1 Ricky Tiedemann LHP TJ
7 Landen Maroudis RHP TJ
22 Angel Bastardo RHP TJ
26 Brandon Barriera LHP TJ
28 TJ Brock RHP TJ
37 Carson Pierce RHP TJ
39 Nolan Perry RHP TJ
40 Connor Cooke RHP TJ

https://x.com/marchulet/status/1888266198892310623

Toronto has hired former major-league righty Justin Lehr to oversee the team's minor-league pitching

https://www.sportsnet.ca/mlb/article/report-blue-jays-hire-justin-lehr-to-oversee-minor-league-pitching/

Not one prospect on that list I'm super high on - Imagine the state of the 7 systems that BA listed as worse.

true that there's not one guy there to be "super high" on, but there are 4 or 5 to be "pretty high" on imo, and in general the overall depth is something to be high on too i think.

My experience with prospect evaluators is that they always perform badly. So their reports are more cheerleading than accuracy.

Having said that we have some power hitting players like Barger, Orelvis, D Schneider. Prospects like R Nunez, Palmegiani, Roden, P Williams and J Bohrofen, C McAdoo that should start the year in AAA or AA.

Highly regarded pitchers l1ke Barriera and Maroudis should return by mid 2025. Their performances will determine a lot.

Whenever Bastardo is done rehabbing, he'll have to stick to the 26 roster.
It's possible that it will be close enough to the 28 roster to make it a moot point.

MLB's Top 100 2025 Draft Prospects

https://www.mlb.com/milb/prospects/draft/

Will Wagner criminally low on that list. Aggressive placement of Kasevich - they had interesting praise for him on the BA podcast about the Jays' list, mainly that his strength of contact is much better than advertised.

Wagner is turning 27 in July, he's not really a prospect.

He's more of a AAAA player who is already in his prime.

He has good contact skills but little power.

He mostly played 2B in the minors and doesn't have much versatility on his resume.

There's certainly some potential for a Whit Merrifield-style late blooming career if everything breaks right, but his profile is risky in that his pathway to success much like Horwitz is very narrow.

And with the trade for Gimenez and Bo in his walk year, Wagner really doesn't have a pathway for everyday MLB ABs that he really needs at this point in his precarious career.

I wonder with MLB using colleges as a cheap minor league (ala the NBA & NFL) if we'll see more and more Horwitz and Wagner types - guys who could've benefited under the old system, coming into the pros at 20 and developing instead of getting a full minor league season at 23 (Wagner) or missing it at 22 (Horwitz due to COVID - which I'm sure has shortened a few careers already).

If you do 3-4 years of college you then need to skip levels or do multiple in a single season to reach the majors young enough to have a shot at full-time play as a MLer. With rumors starting that the owners will try to remove another layer of the minors this will become a bigger thing going forward. More and more guys who will get to the majors at 25/26 after rushing through the minors. This will lead to college ball being a much higher level of play and A ball/lower being mostly IFA's. Also we'll see more career records set by non-US born players I suspect as they will have a shot at reaching by 20-22 which is critical if you want to reach 3000 hits/500 HR/etc. Each year you lose young makes it much harder to make up later. The last 5 to reach 3000 hits were (reached/full time) Cabrera (20/21), Albert Pujols (21/21), Adrián Beltré (19/20), Ichiro Suzuki (27/27, but very special case), A-Rod (18/20). Outside of Ichiro that early start had to be a critical factor. Next 5 Jeter (21/22), Biggio (22/23), Palmeiro (21/23), Rickey (20/21), Ripken (20/21). Again all full-time ML'ers by the age of 23. At 23 Will Wagner was in his 2nd pro season, playing 100+ games for the first time as an example. For HR the only exception I found to the rule of 23 was David Ortiz (24 for first full-time season, 500+ PA first at 27). It is hard to find really great players who weren't full-time by 23. Randy Johnson is one (reached at 24, full-time 25), Phil Niekro another (25/28 but helped by having 3 years of 40+ starts, 8 more of 35-39, something we won't see again most likely). Boggs is a late bloomer (24/25). Scherzer 23/24 (but won't get 300 wins, or even 250 - earlier start and 4000 K's would've been possible).

It'll be interesting to see how this all affects MLB as time goes by. Records being broken/magic numbers reached is always a fun thing but too much college ball and those will change. Could we see more non-US players become stars due to reaching at younger ages thus reaching milestones that US born will find it hard to get to due to teams outsourcing to colleges? Will IFA's spend more time in non-US based minors to compensate for the minors disappearing in the US? Will teams 'loan' players to indy leagues to get around the rules? All possibilities.

People get caught up with prospect age too much at times. Prospect development is not linear- see Edgar Martinez.

Wagner is older because he was a senior sign... which is different than someone who spent 7 or 8 years in the minors.

He may not have the highest ceiling but Wagner definitely can hit and had a chance to be a solid platoon bat.

Gimenez is a ground ball hitter with elite speed. Wagner is a line drive hitter. He looks blocked from the field as their is no reason to sit Gimenez. If they platoon him at DH, the right bat will be able to play in Gerrero/Springer/Santander's spot.

Marc - very true, age can be overstated at times, but if you want to get to big numbers which is where I was going then you need an early start - it is extremely hard to get 3000 hits when reaching at 27 (see Ichiro) - you need to have 4000 hit ability to do that. Barry Bonds, even with PEDs, still had trouble reaching Aaron's HR record and he reached at 21. Insane looking at Bonds page - pre-PEDs (by all accounts he started post '98) he led in IBB 7 straight years and led in bWAR 7 times already with 3 MVP's, 8 Gold Gloves, 8 ASG's, had 99.9 bWAR overall with a 164 OPS+, wow (14 years). Post 'only' 4 WAR titles, 0 GG's, 4 MVP's, 214 OPS+ (9 years), led in IBB 5 times. Insanity.

Still, even with those video game numbers Bonds 'only' had 762 HR and 2935 hits. You need health and an early start to get 3000/500. Vlad still has a realistic shot at both (favorite toy has him at 22% for 500 HR, 24% for 3000). Remove his age 20 season and it goes down to 19%/20% for 500/3000 - he'd still have an early start, but less of one. The shortened 2020 season hits Vlad (and many others) hard as it cut 100 games out of the season.

So, one week left to get a Vladdy extension done? The two sides are leaving this pretty late (although sometimes that urgency is what it takes to get across the finish line).

ProspectosMilb@ProspectosMilb · 1h
Juan Caricote C, VZ #BlueJays in 2026.

https://x.com/ProspectosMilb/status/1890173919182876784