then, Jean persevered through Tommy John surgery two weeks before the 2022 draft.
“I turned down a good amount, but it never ever crossed my mind to look back once I committed to Alabama ... the school gave me a full ride,” Jean said. “I’m not going to kid you. My plan was to go to school, light it up three years and be drafted.”
Unlike RHP Jeff Hoffman, who the Toronto Blue Jays chose in the first round (ninth overall) in 2014, RHP Chris Leroux (Mississauga, Ont.), who went to the Florida Marlins in 2005, and LHP Jordan Woods (Oakville, Ont.) who was signed as a free agent by the Kansas City Royals in 2023 with existing elbow problems, a team did not select Jean.
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The lost season: He didn’t throw a single pitch in NCAA in 2023 ... but pitched innings for the Falmouth Commodores on Cape Cod and followed Bohannon to the University of Houston.
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Words of wisdom from Woodrow Williams: Along with the help of his pitching coach and former Toronto Blue Jays RHP Woody Williams with the University of Houston Cougars he persevered again, when he was not selected in 2024. He was durable making 14 starts in the Cougars 14-weekend season, walking 29 and fanning 67 in 63 1/3 innings.
“When I didn’t get drafted, he sat me down for a 1-on-1,” Jean said. “Woody told me “I don’t know what the reason was. It doesn’t mean anything now. You have to look forward.’ He helped a lot ... showed me how much he cared.”
The 2025 season: And he persevered again this spring as the Cougars new coach switched him from a starting role to the bullpen. The lefty was not a one-inning wonder.
Two weeks before the season opener, Williams suggested a change in Jean’s grip on his fastball.
“Out of nowhere, I was throwing harder,” Jean said, while Williams like his former pitching coach Galen Cisco of the back-to-back World Series championships of 1992-93 downplayed his contribution.
“The only thing I changed were the grip on his fastball and his stride,” Williams told us.
Jean hit 96 MPH with his lengthened stride, a bump from 92-94 in 2024.
“Woody didn’t just help on the field ... being who he is he taught me how to handle success and failure to create a balance, regardless of what happens on the field and you don’t carry what happened home with you.”
As former Montreal Expos closer Jeff Reardon (367 career saves) used to say, a reliever’s best asset is not one pitch, but “a short memory.”
“The fact that knowing this was my last year, I knew I had to have a strong season to get drafted, my back against the wall,” said Jean, whose coming out party was against the Central Florida Knights. He took over in the bottom of the fifth with a 7-5 lead and soon the Knights hitters were against the back of the dugout wall that March night in Orlando.
“They were going pretty good (winning 16 of their first 20 games), the 11 strikeouts propelled me ... that started it all,” said Jean, who worked five scoreless, allowing three hits, didn’t walk a man and fanned 11 of the 15 outs he recorded. “That game was special, plus all the awards.”
Jean, who left Houston with a degree in Communications Studies, led the Cougars in innings pitched as coach Todd Whitting worked his workhorse. He logged 67 innings -- seven more than the busiest starter. In 14 of his 21 appearances, he worked three innings or more.
Awards? Roll these off your tongue as Jean won or was named a:
_ Perfect Game All-American, First Team.
_ Baseball America’s All-American, Second Team.
_ College Baseball Foundation All-America team, Pitcher of the Year semifinalist.
_ National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association All-American, Second Team, Stopper of the Year finalist and National Pitcher of the Year finalist.
_ American Baseball Coaches Association All-American.
The son of Aicha Malenfant and Pascal Jean ranked second nationally in strikeouts per nine innings pitched (14.78) and hits allowed per nine innings pitched (5.37).
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Draft day: Now college seniors have little leverage? What is a senior’s option? Either sign or play independent ball? Jean was a fifth-year senior. And days before the draft, scouts were expecting him to go in the fourth of fifth round.
On Sunday, July 13 the first three rounds of the draft were conducted. The next morning a “draft party” was held for Jean.
He described it as “nerve-wracking, listening to teams pick round by round,” saying “you think you’re going somewhere and it doesn’t happen, you see other guys going ahead of you. I knew I was getting drafted.”
He was the 121st player selected on Day II (197th overall) and given six figures, a deal negotiated by Ryan Ware and Trent Franson of Alliance Sports Management.
He says, “I’m in a better spot now, I’m more mature, my stuff is the better than in 2019.”
Words of praise: From Alex Agostino (St-Bruno, Que.), Philadelphia Phillies: “I saw him in 2019 and loved him. I’m very happy for the kid. Love him off the field for the person he is and love him on the field for the competitor that he is. He made a choice to go to school and things happened: Covid, his injury, changing schools, etc. The journey is not always a straight line. I am pulling for him.”
Burrows: “I have nothing but good things to say about Antoine Jean. I was really happy when he was drafted and even happier when he signed. It will vindicate me ... show that I was right in 2019.”
As if anyone would second guess Burrows evaluation abilities. He’s the most senior scout in Canada.
That would be like saying Antoine Jean did not know how to persevere.