The second draft for the Toronto Blue Jays under president and CEO Mark Shapiro and GM Ross Atkins is going to be especially intriguing, as new amateur scouting director Steve Sanders makes his debut armed with an extra first-round pick thanks to the departure of Edwin Encarnacion.

Selecting at 22, 28, 61 and 99 and with a total bonus spending pool of $8,231,000, the 13th largest among the 30 teams, opportunity certainly abounds. The perception heading into the season was that the 2017 crop was heavy in talented college arms and high school bats, but as Sanders noted Thursday, “this feels like a pretty balanced draft as we work through our meetings and talk about players.”

Regardless, the Blue Jays are working with a rare chance to accelerate the farm system’s replenishment thanks to the 28th pick they received as compensation for Encarnacion’s signing with Cleveland, tacking on an extra $2,302,900 in pool money that creates options behind the 22nd pick and its $2,795,200 slot.

“It allows us to be a little more flexible but it also requires us to be even better and more diligent in our preparations, and like any year, we have to be ready for what the draft presents us,” Sanders said during a conference call. “This year we’re going to have to be ready for that twice in the first 28 picks.”

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Picking so deep in the first round makes meaningful forecasts of where the Blue Jays might go a darts-at-the-wall type of exercise, but in their most recent mock drafts, Baseball America had them on Missouri right-hander Tanner Houck at No. 22 and Louisiana State righty Alex Lange at 28, while MLB.com suggested North Carolina shortstop Logan Warmoth at 22 and high-school righty Matt Sauer out of Santa Maria, Calif., at 28.

Last month in Anaheim, Atkins was seen meeting with San Diego high school shortstop Nick Allen, a player the Chicago Cubs are said to be keen on with the 27th pick.

Those names may provide an inkling of some players on the Blue Jays radar, but as far as honing down a group they’re locked in on, Sanders said, “we’re not quite there yet.”

“We’ve started meeting with our scouting department and our front office here earlier this week but we’re still working toward that,” he continued. “With that said, where we’re picking in the draft, it’s hard, there’s a lot going in front of us that will make it tough for us to know exactly what’s going to happen, so at this point we’re doing our best to prepare for anything that can happen, keeping our options open.”

Beyond that, Sanders offered the boilerplate vagaries typical of teams’ public messaging ahead of drafts such as the desire to take the best player available. But he did reveal one small insight into what the Blue Jays might be looking for beyond the obvious when he said: “Our goal is to bring in players into the organization who not only have the talent to succeed but who are going to fit well with our minor-league system and the resources we have in place to hopefully make for a seamless transition, and hopefully get them to the big leagues with the Toronto Blue Jays.”

At the Letters Ben Nicholson-Smith is Sportsnet’s baseball editor. Arden Zwelling is a senior writer. Together, they bring you the most in-depth Blue Jays podcast in the league, covering off all the latest news with opinion and analysis, as well as interviews with other insiders and team members.

Given the club’s investment in its high performance department and external elements such as nutrition and sleep, that suggests the Blue Jays may be targeting players who will buy into the program.

The Blue Jays selected college right-hander T.J. Zeuch with their first-round pick last year, the club’s fourth and final draft under former amateur scouting director Brian Parker. The Alex Anthopoulos holdover was fired later in the summer with Sanders hired early in the fall, making this draft a better indicator of how the new regime operates as opposed to last year’s hybrid process.

Sanders was hired from the Boston Red Sox, where he spent six years in a number of roles, most recently as assistant amateur scouting director, and participated in six drafts. He’s worked closely with assistant general manager Tony LaCava, leaning on his wisdom and experience in the lead-up to the draft.

“I couldn’t be more excited for next week,” said Sanders. “It’s an excitement that hasn’t really stopped since I arrived in Toronto and started working for the Blue Jays over the winter.”