Toronto Blue Jays Top 10 Prospects: Who will break out in 2025?
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Toronto Blue Jays' system is at a low right now, as their 2022 draft class, which included four picks on Day 1, hasn't panned out, their first-rounders from 2020 and 2021 are long gone, and previous top prospect Ricky Tiedemann got hurt yet again, this time requiring surgery.
They haven't had a big success on the international front recently, bringing in a lot of very talented teenagers who haven't progressed once they've gotten into the system.
The result is that their top 10, is relatively old, with a lot of guys who offer proximity to the majors but lower ceilings than the typical 19-year-old upside prospect.
1. Arjun Nimmala, SS (No. 71 on the top 100)
Height: 6-1 | Weight: 170 | Bats: R | Throws: R | Age: 19 Nimmala was one of the youngest draftees in 2023, turning 18 four months after he was picked, and as such should have started 2024 in the complex league rather than Low A, but after a torrid spring training the Jays sent him to the Florida State League and he struggled, hitting .167/280/.306 with a 34 percent strikeout rate before the Jays sent him back to the complex to reset.
After three weeks there, he went to the complex league for a few games, then returned to Low A and hit .265/.331/.564 the rest of the way.
He ended up leading the Florida State League in slugging (.476) and finished fifth in the league with 15 homers, all as the league's youngest qualifying hitter.
He's a true shortstop with good actions and a plus arm, and the power he showed on the field is legit, as he's got very strong hands and wrists, with a swing that's very rotational and puts the ball in the air a ton - his groundball rate in Low A last year was just 31.4 percent.
He's still only 19 and remains projectable enough to end up a 30-homer bat in a few years; right now it's more consistently hard contact (his 90th percentile EV in Low A was 102.3 mph, and his EV50 was 99.0 mph on the dot) than huge top-end EV (peak was 107).
He's still a high-risk, high-reward player, as he continued to strike out 29.7 percent of the time in his second go-round in Low A, and generally needs to tighten up his pitch recognition and bring his chase rate (31 percent) down at least a little.
Nimmala is still every bit the prospect that made him a first-rounder in the 2023 draft - and a top-10 talent on the board.
2. Trey Yasavage, RHP (No. 96 on the top 100)
Height: 6-4 | Weight: 225 | Bats: R | Throws: R | Age: 21
The Blue Jays' 2024 first-round pick at the No. 20 pick was ranked 13th the board, and the No. 3 starter in the class, coming off a dominant year for East Carolina where he struck out 145 in 93 innings (40.3 percent) and posted a 2.03 ERA - and didn't turn 21 until two weeks after the draft.
He has one of the shortest arm actions seen on a prospect of his caliber, but the stuff that comes out is undeniable, as he has a 91-96 mph four-seamer and a plus splitter with huge bottom and even some lateral movement, along with a decent slider in the mid-80s he uses mostly versus right-handers.
His short arm stroke and the shape of his stuff make him much more of a north-south pitcher and I think he'll have to find something to work a little more east-west, just to keep hitters honest on both sides of the zone.
The delivery does worry me, because it's unusual, and short arm actions like this generally end up in the bullpen.
He's been healthy the last two years as a starter for ECU, however, and I wouldn't change anything given how good the stuff is. He has the potential to be a No. 3 starter in the near future.
3. Orelvis Martinez, 3B
Height: 5-11 | Weight: 200 | Bats: R | Throws: R | Age: 23 Martinez was on the top 100 a year ago, had a great start to 2024 in Triple A, got to the majors for five minutes, and was suspended for the rest of the year for testing positive for a PED.
He didn't slide off the top 100 for the suspension, but for concern now that he might have to move off the dirt, and his value as a high-power, low-OBP corner outfielder may not be good enough to be more than a solid regular.
It is real power, though; he has hit 75 homers in 317 games in Double A and Triple A over the last three seasons.
He's tightened up the approach enough to make it work against better pitching, chasing fewer pitches than he did when he was younger, although he still hunts fastballs and all offspeed pitches give him trouble.
When he was a potentially above-average defensive third baseman as a 20-year-old, it was easier to see different scenarios where he could be a 4-win player in the majors.
He still has major-league value, and could end up a regular in a corner, but those paths are a little narrower now.
4. Josh Kasevich, SS
Height: 6-2 | Weight: 200 | Bats: R | Throws: R | Age: 24 Kasevich is the best prospect from the Jays' 2022 draft class at the moment, as he's at least a good utility infielder with a chance to be an everyday player at short with his plus defense and high contact rates.
He needed to get stronger when he was drafted, and he's done so, translating it into harder contact (peaking at 109 mph last year) but still hitting the ball on the ground too often.
If he gets some more rhythm to his swing and brings his hands a little further back, he might be able to lift the ball and end up a 15-homer guy, which would make him a 55 regular with his contact skills, discipline, and that plus defense.
5. Alan Roden, OF
Height: 5-11 | Weight: 215 | Bats: L | Throws: R | Age: 25 Roden improved as much as anyone in Toronto's system last year, increasing his average and peak exit velocities by over 4 mph without losing any of his strong contact skills.
He hit .314/.406/.510 in 71 games in Triple A, boosting his line over what he did in Double A - with just a 14.3 percent strikeout rate - and topped out at 112.2 mph off the bat.
It's corner outfield only, and he still has some platoon risk, with just a .304 OBP against lefties last year on the whole, albeit with enough power (.453 SLG, four homers in 112 PA) to make up for it.
He's probably a solid regular in a corner, and if he improves against southpaws or converts more of that hard contact into over-the-fence power, he's a 55.
6. Jake Bloss, RHP
Height: 6-3 | Weight: 223 | Bats: R | Throws: R | Age: 24 Bloss made his major-league debut on June 21 for Houston but left the game with right shoulder inflammation, returning for two more starts before the Astros traded him to the Jays in the Yusei Kikuchi deal.
Bloss spent the remainder of 2024 pitching in Triple A with the same stuff but worse overall results, giving up too much hard contact.
He has excellent feel to pitch and throws five different pitches, nothing plus, with good spin rates on the slider and curveball and maybe 55 movement on both pitches.
He was the Astros' third-round pick in 2023 out of Georgetown, reaching the majors in less than a year, which was probably too aggressive in hindsight; he'd made just eight starts above A-ball when he debuted in the bigs.
He looks like a quality fourth starter, assuming the shoulder issue is behind him, although he may need some time to get there as he learns how to best utilize his whole arsenal against better hitters.
7. Ricky Tiedemann, LHP
Height: 6-4 | Weight: 220 | Bats: L | Throws: L | Age: 22 Tiedemann threw just 17 innings in 2024 before undergoing Tommy John surgery in July, which likely puts him out until 2026.
He has thrown 158 innings as a professional, including time in the Arizona Fall League, and after a strong debut season in 2022 he hasn't stayed healthy at all or thrown strikes.
It's premium stuff when he's right, but the arm action was always dicey and he's had more than just the elbow issue. I don't see how he's anything but a reliever now.
8. Fernando Perez, RHP
Height: 6-3 | Weight: 170 | Bats: R | Throws: R | Age: 21 Perez is from Nicaragua, signing in 2022 just before he turned 18, and made his full-season debut last year with a successful turn in the Low-A Florida State League, striking out 86 in 82 innings with 24 walks and a 4.06 ERA (because he was quite a bit worse with men on base, something to keep an eye on).
His stuff is pretty average across the board, 90-94 with a low-80s slider probably his best pitch, and it plays up because he has excellent feel and solid-average command already.
He doesn't offer much projection, enough to maybe see him getting to 92-96 in time, and improving the changeup and maybe getting a little more sharpness to both breaking balls is probably just as important.
He's a fifth starter as is, trending toward a fourth, with limited ceiling but also reasonably high probability for a Low-A pitcher.
9. Khal Stephen, RHP
Height: 6-4 | Weight: 215 | Bats: R | Throws: R | Age: 22 Stephen was the Jays' second-round pick last year out of Mississippi State, where he walked just 5 percent of batters he faced for the Bulldogs.
He works with average stuff, sitting 92-93 with a solid-average slider and a fringe-average changeup.
He has a high three-quarters slot that helps his fastball play up above its velocity while also making throwing a traditional slider with bigger horizontal movement more difficult. Like Yesavage, he's more polish than projection and should move fairly quickly to Double A, with back-end starter potential in the near future.
10. Will Wagner, IF
Height: 5-11 | Weight: 210 | Bats: L | Throws: R | Age: 26 Son of newly elected Hall of Famer Billy Wagner, Will was part of the Kikuchi trade along with Bloss and Joey Loperfido.
He doesn't have a real position, playing well enough at third or first to be a good bench bat who can hit right-handed pitching, with enough of a platoon split to keep him from being an everyday guy. He ended the year on the IL with knee inflammation.
Adam Macko, LHP
Height: 6-0 | Weight: 170 | Bats: L | Throws: L | Age: 24 Macko had a decent half-season in Double A, working with a four-pitch mix now rather than just fastball/slider, but he missed almost two months with a sore forearm, the third time in four years he's been on the injured list with arm trouble.
His story is great - he was born in Slovakia, picked up baseball living in Ireland, then went to high school in Canada - and it'll be better if he gets to the big leagues, which has to happen in the bullpen given the evidence he can't handle a full season as a starter.
Charles McAdoo, 3B/OF
Height: 6-1 | Weight: 210 | Bats: R | Throws: R | Age: 22 McAdoo demolished High A in the first half last year, hitting .336/.415/.561, helped by a great hitter's park in Greensboro, then tapered off in Double A as the season went on.
That included a trade at the deadline that brought him from Pittsburgh to Toronto for Isiah Kiner-Falefa.
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Previously on Blue Jays Central
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FEVRIER 3 | 86 ANSWERS Toronto Blue Jays Top 10 Prospects: Who will break out in 2025? Which Toronto Blue Jays prospect do you expect to break out in 2025? |
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