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TORONTO — Ask anyone who’s coached or spent time around Owen Caissie, and they’ll tell you, even though it sounds cliché, that his drive to be the best is what sets him apart.

Ask the soon-to-be 18-year-old Burlington, Ont., product if he’s a perfectionist and you’ll get a laugh.

“I may need to tone it down a bit,” Caissie said a couple days after becoming the top Canadian player selected in the 2020 MLB Draft.

But that’s what drew the San Diego Padres to the 6-foot-4 left-handed hitting outfielder.

Despite coming from the coldest of all the cold-weather areas and having relatively few reps to impress scouts during this unique, coronavirus-hampered draft season, Caissie’s raw tools and desire to improve them were more than enough for the Padres to happily spend the 45th overall pick in the draft on him.

They also won’t have to worry about him going to the University of Michigan, either, as Caissie already has an agreement with the southern California club and is working through the logistics of flying to the Padres’ spring training facility in Arizona to sign the contract.

“Personally, I feel if I played all year I could’ve been a first rounder, but being on only one Team Canada trip for a week [in March], it’s kind of hard to do that,” Caissie explained. “I kind of set my expectations to be [within picks] 40-60 because I do feel like I worked hard enough for it and I showed off my abilities well enough on the Team Canada trip to get into the second round.

“If I wasn’t going to get drafted where I wanted to, I was going to go to Michigan, but I ensured myself that I’d have a good opportunity to have both options.”

Caissie’s deal, pending a physical, will check in slightly under the recommended slot value of $1.65 million, and is part of an interesting Padres draft class that saw them bet big on high school upside with Caissie and first-round outfielder Robert Hassell III, then steal sliding Georgia right-hander Cole Wilcox in the third round with the idea of going over-slot in order to convince him to sign.

Unlike past years when prospects would get that signing bonus up front, the MLBPA and league negotiated deferred payments for his year’s draft class, meaning Caissie will only receive $100,000 this summer, with 50 per cent of the remainder due on July 1, 2021, and the final 50 per cent paid July 1, 2022.

“It is cool to have that and it’s a good cushion, but I’m not really in it for the money,” said Caissie, adding he’d like to do something special for his parents, Jason and Michelle, once he’s able to. “I’d play for no money. It kind of sets me up and I can build my life around it.”

Long before he could call himself a San Diego Padre with a nest egg, Caissie started watching video of hitters’ swings and learned to love the research side of his work.

It’s helped lead him to this point.

“I kind of discovered backspin when I was around 12,” Caissie recalled. “Backspin’s good in this game. You hit home runs with backspin. Ultimately, I started doing video work and video analysis on different players and how they do different things to get to the same contact point.”

Caissie said his “smooth but powerful” swing hasn’t changed much over the years and he doesn’t emulate players but rather picks and chooses elements of swings he likes and makes them his own.

Without a moment’s hesitation, Caissie rattles off a list of stars that he’s spent time watching.

“So I watch Barry Bonds for rotational power and the minimal head movement he has,” Caissie said. “I watch Trevor Story for how he uses his body and the ground to his advantage. I watch Mike Trout and Jose Altuve, also for rotational power. Carlos Correa for the front lead arm, he really drives through it. Charlie Blackmon for the simplicity. He does have a little more leg kick, but it’s just up, down and go, really simple. And Aaron Judge for the spine angle.”

No matter if it’s with the Fieldhouse Pirates in Burlington, the Junior National Team, or the Padres, power is, and always will be, Caissie’s calling card.

Long levers, some added size — he’s already up to 205 lb. from his listed 190 — and a swing geared for pop all conspire to give Caissie a huge power ceiling.

“I’ve always known I can hit for power, but probably in the last two years, that’s when it really showed,” he said. “I always knew I had more power than other kids, but it really came out in the T12 home run derby [last September]. It was a pretty cool experience. I knew I was going to win it, but I guess everybody kind of realized how much power I had.”

It’s not just showcase pop, either. Caissie has already proven he can hit premium velocity and have success against the type of arms he’s about to see.

His emphatic, final pre-draft moment came March 12 in Dunedin with the Junior National Team, the very last game the Toronto Blue Jays played before the virus halted Grapefruit League play.

That afternoon, Caissie launched a 449-foot bomb off the batter’s eye at TD Ballpark, drawing oohs and ahhs from the spring training crowd.

The fact it came off right-hander Connor Overton, a 26-year-old with Triple-A experience, was an obvious confidence booster.

Not that Caissie needed it.

“Yeah, I mean, I just hit a home run off a pretty good pitcher that’s trying to get to the major leagues, so it’s pretty cool,” Caissie said. “But I hope it’s not my only one of my career against a professional player.”

That perfectionist attitude that coaches have noticed?

It was on display that day, too.

Rolling over a hanging curveball that Caissie thought he should’ve sent into the gap in right-centre for a double in his final at-bat of the day was on his mind, instead.

“I was more concerned about than the home run,” he said.

Nothing a little video work won’t help correct.