10. Fernando Perez | RHP

Photo from csplusbaseball

Fernando Perez really is the GOAT. The Rivas, Nicaragua native was filmed by a Toronto Blue Jays scout trying out with goats in the background and that is how he earned his nickname "The Goat". The Jays are hoping Perez will be one of the greatest of all-time signings on the international free agent market. He signed for just $10,000 in 2022 and made his debut with the Dominican Summer League Blue Jays that year when he posted a 48-5 strikeout/walk total and a 4.53 earned run average in 43⅔ innings.

His US debut in 2023 went pretty well in 2023 when he had a 2.72 ERA and limited Florida Coast League hitters to a .198 average over 49⅔ innings in which he fanned 57 batters and walked a dozen. Perez won two Pitcher of the Week awards in the FCL and was named a league All-Star.

In 2024, Perez was named the Toronto Blue Jays representative at the All-Star Futures Game after spending the year in Dunedin. He logged 82 innings and struck out 86 with 24 walks and had a 4.06 ERA. His workload was limited in the second half of the year as he made three trips to the Temporary Inactive List before being placed on the reserve list in August.

Perez was assigned to Vancouver for 2025 and he had a miserable April as his trademark control deserted him. He walked seven batters and surrendered 12 runs in 11 innings, failing to record an out in his second start at Nat Bailey Stadium.

The month of May signaled a turnout for Perez as he issued just three free passes and struck out 20 batters in 26⅓ innings as he recorded three wins. He continued to roll from there with a 3.20 and 1.45 ERAs turned in during June and July, respectively. Perez did not issue ball four to any Northwest League hitter after the 4th of July as he went 27 innings before a mid-August promotion to New Hampshire. That stretch also included a Northwest League Pitcher of the Week in early August.

With the Fisher Cats, Perez kept Eastern League hitters to a .243 batting average, just one point higher than his Northwest League BA. FanGraphs has his BABIP in the .290s range in 2025 and his FIP was around 3.20, so the numbers were in line with his actual statistics. The C's Pitcher of the Year and a Northwest League Post-Season All-Star, Perez has the standard four-pitch mix in his repertoire, highlighted by his plus-plus control with Baseball America grading it a 70 on the 20-80 scouting scale. That helps boost his below-average fastball, which has touched 94 miles per hour. The publication considers his changeup to be his best pitch, which is rated average.

Perez will get another crack at Double-A New Hampshire in 2026. His 22nd birthday is on February 12.

9. Jake Bloss | RHP

Photo from Sportsnet

Jake Bloss became a member of the Blue Jays organization on July 29th, 2024 as part of the Yusei Kikuchi trade. Bloss had already made his major league debut when Houston had an injury crisis among their starters. The Jays were out of contention and so Bloss went to Buffalo where he struggled to a 6.91 ERA in eighth starts.

Coming into 2025 then, Bloss was trying to prove he belonged in the major leagues. His first three starts didn't help his cause. He gave up 19 runs in three starts. But then he settled down, over his next two starts he didn't allow an earned run with 12 strikeouts in nine innings. He looked to be back on track. His next start was on May 3rd where he left the game in the fourth inning and headed to the surgeons office. Bloss had Tommy John surgery in mid May so he will likely be out until June or July 2026.

Even though Bloss spent four years in university he will still be just 24 at the start of the season and will turn 25 around the time he returns to the mound. Bloss graduated from Lafayette in three years with a double major in math and economics and then transferred to Georgetown where the completed a masters degree in economics.

Bloss throws frour or five pitches, a true starters mix. His four seam fastball sits 93-95 and he also throws a sinker. He adds a slider, curve and change. There is not much to learn from Bloss's six starts in 2025, we will have to see how he pitches on his return from surgery.

2026 will probably be a recovery and consolidation year for Bloss. He will be back mid season and will take a month or so to get back into the routine and build up his arm to handle a starters workload. That will leave a couple of months to show he belongs in the major leagues with an eye towards 2027.

8. RJ Schreck | OF

Photo from bisons.com

RJ Schreck made it to AAA this season, weeks before his 25th birthday, and proceeded to show his excellent eye and show some power despite a trip to the IL.

Schreck started the season in New Hampshire. He got off to a terrible start, he hit .135 in April. But he rebounded to hit .320 in May and was promoted to Buffalo in early June. After nine games in AAA Schreck hit the IL with a hand injury. He didn't get back to Buffalo until a month later. August's numbers are probably a good reflection of the hitter that Schreck is. He hit .247, striking out in around 25% of his at-bats. So an average to below average hitter for average. But he walked 20 times vs 22 strikeouts. He had 20 walks vs 21 hits in the month, boosting his OBP up to .390. Now sometimes that walk rate wont hold up as much in the big leagues, pitchers have better command and they will challenge you. That's were the power comes in, Schreck hit five home runs in the month with three doubles and a triple, giving him a SLG of .482.

Its that balance of eye vs power that will determine Schreck's future in the major leagues. He will walk more than average but what happens when he is challenged? Will he hit more home runs? Scouts peg Schreck as a 15 to 20 home run hitter in the major leagues, could he improve that to 20 to 30? Schreck is a left handed hitter so he would get plenty of at-bats even in a major league platoon.

I have looked at August as a typical Schreck month, although July was somewhat comparable. Schreck did fall off in September which I put down to the end of a season where nothing was on the line, rather than teams finding a weakness in his game.

Schreck came to the Blue Jays in 2024 in exchange for Justin Turner. The Mariners had taken him in the ninth round of the 2023 draft as a senior sign, making him and older draftee. Schreck can play in any outfield position although he is unlikely to be a major league centre fielder.

Schreck should be back in Buffalo to start 2026 and will hope to hit well enough to be in line for a promotion in the event of an injury or poor performance.

7. Juan Sanchez | SS

Photo from @jsa_nchez1

Juan Sanchez made his professional debut in 2025 and what a debut it was. Sanchez was part of the Jays 2025 International signings but he wasn't the headliner. That was Christopher Polanco who signed for over $2M and proceeded to not show anything during the summer. Sanchez signed for just under $1M and burst out of the gates. He hit .312 in June with a 943 OPS. In July he improved to a .318 BA and a 945 OPs but then in August he hit .423 and his OPS was 1195. He also dropped his strikeout rate. His final line for the season was .341/.439/.565. He had 16 doubles, four triples and eight home runs in 214 at-bats.

Geoff Pontes of Baseball America says Sanchez's numbers are very similar to Junior Caminero's. Peak EV is 104 mph, in zone contact rate is 89%. Metrics are all good with a good mix of aggression and patience.

Sanchez stands 6'3" and is listed at 210 pounds. He played the 2025 season as a 17 year old, he turned 18 in September. He split time in the field between shortstop and third base but scouts believe he will eventually be a third baseman as he outgrows shortstop. Third would be a good fit as he has good agility and a strong arm.

6. Ricky Tiedemann | LHP

Photo from MLB.com

Ricky Tiedemann was the invisible man in 2025. He didn't pitch, not even in the fall league. We don't know if this is a good sign or not. There has been no real news about his rehabbing from Tommy John surgery. In the absence of news we will just update his writeup from this time last season.

Before that though, how will the Jays use Tiedemann in 2026? They are always careful about players coming back from TJ. But Ricky has thrown so few innings as a pro can the Jays just give him a starters workload and let him go get it? I am not sure, he will probably be on a short leash for a while. Of course this would change if the Jays decided to put him in the bullpen, then he could have a normal amount of work. Starters are more valuable so you have to assume he will be an innings limited starter to begin 2026. Probably starting in Dunedin before moving up to New Hampshire or Buffalo.

And now edited commentary from last season.

You cannot talk about Ricky Tiedemann without talking about injuries. In the five-and-a-half years since he was drafted, Tiedemann has thrown 158 innings for an average of less than 50 per season. His annual totals have dropped from 78 to 44 to 17 to zero. All those injuries lead to the following questions...Can he stay healthy and can he survive as a starting pitcher? Relief pitchers are less valuable than starting pitchers so if it is expected that Tiedemann will end up in the bullpen, it lowers his prospect ranking. Remember the most important ability for a starting pitcher is availability. Ricky has not had it so far.

There is not much to see in Tiedemann's 2024 performances. He started the season in Buffalo and threw just eight innings before going on the IL. He then went on the IL until June. He made one start in the Complex League and three for Dunedin before returning to Buffalo on July 10th. He lasted just one inning. Shortly thereafter, it was announced that he was going to have Tommy John surgery. He had the surgery on July 30th, meaning it will be 19 months from surgery when spring training games start.

Although Tiedemann was once recognized universally as the Blue Jays number-one prospect, he was only a third-round selection in 2021, selected at number 91 overall. All 30 teams passed on him at least twice. And then he signed for an under-slot deal! Something happened between the draft and Tiedemann pitching professionally where he added several MPH to his fastball. If that had happened a month earlier, he would have been picked much higher in the draft.

Tiedemann throws from the left and has a lower arm slot. His fastball sits in the mid-to-high 90s, 94-97 mph. He complements the fastball with a slider that moves a lot horizontally and a changeup. There has always been some concern that Tiedemann's delivery could make it difficult for him to have enough command of his pitches to be successful as a starting pitcher. We will have to see if the surgery changes anything.

5. Johnny King | LHP

Photo from Baseball America

Johnny King was the Blue Jays third round pick in the 2024 draft, 95th overall. He just finished high school a couple of hours down the road from Dunedin in Naples, Florida. King did not pitch in that first year as most pitching prospects now do. So 2025 was going to be the year when King would show what he could do.

King was just 17 on draft day and he has a good pitchers body, 6'4", 210 pounds. King had accepted an offer to play college ball in Miami and the Jays had to pay him $1.2M to turn pro.

King made his debut on May 10th in the complex league throwing two innings. He appeared in seven games building up to 4.2 innings. He left the FCL with a 1.13 ERA and 41 strikeouts in 24 innings. Promoted to Dunedin at the end of June he pitched for them eleven times. Through his first eight games in the FSL he had a 1.93 ERA. Two not so good starts at the end of August pushed his ERA up to 3.35. He had 64 strikeouts in 37.2 innings. He walked thirty, one area that needs improvement. The 30 walks were more than his hits allowed, 27. Wildness is normal in a younger pitcher and should improve as he gets older. King's birthday is in July so he pitched half the season as an 18 year old.

King is described as an athletic lefty. His fastball averages 93-95 MPH and comes from a low 3/4 slot. The pitch has plenty of life and is considered one of the best fastballs among left handed pitching prospects. Baseball America says King's fastball has some of the highest movement of any lefthander in pro ball in 2025. With King's young age there is the possibility that he could add a tick or two of speed to the pitch to make it even better. He also throws a curveball and a changeup.

King looks to be headed for Vancouver in 2026 although the Jays could do what they did with Trey Yesavage tin 2025, that is hold him back in Florida through April before sending him north.

4. Gage Stanifer | RHP

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The top two pitching prospects were only seen pitching together in Vancouver only once in 2025 but what a day it was. Trey Yesavage set the tone with 4⅓ innings of no-hit ball and Gage Stanifer struck out seven batters over four shutout innings for the save against Tri-City on May 30. Blue Jays fans may be seeing that dominating combo at SkyDome in the very near future.

Stanifer played football and baseball growing up but numerous concussions and a broken collarbone on the gridiron meant baseball would become his main focus when he attended Westfield High School in Indiana, 35 miles north of his birthplace of Indianapolis. In his junior and senior seasons of 2021 and 2022, Stanifer struck out 183 batters in 90 innings and won 12 games while keeping an ERA below 1.00.

The Toronto Blue Jays drafted Stanifer in the 19th round of the 2022 MLB Draft and gave him a signing bonus of $125,000 to turn down a chance to go to the University of Cincinnati. In his first season as a pro in 2023, he fanned 47 batters in 42⅔ innings, but he walked 23 with an ERA above six. He was assigned to Low-A Dunedin and had another tough year with a year-ending 6.34 ERA, one point higher than his FCL mark. Stanifer was still his strikeout an inning pace by whiffing 64 batters in 59⅔ innings, but his walk rate shot up up from 4.85 to 7.54 per nine innings.

In a scene right out of the movie Major League when Ricky Vaughn began to pitch better after wearing glasses, it was discovered that Stanifer had astigmatism in one of his eyes after a series of vision tests during spring training as reported by Mitch Bannon of The Athletic.

After getting contacts, Stanifer started rolling by giving up just three runs in seven relief appearances with Dunedin to begin 2025 as he worked in tandem with Trey Yesavage. Florida State Leaguers were hitting a paltry .112 against him at the time of his callup to Vancouver along with Yesavage and Khal Stephen. The Yesavage/Stanifer combo remained intact until Yesavage's promotion in June.

Stanifer stepped into a starting role with the C's and found his groove in late July and August, rattling off three straight wins at one point and recording a 1.69 ERA in August. He began to wear his googles more on the mound before getting a promotion to New Hampshire in September.

Vancouver Canadians catcher Aaron Parker had this assesement of Stanifer in a chat with C's Plus Baseball.

"He's a stuffy guy, and when I mean stuff, I just mean his fastball is a very, very good pitch. His slider's a very, very good pitch, and his splitter is also a very, very good pitch when we can get it in the zone. And for him, he's a high-strung guy, right? So maybe that deep breath for him is the extra deep breath he needs to re-lock in and making sure that his eyes are on the target and not necessarily, you know, elsewhere. So for him, it's locking in pitch to pitch, and you just let his athleticism take over. His power and athleticism speak for itself and stand alone, I think, against any baseball competition in the world. "

Stanifer calls his slider as his "out pitch," which grades out to above-average to plus. Stanifer told C's Plus Baseball he changed the shape of his slider in 2025.

"I would say last year it was definitely more gyro. This year it's more, I would say more curveball-shaped. It's got a lot more depth and it's harder. So it's definitely an outlier, but it's helped me a lot."

His four-seam fastball clocked in around 94-96 miles per hour. That was an uptick of about three miles per hour from 2024 and Stanifer attributes that boost to working with an inflatable 12-inch Connection Ball.

"It was actually around the All-Star break last year, working with (pitching coach) Cory Riordan in Dunedin. We started to use the Connection Ball with the glove side. That ended up cleaning up my mechanics and my upper-half and everything. I actually saw the velo jump about three miles an hour towards the back half of the season last year. And then moving into the off-season, I was continuing working on the movement patterns and everything I worked on in-season and getting more comfortable with all of that."

His fastball is considered above-average while his changeup and control check in as fringe-average.

Stanifer's BABIP marks were quite the contrast in 2025, ranging from .196 and 1.88 with Dunedin and New Hampshire with a .340 in between with Vancouver. His FIP was 2.30, 90 points below his ERA.

The 2026 season should see Stanifer in New Hampshire once again. He will be 23 years old on November 18.

3. Jojo Parker | SS

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Jojo Parker was the Jays first round pick, eighth overall, in the 2025 draft. He signed for a $6.2M bonus. The last time the Jays had a pick this early in the draft was in 2020 when Austin Martin was the fifth pick in the draft. The Jays hope that Parker will work out better than Martin.

Parker is a powerful 6'2", 195 left handed slugger. His swing is described as picturesque. He was one of the best hitters in the draft. Scouts believe he can hit the fastball and can adjust for spin. He has a good eye at the plate. In short at this stage scouts are not pointing to any weaknesses in his swing.

Parker grew up in Purvis, Mississippi and has a twin brother who was also drafted. Parker is an average runner and although he plays shortstop now, scouts believe a move to third base is in his future. He does have above average arm strength which would work at third.

Parker did not play after being drafted. He will likely start 2026 in the complex league and hope to get a chance to play in Dunedin before the end of the season. It remains to be seen whether the Jays will play him at shortstop. The complex leagues often have a surplus of shortstops so Parker could see some rotation between short and third.

2. Arjun Nimmala | SS

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The 2025 season started well for Arjun Nimmala but it did not end the same way. After homering off Pittsburgh hurler Yohan Ramírez in spring training, the right-handed hitter began the year with Vancouver. He began his C's tenure with a 11-game on-base streak that included 10 straight with a base hit. The 6-foot-1, 190-pound Nimmala slashed .294/.362/.541 in April and .289/.372/.528 in May, including one Player of the Week award and there was speculation that Nimmala was going to be promoted to New Hampshire. Unfortunately, the bottom fell out as he endured a late-June slump when he went 0-for-33 before getting a base hit on Canada Day. Nimmala's monthly batting averages for June and July were .158 and .186 before a slight uptick in August at .221.

Nimmala maintained a steady walk rate from 2024 to 2025 at just over 10 percent and reduced his strikeout rate by more than nine percent from over 30 percent. His ISO power mark suffered a 94-point drop to .156 and his line drive rate was only above 15 percent after being in the low-20 percent range in 2024. His BABIP luck was a career-low .266 after being in the .300 range the year before.

Baseball America says Nimmala was guilty of hitting the ball off the end of the bat and MLB Pipeline added Blue Jays coaches felt he was not putting himself in the best position to hit.

Both publications have Nimmala as a fringe-average hitter with above-average-to-plus power. His throwing arm is considered to be a 60 on the 20-80 scouting scale with Baseball America saying he has the best infield arm in the Blue Jays farm system. His running and fielding are said to be average to above-average.

A shoulder injury saw Nimmala being limited to designated hitter duties in April but he was still able to start 98 appearances at short, committing 14 errors. That was one fewer in 74 apperances at the six spot in Dunedin last year.

The 20th pick of the 2023 MLB Draft was selected by the Blue Jays from Strawberry Crest High School in Dover, Florida, turning down a commitment to Florida State. Nimmala led the Chargers to consecutive District titles in 2021 and 2022 and was named the Florida Gatorade Player of the Week after an eye-popping 1.477 OPS in his 2023 senior season. His pro debut saw him draw 14 walks in his nine games for an on-base percentage of .500 in his 40 trips to the plate for the Florida Complex League Blue Jays.

In his first spring training in 2024, he homered off former Blue Jay Brian Moran but he had trouble adapting to Florida State League pitching as he struck out 43 times in 29 games with Dunedin. That resulted in a trip to the Development List on May 14. After an eight-game trial in the FCL where he slugged .571, Nimmala returned to Dunedin and rounded into form by winning the Florida State League Player of the Month for August. In 82 games with the D-Jays, he slugged 16 home runs and finished with a slugging percentage of .476.

Nimmala began earning more media scrutiny when he starred in the documentary, "Indian Baseball Dreams," which aired on MLB Network in 2024. Though he was born in Tampa, Nimmala grew up in India where he also played cricket, just like his father. More media scrutiny awaited Nimmala in 2025 as he was interviewed by NBC, CBC, Global TV and MLB Network among many outlets.

Nimmala may very well return to Vancouver to begin 2026. C's fans hope to see him break out his bow-and-arrow celebration when he homers. He told C's Plus Baseball why he does that.

"I'm named after an archer in Hindu mythology so just using that kind of represents that.  I think any special moment that we have as a team, whether it be a double, a homer, anything.  That's a celebration I use. Just different guys have different things that they do, but that's the meaning behind what I do."

Nimmala will be 21 years old on October 16.

1. Trey Yesavage | RHP

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Vancouver Canadians catcher Aaron Parker had this to say about Trey Yesavage at C’s Plus Baseball.

“He’s special. Like, the stuff, the pitchability, everything that he has is very, very elite, and it’s one of those games as a catcher where you’re like, I have to be good for him, you know? Like, I’m waking up, I know it’s Trey’s start day. But Trey’s fastball, splitter, curveball, slider, like, all I know is that if I have a bat in my hands, I do not want to be facing Trey Yesavage.”

A lot of batters did not want to face the 6-foot-4, 225-pound Yesavage throughout minor and major league baseball in 2025. He made his pro debut with Dunedin and ended his first month with a Florida State League Pitcher of the Week award. Yesavage was sent to Vancouver, where he made four starts, just one in Vancouver where he offset four walks with five strikeouts over 4⅓ hitless innings. After limiting Northwest Leage hitters to a .086 batting average, he was promoted to New Hampshire where he kept hitters two points below the Mendoza line before getting the call to Buffalo where he was limited to 17⅓ innings but still overpowered hitters with a .150 batting average against and a WHIP of 1.15.

The call to Baseball North came when Yesavage debuted against the Tampa Bay Rays at Steinbrenner Field, where he had pitched with Dunedin in his last start in April. After fanning 10 Tampa Tarpons over 4⅔ innings on April 25, Yesavage overcame a bumpy beginning to fan nine Rays over five frames in an eventual win. He earned his first major league win against Tampa 12 days later to move the Jays one win away from their eventual American League East title.

In the postseason, Yesavage dominated the New York Yankees by allowing just one walk while punching out 11 batters over 5⅓ innings for the win in Game 2 of the Division Championship Series. He had a tough Game 2 of the ALCS against Seattle but rebounded with 5⅔ of two-run ball to get the victory in Game 6. Yesavage had his longest outing of the season in Game 5 of the World Series with seven stanzas of one-run ball with a rookie-record 12 strikeouts against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Before getting to the World Series, Yesavage starred at Boyertown High School in Pennsylvania where he also played football as a lineman on both sides of the ball. On the diamond, he threw a no-hitter in as a sophomore in 2019 and after COVID cancelled his 2020 season, Yesavage posted a 0.97 ERA with 83 strikeouts in 50 innings during his senior campaign in 2021. He also starred in a number of Perfect Game events as he earned eight All-Tournament selections and three Tournament MVP awards.

In college ball, Yesavage began as a reliever at East Carolina and logged 26 innings with 46 strikeouts and a 4.50 ERA in 2022. He joined the Pirates starting rotation and put together a 7-1 record, a 2.61 ERA and 105 Ks in 76 IP. The 2024 season saw Yesavage was named a First Team All-American after winning 11 of 12 decisions with a 2.03 ERA and 145 whiffs in 93⅓ frames. He rebounded from a partially collapsed lung to pitch 7&frac; innings of one-run ball with six strikeouts against the eventual number 2 pick of the 2024 MLB Draft, Chase Burns, and Wake Forest in the NCAA Greenville Regional. The Blue Jays would pounce on Yesavage after he slid to them with the 20th pick of the 2024 draft.

Yesavage’s over-the-top delivery gives hitters fits as it appears he is catapulting the ball to the plate. His mid-90s fastball is considered to be plus as it touches the high-90 mile per hour range with an induced vertical break of around 20 inches. The splitter and slider are also rated as plus offerings with Baseball America calling the splitter a 70 pitch on the 20-80 scouting scale. His overall control is said to be average. MLB Pipeline says Yesavage also employs a spike curveball that was not used that often in 2025.

Yesavage is expected to be a frontline starter with Toronto and a contender for the American League Rookie of the Year in 2026. He will turn 23 years old on July 28.

And that's it, we hope you enjoyed it. Big thanks to #2JBrumfield, aka Niall O'Donohoe, aka C's Plus, for being the other half of the Top-30 dynamic duo.