TORONTO -- This is the part of the baseball calendar when early success from prospects begins to feel a little more real. The top young hitters have seen 70-plus games while some of the top young pitchers are pushing into the range of 70-80 innings, so the hesitation around small samples are gone. Trajectories are changing now, and for the first time in a while, everything is coming up Blue Jays. Beyond the big club’s success, the Blue Jays’ farm system is having its best run of development in years. The jewels of the system, like Arjun Nimmala (the team's No. 1 prospect) and Trey Yesavage (the club's No. 2), have been everything the Blue Jays hoped for and more, but the organization is seeing success stories at each level, particularly on the pitching front. Having a couple of great prospects is a fine start, but quantity is always the best approach. There’s a certain level of luck and chance to prospect development. Organizations can control a great deal of this -- which the Blue Jays have done well with in 2025 -- but at a certain point, it’s about throwing five things at the wall and hoping one or two stick. The Blue Jays are getting better at having the best of both worlds. This should only improve with the No. 8 pick in the upcoming MLB Draft, which begins Sunday night. Everything you need to know about the 2025 Draft can be found right here. Looking at the success stories through July in this system, we can see examples of how future prospects could be developed and where this system is going from here. SS Nimmala (No. 1) Nimmala captures this organization’s eagerness to challenge prospects they believe in, even if they accept that some level of failure can be part of that outcome. No, they’re not exactly the A’s, rushing college picks to the big leagues before they can unpack their bags in the Minor Leagues, but this player development group has shown a willingness to bet on the right prospects. A year ago, Nimmala was challenged with Single-A as an 18-year-old and stumbled. Some time on the Development List was perfectly used by the organization, though, and now he’s working through some new adjustments as a 19-year-old in High-A. |
RHP Yesavage (No. 2) With college pitching, Yesavage represents the Blue Jays’ desire to get a top young arm MLB-ready as quickly and efficiently as possible. There are no shortcuts, of course, but isn’t the whole point of this thing to help the Blue Jays? Yesavage’s development is a crucial blueprint to keep in mind if the Blue Jays go for an NCAA pitcher at the No. 8 pick. They shut him down in his Draft year (2024) after a heavy workload, but he’s quickly climbed three levels in ‘25 and, at the very least, forced the Blue Jays to have a conversation about him as an MLB option. If the Blue Jays land another polished college arm, look at it through the lens of: “How can this pitcher crack the Opening Day roster in 2027?” |
RHP Khal Stephen (club's No. 9) Beyond Yesavage, who is becoming a bit of an outlier, Stephen is the blueprint for what the Blue Jays like in a college pitcher. Keep his “type” in mind at the No. 8 spot but also when No. 81 comes around. “With our last Draft class from last year, each one of those guys has at least one 'now' pitch. A lot of them have big fastballs,” director of player development Joe Sclafani said in camp. The Blue Jays want their pitching prospects to pound the zone now. Everyone says that, but they want to live by it. Stephen is starting to feel like the posterboy for this. |
LHP Johnny King (club's No. 11) King is about to skyrocket up lists, so the days of him being the Blue Jays’ little secret are just about over. How he was acquired matters, though, especially as the Blue Jays navigate a Draft without their second-round pick (lost to signing Anthony Santander). King, one of the top high-school lefties, was a third-round pick who was signed away from an NCAA commitment for an above-slot bonus of $1,247,500. If the Blue Jays have another shot to land a high-upside prep arm like King or Carson Messina (2024 Rd. 12), it will be attractive to them. From Ricky Tiedemann (Junior College) to Landen Maroudis and King, they’ve gotten some exciting early jumps from these high-upside picks. |
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In our latest MLB Pipeline Mock Draft, Jonathan Mayo has Florida State lefty Jamie Arnold going to the Blue Jays at No. 8. You can read that full pick with the rest of the Draft right here. Interestingly enough, new director of amateur scouting Marc Tramuta recently noted that during his days drafting for the Mets, he leaned heavily on right-handed pitching but thought he perhaps should have mixed in more lefties. College pitching makes a lot of sense for the Blue Jays, given this class and their recent trends, but as Mayo notes, the shortstop class is stacked and the prep ranks could tempt Toronto. |
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One thousand down, another thousand or two to go. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. recorded his 1,000th career hit Friday night in West Sacramento at just 26 years old, becoming the youngest Blue Jay to accomplish the feat.
Youngest Blue Jays to record 1,000th hit for Toronto (began career with team): Guerrero: 26 years, 117 days old Lloyd Moseby: 27 years, 235 days old Tony Fernandez: 27 years, 311 days old Vernon Wells: 28 years, 196 days old Shannon Stewart: 29 years, 72 days old George Bell: 29 years, 211 days old Vladdy’s next goal, beyond 2,000? He wants to reach 2,591 career hits … one more than his dad. |
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