Toronto Blue Jays Top 40 Prospects

It almost feels silly ranking Yesavage, who just threw 40 innings of high quality (and higher visibility) baseball last September and October. He’s rookie eligible, though, so we can quickly recap what we all just watched him do.

Toronto selected Yesavage with the 20th pick of the 2024 draft, and you can bet more than a couple of teams are kicking themselves for passing on East Carolina’s ace. He was practically unhittable across 50.2 innings split between both A-ball levels and then kept missing bats in subsequent promotions up the ladder. He then struck out 39 hitters in 27.2 postseason innings, and turned in dominant outings against the Yankees and Dodgers on the biggest stage. Just 22 years old, he’s arguably the best pitcher on the Blue Jays already.

There’s a special kind of joy watching a pitcher whose entire approach boils down to “here’s my best, I bet you can’t hit it,” particularly when they’re correct. While he has a slider, Yesavage primarily succeeds by tunneling his fastball and splitter. The fastball has huge outlier traits — 20-plus inches of vertical break on average from an extremely high and over-the-top release, not to mention above-average velocity — and the split is an 80 that just melts out of the zone. Hitters have to guess which one is coming, and even when they get it right, the movement on those pitches is often enough to avoid hard contact. He’s going to walk people and will give up a dinger on the occasional hanger, but he’s one of the hardest guys in baseball to make contact against, and that gives him a lot of margin for error.

Like any hurler, Yesavage is subject to all of the things that can happen to pitchers. He could get hurt, he could lose velocity. Or, if we want to stick to things more pertinent to Yesavage in particular, there’s some chance that the novelty of his attack loses some of its potency through repeated exposure. All are possible, as is the chance you get struck by lightning tomorrow; we live in an uncertain world. But Yesavage is a premier pitching prospect, and we’re treating him as such. He has a workhorse’s frame, a track record of logging innings, and monster stuff. He projects as a no. 2 and is among the handful of arms in the sport with no. 1 upside.

The Jays had the 20th overall pick two drafts in a row and used their 2023 selection on Nimmala, a slick and projectable shortstop from Florida. Even though he was lean and young for his class, the Tampa native’s power potential and ability at short stood out. Heading into his third full professional season, those traits form the backbone of an exciting shortstop prospect.

At the plate, Nimmala’s swing is long but quick, and the loft in it feeds an aggressive projection on his power. It also comes with swing and miss: His 70% contact rate was acceptable in context but low overall, and high fastballs in particular can be a problem. There’s enough barrel feel to make it work, though, and we think that this part of his game will come as he matures physically. His ability to make an adjustment while the ball is in flight, particularly notable on spin, speaks to a projectable hit tool. Defensively, Nimmala isn’t the rangiest shortstop you’ll see, but he’s a smooth mover with lovely hands. We think the overall package is good enough to stick at short, and he has enough arm for third if his mobility declines and he needs to move.

The numbers haven’t fully lined up with the tools yet. Some of that is due to age, as Nimmala has been the third-youngest regular in the circuit at both of his professional stops, while some is environmental: The Northwest League, and Vancouver’s damp (but wonderfully classic) ballpark in particular, is not an easy place to hit. There were positive signs amidst all of that. He posted another double-digit homer season, and a 10% drop in his strikeout rate year-over-year is highly encouraging for a guy with some swing-and-miss issues. Still, there’s no escaping the reality that we’re doing a little more projecting than normal here.

We acknowledge the inherent risk in that and are plowing ahead anyway. Nimmala’s power, developing barrel feel, and defensive work make for a hugely enticing package. For those of you inclined to round up or down based on a player’s specific context, Toronto’s superb strength and conditioning program is an ideal match for a player still growing into his frame. And for what it’s worth, Nimmala is reportedly a tremendously hard worker in the weight room. Agnostic of that, we really like the athlete and tools here, and we’re betting the results will follow in time.

Another Jays pitcher, another elbow injury. After a brief big league debut with Houston in 2024, Bloss entered 2025 on the cusp of making the Blue Jays rotation, but tore his UCL six starts into the minor league season. He will be available at some point in 2026, but not for Opening Day.

Prior to the injury, Bloss looked like a relatively safe mid-rotation starter. His mid-90s fastball projected plus, aided further by above-average carry and the seven feet of extension he generates with his long, powerful stride. His upper-80s slider is the big bat-misser, but don’t overlook his 12-6 hammer of a curve, which knee-buckled hitters tend to take for a strike. His change is hampered a bit by a slower arm path, though he reliably keeps it to the arm side and lefties mostly aren’t able to drive it.

In the long run, Bloss still projects as a starter. He has the right frame and build, and while there’s some effort at release, he’s a good enough strike-thrower to stick in a length role. His delivery can get out of sync, and there was probably always going to be an element of learning on the job for a quick-moving prospect who mostly pitched against small-school competition in college. But Bloss is a good athlete with a mid-rotation arm’s package of stuff, and even with elbow surgery on the résumé, we’re holding the line on him as a prospect. The timing of the injury conceivably affords Toronto the runway to use 2026 as a season for him to ramp back up and compete for a spot in the rotation in 2027. For now, we’re keeping him in the clipped wing section of the Top 100.

Mississippi high school bats have long been seen as a highly risky demographic, but Parker’s selection makes two top-10 picks in as many years from the Magnolia State. While not quite as physical or projectable as Konnor Griffin, Parker wields a dangerous stick of his own, and projects as a first-division regular with an enviable blend of hitting ability and power potential.

Parker has a fast bat. His bat path is direct, he’s already generating average exit velocities, and like any good lefty, he murders balls down and in. He’s shown some ability to flatten his swing on fastballs up, though good velocity upstairs will be an early challenge. Lefties might be too, as he looks a tick less comfortable against them on video, and seems prone to leaking his front hip a little early. These are nitpicks. The more important part of the equation is that Parker raked on the showcase circuit and seems to have both the hand-eye and physical tools to hit and hit for power.

While it’s true that a paucity of recent video complicates Parker’s defensive valuation, nobody’s here to read me complain. So, with a grain of salt: Parker is boxy and already quite big for a shortstop. He tends to bend at the waist, and while his actions are clean enough, they’re not especially quick or explosive. Were I placing my bets, I’d stick eight or nine chips out of 10 on a move off of shortstop; third base seems like the most likely home.

There’s enough uncertainty in how the bat will play against pro pitching to hold Parker off of the Top 100 for now. Still, he’s awfully close, a surefire Pick to Click candidate, and a player who could prompt a quick re-evaluation on our part if he gets off to a fast start.

Tiedemann missed all of the 2025 season recovering from Tommy John surgery. There’s thus no change to the topline grades we published with last season’s list and our mid-season Top 100 update. On talent, Tiedemann projects as a mid-rotation starter. A lower-slot lefty, his fastball touches 98 and misses plenty of bats up in the zone. He has a plus sweeping breaking ball with sharp break, a nightmare pitch for lefties and a reliable strike generator even without the platoon advantage. He also has a change, clearly his third-best pitch but also one that was progressing nicely before he blew out.

Tiedemann’s delivery is simple and clean. That and the progress he made with his command since draft day point to a future in the rotation. All the missed time clouds the picture, though. He was added to the club’s 40-man roster this winter and will reportedly be ready to go for spring training, which means the Jays must weigh his best path forward with the needs of a team competing for a World Series right now. We think he’d be electric in short stints and could help in relief pretty much immediately. Tough choices loom.

Agnostic of that, we still see a chance for Tiedemann to start, and a path to exceeding the value grade he receives here. We’ve traditionally held promising pitchers recuperating from major injury toward the bottom of the Top 100 list, and that’s where Tiedemann slotted at last check-in. In his specific case, it’s just been so long since he’s thrown well, and the concerns we’re hearing from sources around the league, along with the inevitable bullpen whispers that tend to circulate around oft-injured pitchers, have us rounding down slightly for now.

While King was Toronto’s third rounder, the $1.25 million bonus he received was actually larger than the one the club paid second rounder (and now Top 100 Guardians arm) Khal Stephen. King’s first pro season was a big success. The southpaw struck out nearly 40% of hitters across two levels, and with two plus pitches in the holster, he enters 2026 as a breakout candidate.

King has a prototypical starter’s build and athleticism, with good body control, a strong lower half, and a clean arm circle. Deception abounds here. He generates above-average to plus extension, while his drop-and-drive delivery and low-three-quarters slot help flatten a fastball that already averages 18 inches of vertical break. King touches the upper 90s and misses as many bats as it sounds like given all those traits. He pairs it with a long, sharp slider that flashes plus. His change flashes above average, though rarely: His arm speed is good, but the shape and execution vary substantially. That and a tendency to release his fastball early and miss badly up and arm side are areas of improvement in 2026.

One other thing to monitor: King’s walk rate more than doubled after a midseason promotion from the complex to Dunedin. Some of that stems from his approach. He likes to entice hitters to chase heat upstairs and flail at spin in the dirt. Like FCL bats, Low-A hitters obliged, and so he kept runs off the board even with more traffic on the bases. Going forward, though, he’ll need to work on the plate a little more often.

Whether he can or not is the $64,000 question. I lean yes. King’s stuff will miss barrels in the zone and even if he’s a fringy control guy in the end, he’s shown enough feel for attacking regions to think that he can put the ball over the plate more frequently. It’s an adjustment I’m excited to see him take a crack at, and if all goes well, he could well launch himself into the Top 100 discussion.

A tool shed in a fun-size package, Arias was one of Toronto’s breakouts on the farm last season. The 22-year-old managed to add a grade-and-a-half of present raw power without eating into his ability to make contact, and after a bright two-and-a-half months in Vancouver, he earned a promotion to Double-A. He found the terrain rockier in New Hampshire (it is the Granite State, after all), but nonetheless enters 2026 as an arrow-up prospect with one of the higher ceilings in the system.

Arias does not get cheated at the plate. He takes a big leg kick, loads deep, and lets it fly with everything he has. It’s a high-effort swing, and it comes with an early front side leak that limits his ability to cover the plate. His short levers help him get away with this monster hack, as does his feel for contact and ability to adjust off the fastball. His hard-hit rate is a system-high 54%, which speaks to a real knack for squaring the ball up. But while he’s able to deliver the barrel to all quadrants, he hasn’t found a way to reliably drive the ball; he hit just seven homers last year in 102 games. His present contact rates are viable for a power hitter, but low for someone who isn’t elevating consistently.

Might there be a tradeoff to make here? Arias’ max exit velos are comfortably plus. If a smaller move or more controlled swing facilitates more contact at the expense of a little juice, the swap could be worth its weight in gold, as he’d still have plenty of pop left over. It’s not a small adjustment, but it’s something to consider, particularly if he struggles out of the gate in New Hampshire.

The rest of Arias’ game is solid, if unspectacular. His zone coverage and pitch recognition are pretty good for his age, and his ability to act on those skills is impressive given the effort in his swing. He’s also an above-average runner, fringy in center at present but with a chance to get to average if his reads and routes mature.

There are a lot of different ways he can go from here, and Arias is a guy to stay patient with. The left tail outcomes are pretty low, as there’s a chance he just never figures out how to get to lift with his current approach, and winds up as an extra guy — a toolsy tease. The upside is substantial, though. It’s not every day you get plus power with short levers and some feel to hit, and if things click for Arias, he’s got a chance to be a very good player. He should get a long runway to try to figure it out.

Sanchez received the second-biggest bonus in Toronto’s 2025 international class and is by far the best prospect to emerge from it so far. The performance, both top line and under the hood, was encouraging, and even though he’s probably not long for short, he’s a projectable athlete with a mix of enticing present strength and a lot more room to grow. Quiet in his setup, Sanchez has a quick bat when he gets going and his hips explode in sync with his swing. There are rough edges to sand down here, as his glovework needs refinement and, like just about every teenager with power, he’s vulnerable to spin. We’ll see how that shakes out against better competition. For now, Sanchez has passed the DSL test with flying colors. You can dream on an everyday regular with 25-homer upside.

Stanifer was arguably Toronto’s breakout prospect in 2025. A late pick out of a suburban Indianapolis high school, he signed for $125,000 and spent two relatively nondescript seasons at the lower levels before turning in a career season last campaign. He was especially effective at High-A Vancouver, where he made 14 starts, posted a 3.20 ERA, and fanned 115 hitters in 76 innings.

Stanifer is an above-average athlete with a three-pitch mix. He sits in the mid-90s with a four-seamer that touches 98. The pitch has carry but also a lot of tail. It lacks some of the other secondary and tertiary characteristics that can turn a good fastball into a monster, but it still missed plenty of bats in High-A. The pitch also tunnels pretty well with his slider, a north-south offering that falls off the table. It flashes plus and generated one of the highest whiff rates in the system. The change is the third offering here, but it’s actually a little ahead of schedule for a prospect who otherwise has a rough edge or two to iron out. It’s not a deep mix, but it’s a solid foundation, and there might be room to tinker with a cutter or a split to build a starter’s package of weapons.

The key will be whether he can throw strikes. While Stanifer took a big step forward in 2025 — he walked 7.5 per nine in Dunedin the year before — and is around the plate often enough to project on his control, his feel for location comes and goes. It’s not an impossible delivery to harness, but there’s a bit of a hitch in it, and its start-stop-big finish cadence is tough to corral. It’s encouraging that Stanifer can hit the zone with three pitches and has some feel for moving the ball around the plate, but he’ll need to do so more consistently to stick in the rotation. Even if he doesn’t, the arm strength and feel for spin here give him a chance to work in the late innings. I suspect Stanifer winds up there in the long run, but he deserves every chance to start, and you can squint and see a mid-rotation outcome. Quite a story for a 19th-round pick who was mostly off the radar this time a year ago.

Caricote was Toronto’s top signee in the 2026 international class, an athletic catcher who signed for $1.9 million. The error bars in this market are wide, particularly at this stage — Caricote doesn’t have a DSL game to his name yet — and as Eric noted in his update on the class, the correlation between bonus size and future production seems to be weakening for international amateurs. Those caveats offered, here is Eric’s report from signing day: Caricote improved throughout the scouting window and, in the eyes of my sources, passed Fernando Graterol as the second-best Venezuelan catcher during the last year plus. Caricote is broad-shouldered and is getting stronger without losing mobility behind the dish. He’s a good catch-and-throw athlete who’s quick out of his crouch, has the athleticism and toughness to improve in the other areas of catching, and offers uncommon lefty-hitting power for the position.

Pinango’s on his seventh top prospect list here, and there’s a chasm between how he looked as a teenager and the player he’s become. Once a center field prospect with plus wheels and a chance for average raw power, Pinango has developed plus pop and turned into a lousy corner outfielder. He reached Triple-A last season and is lighting up the Venezuelan Winter League like a Christmas tree, both of which indicate that he’s nearly ready to contribute to the Jays in some capacity.

Visually and statistically, there are things to like about how Pinango goes about his business. He lights up the spreadsheet, where his 80% contact rate and 50% hard-hit rate are among the very best in the system, and come with manageable chase rates. Scouts are intrigued too, as he has a fast bat and doesn’t share some of the hit tool risks — big leak, lousy plate coverage, cartoonish effort, bad timing — that afflict a lot of guys who need to cheat to get to their power. The risk here is that he doesn’t get to lift. Pinango can be lured off balance and his swing path isn’t geared for loft, both of which have limited his ability to homer throughout his career.

The quality of Pinango’s contact suggests he could still succeed as a hitter even without a lot of over-the-fence power, but the path becomes trickier and more dependent on hitting for average. The stakes are high: There’s not much defensive value here, as he’s a heavy-footed outfielder with below-average tracking skills, so he has to hit in some capacity to keep his place. The forecast here is for Pinango to do so, if as more of a doubles hitter than home run threat. You can dream on a regular if some kind of swing path adjustment changes that equation.

Bastardo was Toronto’s Rule 5 pick from Boston last season. He had Tommy John in late June of 2024 — we’re just getting going on the injured pitchers in this system — and was put on the 60-day IL during 2025 spring training, where he remained all year. At one point, he was scheduled to pitch in the Arizona Fall League, but Toronto decided not to do the start-stop-start ramping cycle that would’ve entailed. Instead, he’ll head to spring training ready to compete for a big league job — one he’ll need to earn to stay with Toronto, as he must stay on the roster for at least 90 days or else return to the Red Sox.

The scouting report hasn’t changed. Boston had developed Bastardo as a starter for his entire career, but due to below-average control and a fastball that plays beneath its impressive velocity, Eric has long seen him as a reliever. Bastardo’s best pitch is his changeup, an 84-88 mph offering that dies as it approaches the plate as if an invisible parachute has popped out of the back of it. He can manipulate his breaking ball’s shape, but he doesn’t land his slider regularly, and Bastardo’s high arm slot is the sort that imparts hittable shape and angle on his fastball. He should be able to reach back for more heat in a one-inning role and bully hitters with even greater velocity. The Tommy John adds risk and has delayed his debut, but Bastardo had arguably the most upside of any Rule 5 pick in 2024 as a nasty late-inning reliever, and there’s a chance that he could be a weapon this season.

Hechavarria is a 22-year-old Cuban righty who signed for about $250,000 in 2024. He’s a loose athlete with good body control and a clean, if slightly long, circular arm swing. His pitchability jumps out, as he has advanced command and control for a guy his age. He’s adept at locating his fastball at the top of the zone, can run his slider on and off the plate, and, most impressively, has a knack for pulling the string on the change in just the right spot to miss lefty barrels. Lower-level hitters have been overmatched: In 135.2 career innings, he’s notched a 2.12 ERA with 139 strikeouts and only 39 walks and 10 homers allowed.

The road will get bumpier soon. Hechavarria’s fastball should play, as he touches 97 with average carry or a tick more, but his breaking ball looks fringy to my eye and I’m skeptical it’ll miss a ton of bats. The strike-throwing foundation is enough to project him as a starter, but he looks more like a backend guy than an impact arm.

Built like a (Bucknell) bison, Keys is seeking to become the school’s first alum since Eric Junge to reach The Show. If he does, it’ll be on the strength of his power, which could be plus at maturity. He generates that juice with a small move, just a quick leg kick and short, looping hand load. It’s strength over bat speed, though, as it takes Keys a tick to get his barrel into the zone, and there’s looming vulnerability against elite velocity. While he can adjust off the fastball, he’s mostly doing so on hangers, and he can get off balance when guys execute their secondaries. It’s a power-over-hit skill set with a decent approach.

Keys has primarily played third throughout his career, where he compensates for fringy range with good instincts and an accurate, above-average arm. He’s a diligent pre-game worker, taking reps and making throws from various angles in a way that stands out relative to his teammates. That level of preparation gives me confidence that he’ll develop at first, where he looked raw in his first prolonged exposure to the position. He’ll need to play both for the versatility, and even though he’s not quick, he could conceivably see time in left field just to add another facet to his game. Ultimately, though, he’ll go as far as his bat takes him, and he projects as a dangerous corner bench bat.

If you’re looking for a sleeper in this system, you might consider Pinto. He’s short but not at all small, a compact athlete generating exit velocities in line with the big league average. He needs to swing hard to get to that power, and tends to pull off the plate, but his 77% contact rate is just fine and there’s no obvious vulnerability to spin or high heat. If anything, for a guy who has missed substantial time, his ability to barrel the ball as frequently as he has — his hard-hit rate was 43% last year, which is again encouraging — is even more impressive than it looks on the surface.

The problem here is injuries, as Pinto has had a devil of a time staying on the field. He’s an all gas, no breaks type of player, and he’s Buxton’d his way into several significant maladies: rib issues and a hamstring strain in 2022, quad strains in 2023, and several unspecified problems since. All told, he’s played in just 80 games over the past three seasons combined. All of that missed time has cost him valuable reps, which shows up especially on defense. He has pretty good range at both second and in center, but his glovework at the former and reads at the latter are a work in progress. I’m giving him a lot of benefit of the doubt with the future defensive grade above; it could look ambitious in hindsight if the injuries continue to pile up, and there’s also a chance I’m just misidentifying a lack of skill as rawness.

Still, let’s not lose sight of the positives. We have a middle-of-the-diamond player with speed, short levers, some feel to hit, and present power here. In a system not exactly overflowing with upside, Pinto offers something to dream on.

Kasevich had a little helium heading into last year, following a 2024 season that saw him reach Triple-A and rake from the moment he got there. But 2025 quickly turned into a lost season. The former Oregon Duck suffered a stress reaction in his back during spring training and then injured his wrist while rehabbing in Dunedin. Finally back to Buffalo in August, he struggled through a month’s worth of at-bats and then didn’t manage a single extra base hit in the Fall League.

Let’s not fear monger on how wrist or back injuries can spiral into long-term maladies. At his best, Kasevich has one of the best hit tools in the minor leagues. He can get the bat on anything, and between that and his patient (some might say passive) approach, he’s been on base a lot as a professional. He isn’t toothless up there — his hard-hit rate was 40%, which is pretty high — but he’s mostly a singles hitter.

Defensively, Kasevich is an adequate, if fringy, shortstop. He’s not especially quick or rangy, compensating instead with reliability. He split time between short and third last season and then played a couple of games at second in the AFL, a first in his career. That versatility will serve him well in the long run. Kasevich’s throwback skills would have fit hand in glove with 80s baseball, where he may well have spent a decade hitting in the no. 2 spot of someone’s lineup, but they’re a little out of vogue now. Still, if you’re only going to have one tool, it might as well be the one that matters most. There’s still a place for contact hitters without flashy defense; it just tends to be in a utility role.

Few pitchers have wound me in knots as an evaluator quite like Macko, an enigmatic lefty with all the consistency of Ash’s Charizard. True to form, just as a stretch of mediocre starts threatened to jeopardize Macko’s position on Toronto’s 40 man last summer, the Slovakia-native rallied after a demotion to a multi-inning relief role, striking out 29 and walking only six in his last eight outings, spread across 26 innings.

While not especially large, Macko is strong and generates average velocity with a controlled motion and a clean arm swing. His career walk rate is north of four per nine — and was over five per nine last year — but there are stretches where he doesn’t just throw strikes, but also executes really well. When he’s spotting his low-mid 90s fastball up, burying his hard slider in the dirt, and getting soft contact and awkward takes on his sharp curve, everything looks right. After all, why wouldn’t the guy with a clean delivery and short levers command the ball well?

I don’t know the answer to that, but more often than not, he doesn’t. Sometimes those wilder spells coincide with velo dips — he’ll sit close to the mid-90s some starts and the low 90s in others — and the quality of his breaking balls tend to fluctuate alongside. Get him on the right day, and you can dream on a no. 3 starter; see him any other day, and he’s a surefire reliever.

That inconsistency seems endemic here. Even when he’s rolling, Macko is a threat to serve up a stinker of an outing on any given day. That possibility presents a real headache for managers, all the more so given that Macko has rarely maintained a starter’s workload for extended periods. It all feels more palatable in the bullpen, possibly in a versatile relief role that capitalizes on his ability to work multiple innings, particularly if shorter stints help him sit closer to the top of his velocity range more consistently. He projects as a middle reliever with paths to more if someone can figure out how to iron out his Jekyll and Hyde act.

Bullard was thought to have a strong commit to Texas A&M, which pushed him out of the top rounds of the 2025 draft where his talent belonged. Toronto plucked him in the 12th and signed him for $1.7 million, the largest bonus ever given to a player in that round.

Bullard is a speedy center field prospect. He’s a switch-hitter whose quick, slashy swings look similar from both sides. While not narrow, he’s slim. He could develop relevant, wiry strength, but you can also imagine him topping out as a 30 or 35 power guy if he doesn’t. This is an ideal alignment between player and team, as Bullard is as likely to max out on his strength and power in Toronto as anywhere else. While there’s no guarantee that the Jays can buff him into a power threat, the contact and defensive pieces here are the foundation of a fourth outfielder, one with everyday upside if the damage grade exceeds the forecast above.

Schreck was lightly recruited out of high school and nearly wound up at MIT before deciding to walk on at Duke. It took a few years, but he hit his way into the Blue Devils lineup and put himself in position to transfer to Vanderbilt after he graduated. He parlayed a strong super-senior season into a low-dollar draft bonus with Seattle, who quickly flipped him to Toronto in exchange for Justin Turner. He got stronger seemingly overnight, and a corresponding uptick in power, combined with his patient approach, helped turn Schreck from a nice story into a real prospect quicker than you could make a Mike Meyers joke.

Schreck is a divisive player, and there is a strong analyst-scout split at work here. Scouts are mostly underwhelmed. While Schreck’s strength and power are measurably better than they were just a couple of years ago, he needs a deep load and a long swing to generate it, and it takes him a while to get his bat from the launch point to the hitting zone. A long swing and a slow bat is often a deadly combination, one more commonly found in Quad-A hitters than big league run producers.

The data is good, though. His contact rate has fallen in the upper minors but was still 78% last season, which is plenty. His measurable swing decisions — from how often he swings to how often he chases to how frequently he turns it loose on pitches in prime locations — are all solid. He isn’t overmatched by spin, and while I have some reservations about his ability to consistently hit elite velocity, fastballs haven’t given him a ton of trouble to this point. He doesn’t even have much of a platoon split.

Clearly, he’s produced; the case against Schreck isn’t that he hasn’t hit, but that it simply won’t translate against elite pitching. I tend to be skeptical of corner bats without big pop who derive substantial value from their approach, and I don’t really see Schreck as an exception. Personally, I have him as an up-down bat with a platoon ceiling. There are plenty of people throughout the industry who like him quite a bit, though, and so with a nod to sources whose opinions I respect and value, I’m hedging my bets with this ranking.

Barriera’s career has been defined by injuries, a frustrating pattern that continued in 2025. A first rounder back in 2022, the lefty has thrown all of 27.1 innings as a professional. After elbow and biceps injuries marred his debut campaign, he tore his UCL early in 2024, limiting him to just one start. He returned last summer and made five appearances before he was shut down again, this time with a fractured ulna. In the 5.2 frames he threw, he was understandably wild, though his fastball touched 99 and both the cutter and slider looked sharp.

Nobody deserves this. We’re hoping to see Barriera back on the field and healthy for an extended run this spring, for his sake more than anything else. Until he gets a few innings under his belt, his place on a list like this is more about philosophy than talent. On ability, he has some of the best stuff in the system, but Barriera has missed so much time with so many different injuries that it’s hard to rank him any higher than this until he’s able to stay on the field for a stretch.

It’s important to scout well in your own backyard, even and perhaps especially when it’s a big one like “all of Canada.” Doing so puts you in a good position to take fliers on intriguing but raw guys like Piasentin, an Alberta native who signed for the fourth-largest bonus in Toronto’s 2025 draft class. He didn’t play after the draft and hasn’t faced a ton of good competition in his life, and is thus something of a wild card on this list. There’s very little footage of him available, and he’s the type of player who enters pro ball with a wide range of outcomes ahead of him.

Piasentin is a strong kid, very well built for his age, and has a chance to grow into plus raw power. His swing is a little long, but he has the bat speed to make it work. We don’t know how he’ll handle pro caliber spin, but limited looks against decent velocity suggest he’s got a shot to develop a viable hit tool. Defensively, his actions aren’t messy, but they aren’t exactly quick either. He’s played a lot of third base as an amateur, a good fit for his plus arm if he proves rangy enough to stick there. Honestly, I don’t have a great feel for where Piasentin should place on this list, but I’m intrigued enough by the power to stick him here for now; we’ll know a lot more soon.

Rogers is a fun watch. He’s a large, somewhat top-heavy pitcher with just fair body control at first glance, but he’s also a good strike-thrower with an uncanny ability to manipulate the ball.

Rogers is a throwback with a full complement of pitches from two different arm slots. He primarily works from a three-quarters slot against lefties and switches to a lower, nearly sidearm look against righties; he’ll also mix and match a bit to add another layer of unpredictability. This isn’t a gimmick, or even a case where a guy is unwittingly lowering his slot on certain pitches in a way that telegraphs what’s coming. Rogers has simply developed two different modes of attacking hitters and has the command of his arsenal to pull off both approaches.

His feel to pitch, aptitude for hitting all quadrants, and ability to bend pitches in and out of the zone from different angles is compensating for an underwhelming collection of stuff. He can touch 96, but he tends to sit in the low 90s and lean on the movement of his two-seamer to help generate groundballs. None of his secondaries are nasty on their own, and he relies on sequencing and location to miss bats. The movement on his two-seamer is really nasty, though, and at its best, it has righties flinching out of the way on balls that start in the lefty batter’s box. That fastball utility should facilitate a multi-inning role of some flavor, even absent a reliable bat-missing change or breaking ball.

How often does a reigning pennant winner roster a Rule 5 guy? With Angel Bastardo still around from last year’s draft and Miles now in the fold, Toronto could conceivably carry two. After not throwing for more than a year, San Francisco sent Miles to the Arizona Fall League. That looks like a mistake now, as he lit up the AFL, flashing plus stuff and striking out 12 while walking one across 8.2 innings. Eric was impressed in his looks, and his suspicion that someone might gamble on the oft-injured righty in the Rule 5 proved prescient. His report from our recap of the draft is reproduced below.

Miles went undrafted when he was first eligible as a sophomore in 2021 and went in the fourth round in 2022 after posting an ERA over 6.00 at Mizzou. Back and elbow issues have cost him all but a few weeks of the last few regular seasons; he has thrown just 14.2 affiliated innings since turning pro. But when Miles has been healthy, he’s looked like a potential mid-rotation starter. Working during instructs and the AFL, Miles sat 94-97, topping out at 98, and bending in four distinct pitches, several of which flashed plus. His best fastballs have hellacious tailing action, while some of his low-90s cutters dart in the opposite direction with equally nasty length. He’ll also occasionally show you a good changeup and curveball. His delivery isn’t overly violent and he has fine feel for location (especially of his fastball), but his injury track record suggests he was probably always going to be a reliever, which is all but a done deal now that he’s a Jay. He could be worth stretching back out as a starter in 2027 if he ends up making Toronto’s roster and sticks as a reliever in 2026.

At the plate, Duran’s strong bat-to-ball skills are allowing him to make good contact despite a couple of visual cues that give me pause. He’s a late lander with bat speed that’s just fair, a looping hand load, and a somewhat grooved upper cut swing. He keeps his hands back well, though, and while he’s a little vulnerable to spin, he’s still often capable of adjusting off the fastball and doing something to spoil a tough pitch; there’s some hit skill here. The power is fringy, however, so while he’s got a chance to be competitive against big league pitching, he projects as more of a playable hitter than a good one.

Defensively, Duran projects as an average backstop. He’s not a huge guy, but he’s built well enough to withstand the rigors of the job. He’s a quiet receiver, and while he doesn’t have the world’s strongest wrist, he gets low and his movements are so small that he’s pretty good at stealing strikes. His control of the running game is just fair. He gets the ball out quickly, and his high transfer looks natural and smooth, but the ball sails on him as often as not. The whole operation looks great when he times everything up and delivers a strike; perhaps he’ll be able to do so more often with reps.

As a strong framer with competent but otherwise unremarkable skills and tools, Duran is the kind of player who seems likely to be hurt by ABS. He still projects as a solid backup, but the league has narrowed his most viable path to exceeding that forecast.

Rojas signed for just shy of $1 million in the 2024 international class. Back for a second spin in the DSL, he posted nearly identical numbers at the plate, hitting .255/.407/.330 with as many walks as strikeouts, in line with the competitive but not special offensive forecast we’ve had for him since he signed. If he’s to profile, the glove will be a big part of why. He’s a strong receiver with a good arm and the physicality we like to see in a catcher. He’s probably close to physical maturity, so he isn’t likely to grow into much more power. As was the case last year, his upside will be determined in large part by whether he’s able to continue making contact at a plus rate as he faces better pitching.

Cook began his college career in the Southern Mississippi bullpen, where he was wild and rarely got on the bump in games. He switched to the outfield prior to his junior season and, despite no significant reps at the plate since high school, flourished. He hit .350/.436/.468 with 31 walks and only 19 strikeouts in 60 games, a mind-blowing season given the previous two sentences. He’s also an 80 runner and projectable center fielder, and the overall package enticed Toronto to give him nearly a million bucks out of the 2025 draft.

Cook’s slash-n-dash style of hitting is a tough approach to execute successfully. He can see spin and manipulate the bat, but he’s usually doing so with a short, punchy swing that prioritizes contact above all else. Even guys with top-of-the-scale speed struggle to make this work. Billy Hamilton posted a .303 BABIP despite his wheels; Chandler Simpson has been more successful legging out infield singles but managed just an 88 wRC+ while hitting .295 last year because it’s really hard to be productive without hitting for some amount of power.

Without a significant adjustment, this is the skill set of a fourth or fifth outfielder. Of course, Cook is so new to all of this that there may be latent upside. Perhaps Toronto selected him with an eye toward a more ambitious swing path, and if so, he’s in the right place to add the kind of strength that can facilitate relevant, if still below-average, power.

Defensively, Cook’s speed gives him big upside in center, but the finer points of his game understandably need polish. The running game does too; to add yet another wrinkle here, Cook went just 3-for-8 stealing bases last year, and improving upon that has to be a developmental focus going forward. Inevitably given his inexperience, he enters 2026 as a work in progress in all facets. All that speed gives him the floor of an extra outfielder, and this is one case where a cloudy ceiling at the plate is actually cause for optimism. My instinct is that Cook isn’t going to hit for power, but we also can’t really rule it out yet. To say the least, he’ll be an interesting follow this season.

A two-way prospect in high school, Coffey was Beantown’s second-round pick in 2024. He came to Toronto in the Danny Jansen trade, and after a slow start at the plate, rebounded with his best professional season at Vancouver in 2025. He’s a strong kid with big league physicality right now. He has average power at present and should develop a tick more.

His zone judgment and pitch recognition skills are fringy, which limits both the hit tool and game power grades. Spin in particular gives Coffey fits. He whiffed on breaking stuff 43% of the time last year, firmly in “why throw him anything else?” territory. He’s not helplessly off balance against it, and can smack a mistake if you hang it on the inner half, but he’ll need to handle sliders better going forward. Defensively, Coffey has seen time all over the infield. He projects above average at third, with clean actions and a plus arm. He’s not playing short much, but he should be able to at least stand there at maturity. He projects as a utility infielder with a little thump.

A glove-first catcher, Valenzuela was traded to Toronto last summer in exchange for Will Wagner. The 25-year-old has kicked around the mid-to-upper levels for a couple years now and heads into the 2026 season as the club’s third catcher.

Defensively, Valenzuela is a solid receiver with strong hands and wrists. His framing numbers were just fair last year, possibly due to a little extraneous body movement and a tendency to stay high in his crouch. He has a good arm and a lightning-quick release, but he’s not always synched up and his throws can scatter. The tradeoff has been worth it so far, as Valenzuela has hosed a third of the Triple-A basestealers he’s encountered, but it’s something to monitor. At the plate, he has a backup catcher’s stick. He’s a switch-hitter with enough power that pitchers have to take him seriously, but his grooved, uphill swing and fringy bat speed put a firm lid on his hit tool. It’s more of a useful package of skills than an exciting one, but catchers who can chip in on both sides tend to play for a long time. Valenzuela’s intangibles have drawn rave reviews from Toronto’s staff, and he projects to take over as the Jays’ backup sometime in the next couple of years.

Bucknam was born in New Zealand and grew up in Abbotsford, British Columbia. He flew south for college and after two years in LSU’s bullpen, Bucknam transferred to Dallas Baptist, joined the rotation, and pitched his way into the fourth round of last year’s draft. The stuff itself is solid. He sits in the low-to-mid 90s with fair shape on an average fastball, and that arm strength helps him throw a plus power slider. He also has a good curve and will flash an average change. But while the stuff is rotation quality, I’m skeptical that the command will allow it. Bucknam has a high-effort delivery with a heel grind and head whack at finish, and he tends to scatter the ball more often than you’d like to see in a starter. He warrants further development in a length role just to see, but he looks like an 80/20 reliever bet to my eye. Bucknam has high-leverage ceiling in relief, and looks like a nifty find at this point in the draft.

Brock had Tommy John surgery in January of last year and is reportedly on track to return this spring. It was the latest in a long line of injuries, as the former Buckeye has thrown only 76.1 innings since his pro debut in 2022. Healthy Brock had some of the best stuff I’ve seen in an A-ball reliever, as his fastball and slider are plus power pitches that have subsequently missed bats at every stop. His delivery isn’t especially clean: It has a jerky start, his front shoulder flies open, and there’s a big head whack at finish. You can’t project more than 40 command, but that’s all Brock really needs to be a seventh-inning guy, so long as he stays healthy. We’ll see how everything looks this spring.

Cooke annihilated High- and Double-A hitters in 2023, posting strikeout rates above 40% (!) prior to an end-of-year stint at Triple-A Buffalo. Amidst an injury-plagued 2024, Cooke took a step back. His fastball velocity declined into the 93-95 mph range and he struggled with walks, which had never really been a problem before. He then had Tommy John in January of 2025 and missed the entire season.

At his best, Cooke looked like he had a shot to work in high-leverage spots. His drop-and-drive delivery and low release height helped his fastball play like a plus pitch because of its angle. Cooke’s sweeper command wasn’t dialed in enough for him to consistently elicit bad chases, but it has a ton of length and sometimes gets whiffs even when it isn’t located well because it looks like his fastball for so long. He projects as a middle reliever, with higher variance than most guys his age given the recent injuries.

Yeager has an above-average two-pitch mix. He gained five ticks on his slider from when I first saw him in early 2024 to when I caught him again last summer. Suffice to say, that’s hard to predict and he deserves a lot of credit for the transformation. His fastball ticked up a bit as well, and he now touches 99; the velo is enough to miss bats even though he doesn’t get a lot of extension. His slider flashes plus and is a tight bender that appears more firm than sharp to my eye, but hitters look bad against it, and missed on more than 40% of their swings last year. The arsenal is shallow and the stuff isn’t quite late-inning loud, but Yeager has enough in the holster to project as an optionable reliever. Sometimes those guys turn into long-term middle relievers.

Coleman went undrafted after an up-and-down college career at LSU. While he split time between the bullpen and rotation in college, it’s in the latter role that he’s taken a big step forward in pro ball. Critically, his velocity climbed several ticks last summer. He now touches 97 mph from the left side, which is enough to get anybody’s attention, especially when it comes with a low release and bat-missing carry. Paired with an average slider and a fair change, Coleman has the arsenal to work in a big league bullpen. His track record of throwing strikes isn’t long, but he’s also never had quite this much stuff to attack with. The forecast here is for average control, enough to let the heater play.

Rojas had a strong 2025 season, notching a 1.43 ERA while fanning more than 11 per nine across two levels. He’s a compact righty with sneaky athleticism and good, if not great, stuff. He sits in the mid-90s and touches 98 with his fastball. For a smaller, thicker guy, he gets down the mound well, which gives the heat a flat angle to compensate for its otherwise pedestrian shape. His slider projects above average, and while he doesn’t throw them a ton, he has a cutter and a change to give lefties something else to think about. Short of a true out pitch, Rojas projects as more of an optionable 40-man guy than a candidate for late-inning work. It’s still a nice step forward and a tidy piece of developmental work for a guy who had been languishing at the lower levels.

Steady as she goes here, as the farm system’s best strike-thrower continued to miss barrels and limit free passes, even amidst a mid-season promotion to New Hampshire. Perez is a physically mature kid who peppers the box with fringy stuff. He’ll touch 95 but sits in the low 90s with just enough ride to miss a bat when a hitter is sitting on something else. His change flashes above average and his ability to consistently pull the string lets him double- and triple-up on it in an at-bat. He also has a curve and a slider to help keep hitters guessing, though neither is particularly sharp. The standout ability is his control. Perez walked only 5.6% of hitters last year, and he’s lived in that area throughout his career while limiting damage.

There probably isn’t enough stuff here to keep missing barrels quite like he has so far. Better hitters will get their licks in, and while Perez has enough attributes to pitch in some kind of length role, he’ll fit best in a backend or lower-leverage relief role. The paint is pretty close to dry here, so he could ascend the final rungs of the ladder pretty quickly and a 2026 debut is in play.

Santos missed the first half of the 2024 season with a balky elbow, and then all of the 2025 season with elbow and forearm issues. He’s reportedly throwing again, though the specific timetable for his return isn’t clear. When last healthy, the Venezuela native was primarily working in one to two innings spurts. He’s a high wire act, working primarily with two offspeed pitches that have big and long break. They miss lots of bats but also plenty of strike zones, and his tendency to cough up an occasional hanger alongside suggests a relief role even absent persistent injury trouble. Can he throw enough strikes to work in middle relief? He’s always been wild despite a fairly low effort arm stroke, in part because of the way his stuff moves, but also because he’s just not that balanced at finish, falling off with a pronounced heel grind. The quality of his secondaries gives him a chance to exceed this projection, but the whole package looks more like that of an up-down reliever than a guy who’s consistently on the roster.

McAdoo’s game has all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. He’s a strong kid with a steep and stiff swing path. He comes out of the dugout looking to roll the pole, he bails off the plate to help him generate pull-side lift, and while the overall tradeoff between contact and power has been viable so far, he has the swing-and-miss and chase issues you’d expect. But it comes with pop, as the 23-year-old has plus raw and is a threat to drive the ball out to all fields.

Below-average at third base, McAdoo has started to see time at first as well, and also has a little corner outfield experience on his CV. But while he has on-paper versatility, this is a bat-only prospect. His career will be shaped by how often he’s able to homer, because there isn’t really a secondary skill that’s going to float the profile if he comes up short. The forecast here is for McAdoo to be a dangerous bat off the bench, one with a shot to peak as a platoon corner infielder.

Peterson bounced around a couple of California JUCOs, where he did enough to entice Toronto to use their final pick on him in 2023. He’s a funky lefty with a low slot, a fast arm, and a hidden stroke. In theory, his sinker/sweeper combo should present a tough look for lefties, but he’s run shockingly large reverse platoon splits thus far in his career. The bigger issue is that he’s a poor strike-thrower, with a career walk rate comfortably over six per nine. Low-level hitters have been undressed by the fastball, though, which has uphill shape and more velo than you normally see from this slot, and it’s worth keeping tabs on how his control progresses. He could perhaps become a lower-stakes throw-in as part of a deal with a team that really values left-handed pitching depth.

Shaw is one of a few Canadians lurking in the Blue Jays system. He grew up in British Columbia and found his way back home to Vancouver for a week before an injury ended his 2025 season. The 20-year-old was an above-average hitter across both A-ball levels, and his approach and plus bat-to-ball skills are the foundation of a utility profile. He’s a little vulnerable to the soft stuff, but he has a manipulable bat path and his 81% contact rate was among the highest in the system last year. He’s a body control-over-strength athlete, and as a smaller, mostly filled out guy, it’s hard to see him growing into enough power to become an everyday player.

Defensively, Shaw is versatile, if not spectacular. His reads and routes look good in center, though his speed fits much better in a corner. Adequate at second, his arm is weak enough to be worth mentioning here. It won’t play on the left side of the infield, which means we can’t really put the word “super” in front of the utility tag, shifting his projection into the up-down section of this list.

Normally, someone like Coronado would get an honorable mention tag but, frankly, he’s too interesting to encapsulate in that brief space. An $797,500 signee in last year’s international class, Coronado is a bat control wizard. He’s quick to the ball with a sweet lofted swing. His head remains still and he tracks pitches extremely well, particularly for his age. Physically, he’s very narrow and will need to get significantly stronger — he had a 6% hard-hit rate and a sub 95 mph EV90, which is as 20 power as it gets — but there’s a hit tool foundation here and he’s in the right place to add mass. That’s a promising start for a middle infield prospect, even for one already playing more second than short.

But while Coronado is visually intriguing, his data explodes off the sheet. To start with, his 88% contact rate was the third-highest in the system. Some guys who hit the ball that often are just hand-eye freaks who can’t really help themselves from swinging at everything, but not Coronado, as his 11% chase rate was second in the system overall. He very rarely takes a cut, but there is a big jump in his swing rate when a pitch is out over the heart of the plate, which indicates at least some level of discernment, too. His 57-to-27 walk-to-strikeout rate looks like something out of the Dead Ball Era, and between that and a .346 batting average, he notched a .504 OBP on the Dominican complex last year. Five-oh-four.

This is all more fun and interesting than predictive — you need a boulder of salt for complex numbers in general, and none of this is remotely sustainable unless he develops significantly more power — but, well, we’re here for fun too. Coronado ultimately projects as a utility infielder, but I’m mighty curious to see how he and his extreme skills look at a more challenging level.