Monday, June 01

This edition of the Blue Jays Beat newsletter was written by Sam Dykstra.

The pitching revolution in the Blue Jays' system is in its second season under the guidance of director of pitching Justin Lehr and pitching coordinator Ricky Meinhold. To see its impact in 2026, all Toronto fans have to do is stay north of the border.

Between established prospects and breakout talents, High-A Vancouver's pitching staff has become the place to find the most interesting arms on the farm of the defending American League champs.

“The big thing they emphasize to us to emphasize to [our pitchers] is, 'Be great at what you're good at,'" said Vancouver assistant pitching coach Tommy Caulfield. “With that, we try to take an individual approach with each player and figure out what their strengths are, what their weaknesses are, how we maximize their strengths and what the game plan is to make their weaknesses better so they can not only have success at the level they're currently at, but develop what plays at the big league level.”

Ranked as Toronto’s No. 3 prospect, left-hander Johnny King was the biggest name among Canadians hurlers entering 2026. The 2024 third-rounder was the Northwest League’s youngest player on an Opening Day roster at just 19 years old, and through the first two months of the season, he’s met the hype. Entering Sunday, he was one of only five 19-year-old pitchers with at least 30 frames in all of High-A, and his 2.20 ERA ranked first among that group, while his 33.1 percent strikeout rate was second, just a hair behind Yhoiker Fajardo’s 33.3 percent. 

That isn’t to say the southpaw has avoided stumbling blocks altogether. His fastball (up to the mid-90s) and his curveball both look like at least above-average pitches, but focus remains on finding the right spots to work on his developing changeup. Control is also a major sticking point. King has walked 15.5 percent of his batters faced, and in his last three outings, he’s issued eight free passes in 10 1/3 innings.

Given his youth, the upside is still evident in King, and it’s why he’s the top pitching prospect in the system following Trey Yesavage’s graduation over the weekend. But even in his second full season, the road to meeting that upside remains long.

“The stuff is really good, the competitor is fantastic,” Caulfield said. “It's just really refining those small things that he can do to adjust, so when things do come up, he can handle it. … We're constantly challenging him -- whether it's in after-game discussions or in bullpens -- to think about the why behind what he throws. It's just going to be big for his growth.”

If there’s another Canadians pitcher charging up to challenge King’s standing atop the pitching rankings, it’s righty Nolan Perry, who was outside the Top 30 to begin the season but has already climbed to No. 16. The 22-year-old right-hander missed much of 2024 and all of '25 due to Tommy John surgery, but has returned this spring with an impressive arsenal and the results to match.

Perry has pushed his velocity up a few ticks post-TJ to sit in the 93-95 range, touching 96, and the increased heat has helped open up the rest of his repertoire. His 84-87 mph slider and 78-81 mph curveball both have above-average potential with the way they drop off the high-spin four-seamer, and Blue Jays officials have praised Perry’s addition of a splitter with helping his work against lefties (who are hitting just .155 with a .478 OPS against him in 2026).

Perry opened up the season back with Single-A Dunedin before reaching Vancouver for the first time on May 3. Even after a slightly hairy outing Sunday, he still boasts a 1.08 ERA and a 1.00 WHIP with 40 strikeouts through his first five High-A starts (25 innings). For the season as a whole, his 1.37 ERA, 0.85 WHIP and 72 punchouts all lead Blue Jays full-season qualifiers. 

“Seeing him in spring and seeing his full mix, he has confidence that he can throw any pitch in any count,” Caulfield said. “It's not only fun to watch, but it's fun to talk through with him, what his mentality is and how he keeps things very, very simple. His moments don’t get too big when he's having success, and when things might hit a breaking point in the game, it's also really cool to watch him slow things down. Other players are attracted to that too.”

What might be an even more fun breakout, at least from a biographical standpoint, comes from No. 26 prospect Danny Thompson Jr. The 23-year-old right-hander spent five years in college ball -- three with Division III North Carolina Wesleyan and two with UNC Greensboro -- and had mostly pitched as a reliever in that time before the Blue Jays took him in the eighth round last July. His $5,000 signing bonus was the lowest in Toronto’s 2025 Draft class. 

Like Perry, Thompson, who entered Sunday tied with King for second in the Northwest League with a 33.1 percent K rate (minimum 30 innings), has undertaken a velocity bump as a starter in ‘26, similarly sitting around 93-95 mph from a lower release height that helps him peg his four-seamer to the top of the zone. He’ll also mix in a harder slider and a changeup that he’s still trying to command, but the real intrigue comes in the form of a new pitch he’s found in pro ball. It’s a bigger breaker that he thinks of as a curveball -- and throws with the intent of a curveball -- but has enough horizontal break that most would consider it a sweeper. It isn’t just opposing batters he’s fooling with it either.

“When I first played catch with him in Spring Training, he told me he’d throw a curveball,” Caulfield said. “Obviously, I'm ready to catch it, and so he throws it and I whiff at it. I pick up the ball, and I’m thinking, ‘Am I getting old? Is it bright outside?’ Gosh, OK, here's another one: boom, I whiff at it again. Holy moly.

“Then he goes and pitches in the game that day, and I see the movement profile and I realize this is moving differently than I thought it was going to. So it's not me that's crazy.”

The list doesn’t stop at those three, of course. Daniel Guerra has a 96-98 mph fastball that can make opposing batters uncomfortable. Landen Maroudis is still finding his way after 2024 internal brace surgery, but he earns praise for his ability to take to coaching. Holden Wilkerson has enough of a pitch mix and the results to be a starter, but he is piggybacking off King's outings because there’s simply no room in Vancouver's rotation.

Yesavage’s arrival late last year and continued MLB success was a major win for Toronto’s pitching department, but three levels down, the organization is building the depth needed to kick this revolution into another gear for ‘26 and beyond.

“I think one thing that we talk about is growth over results,” Caulfield said. “Really understanding that your growth as a pitcher is really, really important, and if we take care of the things that we can control and we emphasize those things, the results take care of themselves.”

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