PHILADELPHIA — Nolan Perry’s quiet demeanour earned him a unique nickname from Dunedin Blue Jays manager Ryan Casteel during the month the right-hander spent in low-A to open the season.
“Skipper calls him the guard dog,” JoJo Parker, the Toronto Blue Jays’ first-round pick last year, said of his former teammate. “He sits by the door, watches everybody getting in and out of the clubhouse.”
Parker, however, prefers something else: “He's just the silent assassin.”
“Nolan’s gross,” Parker continued. “He's a very quiet guy, but he's a very, very good player and he's going to do really good things. It's really fun for me (playing behind him) on the infield. I didn't really get to do much. I just watched him dominate.”
The two of them reunited Sunday as the Blue Jays’ representatives in the annual All-Star Futures Game, won 6-1 by the American League over the National League. Canadian catcher Nathan Flewelling, a 19-year-old in high-A with the Tampa Bay Rays, hit a two-run homer to bag MVP honours, while Parker added an RBI double off the right-field wall, impressively turning around a 101.1 m.p.h. fastball from Miguel Sime Jr.
“There are a lot of future all-stars in this clubhouse and on that field, I just wanted to come here and have fun, and I absolutely did,” said Parker. “(Sime) threw me a first-pitch fastball, got jammed, was a little late to it, and then he threw a big breaking ball, he challenged it (unsuccessfully), knew he was coming back with the heater there, wanted to be on time. Got my swing off and turned it around.
“I got jammed a little bit, to be honest with you. If I got barrel, it would have been crushed.”
A 19-year-old selected eighth overall a summer ago, Parker is enjoying a strong pro debut at low-A Dunedin, batting .242/.381/.426 with nine homers, 47 RBIs and 21 stolen bases in 72 games. That he was selected for the prospect showcase event speaks to how well he’s hit the ground running, which isn’t entirely surprising given his talent and upside.
“He's a freak,” said Perry, who allowed a run on a walk and a hit-batter in his inning. “Super athlete. Probably hits the ball further than anybody I've ever seen. His swing is so pure.”
Perry, on the other hand, faced a more uncertain path after blowing out his arm late in a solid 2024 season and underwent reconstructive elbow surgery, among the wave of Blue Jays prospects to need the Tommy John procedure that miserable year.
The 22-year-old missed all of 2025 but, in the words of farm director Joe Sclafani, “absolutely crushed his rehab” to the point that he “was annoyed with us that he started in Dunedin, I can tell you that.”
Rather than pouting, Perry proceeded to run through the level, allowing only eight hits and four earned runs in 21 innings while striking out 32. He then dominated at high-A Vancouver for seven starts, striking out 46 batters in 30.2 innings, to earn another bump to double-A New Hampshire, where he struck out seven in three shutout innings in his first start there.
Outing No. 2 was rained out, making his inning at Citizens Bank Park his first action since, the Futures Game outing aligning with wider industry recognition of his progress, including a spot in MLB Pipeline’s mid-season top-100 at No. 96.
“I mean, I was just happy to be playing again, but I always wanted to be in Vancouver and just move up,” Perry said of starting in Dunedin. “But I understood I hadn't pitched in a while, two years, so I was just ready to get back on the mound and compete.”
When he last did that in 2024 with Dunedin before his injury, he posted a 2.93 ERA with 57 strikeouts in 46 innings. But those results were more driven by his feel for pitching and ability to utilize a four-pitch repertoire that includes a slider, a less-used curveball and a work-in-progress splitter aimed at giving him something running in on righties.
This time around, he’s enjoying an uptick in his stuff, something before the surgery that the Blue Jays had projected for him eventually.
Toward the end of his rehab, however, he began to notice “the ball coming out a little easier, a little harder in the bullpen.” At spring training, when he began facing hitters, he “actually put 94s and 95s out easier than I had in the past, so it was nice to see that.”
“At the beginning of the year, I was just ready after sitting out for those two years,” said Perry. “Once I went out there, the adrenaline rush kicked in and the competitiveness in me, I just went after it, man.”
He did the same thing during the third inning at Citizens Bank Park, where he hit his first batter and walked the second before getting consecutive groundballs, the second by Jesus Made bringing in a run before Roldy Brito was thrown out trying to steal third to end the frame.
“The one thing I hate more than anything is walks,” he said, “so I tried to be in the zone as much as I can.”
Flewelling, meanwhile, has been in a zone with high-A Bowling Green, batting .261/.394/.496 with 16 homers and 47 RBIs in 73 games. Like so many Canadian players percolating into the pro ranks now, he grew up watching the Jose Bautista-Josh Donaldson era Blue Jays. Toronto had interest in taking him in the 2024 draft before the Rays plucked him in the third round.
After a solid first season in the pros, his time back home over the winter working both on his defence and timing at the plate, “trying to clean up the bat path, being efficient as possible, being able to catch up to the velocity,” Flewelling said, adding he focused on ways to “consistently have a good approach, learning what pitches I can attack and what pitches can I do damage on.”
Something he showcased against several of the game’s top prospects in the Futures Game.
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