Interesting to look at first weekend stats...
Pinango 0 for 8 with a walk. Ugh.
Clase has 11 AB but just a 413 OPS
3 different pitchers have 3 IP each to lead the team (Dallas, Harrison, and Voth) in those 9 IP they allowed 7 H 4 R/ER 0 BB 8 K's and 2 HR.
Chase Lee threw 2 IP 2 H 1 R (unearned) 0 BB 1 SO.

Fun to look and see what is going on. Won't mean much for another month or so though. Lee isn't hurting his chances of a call up if/when someone gets hurt.

An FYI on a former top Jay prospect - Orelvis Martinez was released by Washington in spring. I just looked him up out of curiosity and was surprised he isn't on anyone's roster at the moment. Boy did his star collapse fast. PED's will do that.

Good to see Cheese back and healthy. Hopefully can become a serviceable depth arm this year (though that could be said as the best case outcome for most of the AAA pitchers).

Can't wait for Friday.

Power-hitting OF Yeuni Munoz has been released; they just can't develop Latin America players... Reliever TJ Brock moved back to the 60-day DL after missing all of 2025 due to TJ surgery.

In the case of Munoz, was development the issue? He posted a 30% K rate in the DSL his first season. Who was the last player developed by any team who did that?

Presumably we aren't counting Vladdy as a Latin America player?  I'd argue that Moreno was developed by us as well.  Not a great hit rate, but its not zero. 

Munoz was also injured all the time. So we really don't know if it was a developmental issue.

Whether its scouting or development, the Latin American IFA process for the Jays during the last decade has been a tire fire. Its area most in need of improvement for the franchise.

Sure, there's the odd hit (Vladdy and Moreno as mentioned, also Kirk)... but those guys were all 2015-16, would have been scouted/hands shook in 2012-2014. Since then, Kendry Rojas in 2020, Victor Arias in 2019, Leo Jimenez in 2017... there's not many players that get out of the FCL or Low-A... Toronto now seems to see Latin America as mostly roster fillers, which is sad given how great the 80s were.

I haven't run any numbers but partly the Latin miss-rate has to do with how VERY MANY Latin guys teams sign. When you have 60 guys playing in the Dominican at any given time, if, say, five of them get as far as Vancouver you think they are doing something right but that means 11 of 12 will flame out.

The interesting thing to me, and I know this is balanced out by less prominent guys who show progress, is how very often the top dollar guy doesn't progress. Belte and Bonilla and Meza and DeCastro. Mostly guys that were not seen at the time as mistake signings and yet...flops.

From 2016 to 2021 six players turned out to be contributing (at least on the margins) major league players - and none of them were the top bonus guys that year not counting Orelvis' one AB
(could still be more than six - Rojas is still on track for example - but as of now)

I saw a study a while back that seems to validate the poor track record of expensive IFA signings. Their conclusion was spreading the money around yields the better results.

Houston has had excellent success with signing older and second tier IFA prospects, particularly on the pitching side of things.

Future Agreements

27 Junior Fortunato OF L/R 6'0 155 11/20/09
Google AI has Fortunato a top prospect
https://www.instagram.com/p/DMeb7kaszKc/?img_index=1

28 Angel Montas OF LH 01/15/11 $5.7m bonus
https://www.instagram.com/p/DBFkMKkuRNH/?hl=ar&img_index=1

29 Yandel Pena SS
https://www.instagram.com/p/DU1Pz8iAQ_v/

Colt Emerson whom the Seattle Mariners drafted 2 spots after the Jays drafted Arjun Nimmala is already at AAA and looks primed to join Seattle soon and the Mariners just signed Emerson to an eight year deal with an option. I hope the Jays didn't whiff with Nimmala who really struggled in the 2nd half last year.

Everybody myself included loved the Arjun pick, who knows if he will work out or not but you bet on the upside there.

Dunedin have announced their projected roster. Here are some notables:

Pitching: Brandon Barriera and Nolan Perry

Infield: Jojo Parker and Peyton Williams

Outfield: Blaine Bullard and Enmanuel Bonilla


I wonder why Peyton Williams is in A ball, perhaps its part of his rehab.

Blaine Bullard was one of the standouts in camp so going to Dunedin rather than the complex league is a reward.

Enmanuel Bonilla didn't earn a promotion based on his FCL performance last season, maybe he learned something in the post season leagues.

Vancouver roster is out too. I see Arjun Nimmala, Jake Casey Johnny King and Landen Maroudis.

Vancouver

RHP Eminen Flores, LHP Mason Olson, RHP Danny Thompson Jr., RHP Daniel Guerra, RHP Kelena Sauer, RHP Holden Wlkerson, RHP Landen Maroudis, RHP Jay Schueler, RHP Austin Cates, RHP Colby Holcombe, RHP Austin Marozas, RHP Aaron Munson, RHP Carson Pierce, RHP Jonathan Todd, LHP Juanmi Vasquez
C Edward Duran, C Hayden Gilliland, C Jacob Sharp
INF Kendry Chirinos, INF Maddox Latta, INF Manny Beltre, UTL Carter Cunningham, INF JR Freethy, Nimmala, INF Tucker Toman
OF Mathieu Vallee, OF Jake Casey, OF Alexis Hernandez and OF Brennan Orf.

Dunedin 2026 Opening Day Roster

Pitchers (16): Brandon Barriera, Trace Baker, Mason Davenport, Diego Dominguez, Jack Eshleman, Troy Guthrie, Brayden Heidel, Karson Ligon, Carson Myers, Noah Palmese, Dayne Pengelly, Nolan Perry, Lluveres Severino, Franly Urena, Dylan Watts, Reece Wissinger

Catchers (3): Will Cresswell, Charlie Saum, Jaxson West

Infielders (6): Raimundo De Los Santos, Aldo Gaxiola, JoJo Parker, Dariel Ramon, Eric Snow, Peyton Williams

Outfielders (5): Enmanuel Bonilla, Blaine Bullard, Yorman Licourt, Matt Scannell, Austin Smith

Looking back at kast years draft:

1.Parker - Dunedin
2. Cook - injured
3. Bucknam - ?? Injured maybe
4. Piasentin - Assume complex league
5. Snow - Dunedin
6. Watts - Dunedin
7. Thompson - Vancouver
8. Ligon - Dunedin
9. Smith - Dunedin
10. Spencer - Injured
11. Bullard - Dunedin
12. Baker - Dunedin
13. Palmese - Dunedin
14. Casey - Vancouver
15. West - Dunedin
16. Rich - Assume complex league
17. Cresswell - Dunedin
18. Kovach - ???

Vancouver is the right call for Nimmala. Last year wasn't a fluke - he's got some issues at the plate that need to be sorted out. No reason to push things.

missed for Van

P Gilberto Batista
P Johnny King

There's also a preliminary NH roster though it wasn't mentioned in the stories on the aggregator.

Names missing which you assume will turn up somewhere:

Hedbert Perez (of)
Fernando Perez
Silvano Hechavarria
Yonrei Rojas
Victor Arias
Adrian Pinto
Gil Bautista
David Beckles

Batista on Van roster

NEW HAMPSHIRE
Pitchers (15): Alex Amalfi, Irv Carter, Brendan Cellucci, Javen Coleman, Caleb Freeman, Pat Gallagher, Richard Gallardo, Nate Garkow, Chris McElvain, Conor Larkin, Kai Peterson, Gage Stanifer, Geison Urbaez

Catchers (3): Aaron Parker, Geovanny Planchart, Alex Stone

Infielders (6): Cutter Coffey, Cade Doughty, Nick Goodwin, Jay Harry, Jackson Hornung, Sean Keys

Outfielders (5): Jace Bohrofen, Jorge Burgos, Eddie Micheletti Jr., Ismael Munguia, Je'Von Ward

NH roster includes:

Pitchers Gage Stanifer, Fernando Perez, Chris McElvain, Jackson Wentworth, Javen Coleman and Nate Garkow.

Infielders Cade Doughty and Jackson Hornung are back in NH along with Sean Keys and Cutter Coffey.

Players who start the season on the IL usually get posted on or close to opening day.

Perez, Pinto, and Bautista now accounted for.

It's been a minute since I had any faith in Van Eck but he had a good night tonight. One of the beat guys wrote encouraging things about him this spring but it's not the most insane thing that he figured out something that gives them some confidence in him.

Here it is:
https://www.sportsnet.ca/mlb/article/three-minor-leaguers-who-could-debut-with-the-blue-jays-in-2026/

After throwing 126 minor-league innings in 2025, setting a career-high in his third season since returning from Tommy John surgery, CJ Van Eyk could have called it a year. But he wanted to prove something to himself and his organization by continuing to accumulate volume, so he packed his stuff and headed for Mexico where he piled 49.2 innings on top of an already substantial workload.

And those innings, spread across nine starts, ended up being some of the best he’s thrown as a professional. Van Eyk pitched to a 2.90 ERA with strong peripherals — 25.4 K percentage; 7.2 BB percentage — while allowing only two home runs. He was so dependable that when his contract came up around American Thanksgiving, Van Eyk’s team — Aguilas de Mexicali — extended him a more lucrative one to entice him to stick around and keep pitching.

“It was an intense atmosphere. And that’s why I really liked it. I think I thrive on pressure,” Van Eyk said. “I didn’t know PitchCom’s went up to 20. But I had to turn mine up to 20 multiple times.”

Van Eyk also used his time in Mexico to continue refining his sinker and a new sweeper against right-handed hitters, who gave him trouble over the first half of the 2025 minor-league season.

Van Eyk upped his sweeper usage considerably over the final two months of the year and found success with it, earning a whiff 34 per cent of the time hitters swung at it. It’s a pitch he picked up early in the year to give him a better bat-missing weapon for righties than the gyro slider he’d relied upon in the past.

Of course, the original slider is still a part of his repertoire, as is a four-seamer, sinker, curveball and changeup. He’s sinker-dominant against righties while leading with his four-seamer to lefties. Both heaters sit 93-m.p.h. but can climb as high as 96.

Van Eyk’s curve continues to be his best — and often most-used — pitch. Opponents hit .215 against it while whiffing 31 per cent of the time in 2025. But if he can continue to see success with the sweeper, he’ll have multiple breaking balls to play off a pair of fastball shapes, plus an off-speed pitch to give him the kind of varied attack required to turn a lineup over in the majors.

The Blue Jays experimented with using Van Eyk out of the bullpen around the middle of last season but he’ll enter 2026 as a starter filling an area of need. After trading away Khal Stephen, Kendrys Rojas and Juaron Watts-Brown — three starters who would have been part of Buffalo’s rotation this year — at last July’s deadline, the organization has a void of upper-minors starting depth.

Macko will be used as a one-trip-through reliever going forward. Ricky Tiedeman and Chad Dallas will have their workloads managed coming off Tommy John surgery and likely pitch tandem outings with one another. Yariel Rodriguez may be used as a starter out of necessity but that experiment has already been run unsuccessfully at the major-league level.

That puts a pitcher like Van Eyk on the cusp of the majors, particularly now that Trey Yesavage and Jose Berrios will be joining Shane Bieber on the season-opening injured list. And the adjustments he made in 2025 showed he’s not done searching for ways to improve, even now that he’s a half-dozen years removed from being a 2020 second-round pick.

“I got up to 176 innings, which I was really happy with. I proved that I could do that,” Van Eyk said. “And I felt pretty good. Hopefully, we can increase it a little bit more again this year. I guess we’re going to run out of games in Buffalo. But, hopefully, I get to throw some more up in the big leagues.”