Toronto Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hits against the Los Angeles Dodgers a baseball game Tuesday, Aug. 20, 2019, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

On June 3, of last year, I wrote a column that appeared under the headline “Like Father, Like Son: Blue Jays’ farm system filled with legends’ kids.”

In that article, I reported how Vladimir Guerrero, Jr., whose father had recently been elected to the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame, Bo Bichette, son of Dante Bichette, a 14 year Major Leaguer who had hit .299 while playing for five different teams, and Cavan Biggio, son of Craig Biggio, who, in a 20-year career with the Houston Astros, was an All Star seven times and had a career batting average of .281 with 291 homers, were all infielders with the New Hampshire Fisher Cats, the Toronto Blue Jays’ AA affiliate.

Guerrero was the third baseman on that team, Bichette, the shortstop, and Biggio, the second baseman.

In addition, Kacy Clemens, son of five-time Cy Young winner, Roger Clemens, was also playing first base for the Dunedin Blue Jays in the AA Florida League. With Clemens, the Blue Jays had the unique potential to have a future infield made up of all sons of former Major League stars.

Carl Johnson

Guerrero went on to lead the Eastern League in hitting last year, batting .402 in 61 games before being promoted to, Buffalo in the AAA International League, where he hit .306 in 33 games. He had started the year in the Rookie Gulf League and moved to Dunedin before going on to the Fisher Cats.

Biggio and Bichette spent the entire year at New Hampshire. Biggio hit .252 and Bichette .286 as the Fisher Cats finished in second place in the Eastern Division with a 76-62 record, two games behind the Trenton Thunder, the Yankee affiliate. They then swept the Thunder, in three games, in the first round of the Playoffs, before sweeping the Akron Rubber Ducks, the Cleveland Indians affiliate, in the finals to take the Championship.

Guerrero was the first of the three to join the parent club in Toronto this year and, in his first 93 games, batted .274 with 14 homers and 54 runs batted in, making a name for himself as a powerful slugger and a better than average fielding third baseman.

Biggio came up a month later and, in his first 69 games, batted just .209, but had 10 homers and 31 runs batted in for the weak Blue Jays, playing mostly second base but also filling in at first and in the outfield, as needed.

Bichette made his first start with the Jays on July 25 and started out with a bang. He hit safely in each of his first 11 games, getting 20 hits in 49 at bats for a .408 average during that period and, after 20 games, was still batting .333 with five homers and seven runs batted in, while playing as the Jays’ regular shortstop.

The Blue Jays are mired in fourth place in the Eastern Division of the American League, with a 52-75 record, 31½ games behind the Division leading Yankees. They have already begun the selloff that leads to a rebuilding and Toronto fans should hope that the infield of Guerrero, Bichette and Biggio will be in their plans for the future.

As for Clemens, after finishing last year with Lansing in the Midwest League and batting .301 in 27 games, the 24 year old started this season with the Fisher Cats and, after batting just .145 in 24 games, was sent back to Dunedin, where he was batting .187 for 77 games as of this week. It doesn’t appear that he is in the Blue Jays’ plans for the Majors in the immediate future.

Another relative of a former Major Leaguer and Hall of Famer has been in the news this past few months and is being followed closely by many Red Sox fans and the local media. Mike Yastrzemski, Grandson of Carl Yastrzemski, who, in 23 years playing in left field, with the Red Sox, among other things, was named to 18 All Star teams, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1989. In 1967, he won the Triple Crown in the American League, batting .326 with 44 homers and 112 runs batted in to lead the Sox to the World Series.

Captain Carl’s Grandson, a 28-year-old, has played all three outfield positions since being called up to the San Francisco Giants, while batting .276 and driving in 45 runs in his first 72 games. Since his first game on May 25th, the Giants have won 39 and lost 33 in games in which he has played and have moved from fifth place to second, although they still trailed the Dodgers by 18½ games as of Wednesday.

Mike was originally drafted by the Red Sox in the 36 round of the 2009 draft, at age 19, out of St. John’s Prep School in Massachusetts but elected to stay in school. He attended and played ball at Vanderbilt University and was again drafted, this time by the Seattle Mariners, in the 30th round of the 2012 draft but elected to stay in school. His senior year at Vanderbilt, one of the premier baseball programs in the country, he hit .312 with 77 hits in 66 games.

He worked his way up through the Orioles system, batting .263 in seven seasons, including four seasons at AAA where he hit .251 with a .342 on base percentage, playing all three outfield positions but never got a shot at the Big Show while with the Baltimore organization.

Why the Orioles, who finished in last in 2017 and last with 115 losses in 2018, never gave him a shot at the Big Leagues is a mystery. He was traded to the Giants on March 23 of this year and, two months and two days later, made his debut against the Diamondbacks in Oracle Park in San Francisco and has played almost every day since then.

He was born, on Aug. 3, 1990, one day after his famous Grandfather, Carl’s, 51st birthday. On Aug.16, six days before his Grandfather’s 80th birthday, Mike hit three home runs in one game against the Diamondbacks in Chase Field in Phoenix, a feat his grandfather achieved only once in his great career.

It appears that the Orioles, for some reason, missed the boat on Mike Yastrzemski, but the Giants are glad that they didn’t, and I am sure that Grandfather Carl is proud to see his grandson following in his footsteps in left field.

Red Sox fans will have a chance to see the latest Yastrzemski play in Fenway when the Giants come to town for a three-game series on September 17 – 19.

Carl Johnson is a noted baseball lecturer and author. His books include the popular series “THE BASEBALL BUFF’S BATHROOM BOOKS” and “THE BEST TEAM EVER?” which chronicles the Red Sox 2018 World Series win.