Blue Jays prospects who could contribute in 2025

Some rather big problems the Toronto Blue Jays faced over the last two seasons went unresolved thanks to a lack of viable big-leaguers being produced internally.

When Alek Manoah struggled and ended up in the minors in 2023, the club turned to a four-man rotation with occasional bullpen days because there wasn’t a workable starter to call up from triple-A. When the back end of Toronto’s bullpen imploded last year, exposing a lack of capable relief depth, the Blue Jays were left pushing middle relievers into leverage while churning through waivers hoping to catch lightning with castoffs from other organizations.

Offensively, the most impactful homegrown contributors to debut over the last two years have been Davis Schneider (2.3 fWAR since 2023) and Spencer Horwitz (2.0). Those are success stories, but the Blue Jays have needed much more to address low-ceiling offences lacking pop. Without upward pressure on the big-league roster, the club’s been forced to look for answers externally via free agency — Brandon Belt, Anthony Santander, Justin Turner, Daniel Vogelbach — to mixed results.

Injuries happen. Underperformance happens. To be successful over 162, clubs must have the depth to backfill for those inevitabilities. And now more than ever, with Chris Bassitt, Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Chad Green, Max Scherzer, and Erik Swanson pending free agents, Toronto’s drafting and development systems need to produce better outcomes.

So, let’s look at eight players from within who could play for the Blue Jays this season, providing immediate impact and helping clarify Toronto’s roster picture going forward.

2B/3B Orelvis Martinez

With bottom-10 marks across MLB in home runs, barrel rate, average exit velocity, and isolated power over the last two seasons, it’s obvious the Blue Jays' biggest need offensively is more thump. And aside from Guerrero Jr., the best source of it within the organization is Martinez.

We likely would’ve already seen a multiple-month look at how the 23-year-old’s power translates to the big-leagues if not for Martinez testing positive for a banned substance only two days after his MLB debut last June. But with his 80-game suspension served, and strong reports emerging from Dunedin about the physical strides he was able to make while sidelined, Martinez is once again the most impactful bat the Blue Jays could call upon from the minors.

Since 2021, only two minor-league players have hit more home runs than Martinez’s 103 — and he just missed half a season. He had a 94th-percentile hard-hit rate and 96th percentile barrel rate at triple-A in 2024, and there’s no reason to worry about those power numbers dipping after his positive test result. Martinez hit 28 bombs in 98 games when he was only 19. The power’s always been there.

Martinez’s 30-per-cent chase rate at triple-A last season is certainly cause for concern — particularly his 40.4 per cent chase rate against right-handed breaking pitches. But that comes with the territory as a power hitter, and Martinez has already made strides in his strike-zone management and swing decisions from his days in the lower minors.

Game power like Martinez’s doesn’t come around often. And even if his approach and defence are still a little rough around the edges, he could offset that and then some if he helps the Blue Jays address their two-year power drought.

OF Alan Roden

If you’re looking for a sleeper pick to be Toronto’s most impactful rookie in 2025, Roden’s it.

After reworking his swing at DriveLine last off-season, Roden got out to a slow start as he continued ironing out the kinks before hitting his stride in the second half, hitting .313/.402/.504 from the beginning of June on. His 140 wRC+ with Buffalo ranked among the top-20 hitters to make at least 250 plate appearances at triple-A last season. And he flashed his baserunning ability, stealing 14 bases in 15 attempts on the year.

Roden’s yet to tap into much power but his strength and a 112.2-m.p.h. maximum exit velocity at triple-A are among the reasons why the Blue Jays believe it’s in there. As was the case with Horwitz — who hit a career-high 16 homers last season between triple-A and the majors — it may be a matter of experience and learning how to take shots earlier in plate appearances, relying on strong bat-to-ball skill and barrel control to still put the ball in play with two strikes.

Roden certainly possesses the ability. He has nearly as many walks (149) as strikeouts (152) in his career and ran a 91st-percentile contact rate at triple-A last year. If he can come into a bit more power in his age-25 season, Roden won’t have much more to prove at triple-A. And if the Blue Jays have a medium-to-long term corner outfield need in 2025, he’ll likely be the one to fill it.

SS Josh Kasevich

Long regarded internally as the best shortstop defender in Toronto’s system, Kasevich showed Blue Jays evaluators something with the bat upon reaching triple-A last August, hitting .325/.382/.433 with a 116 wRC+ over the final 41 games of his season. No one’s expecting him to become a silver slugger, but if Kasevich can layer average-to-above offence against upper-level pitching on top of his defence and versatility, he could fill a utility role in the majors for quite some time.

Kasevich fits the Blue Jays' preferred mould as an uber high-contact hitter with a discerning plate approach who grinds on opposition pitchers. With BuffaloBisons last season, Kasevich ran a 21.1-per-cent chase rate — only a tick above Horwitz’s, which was lowest on the team — while posting the fifth-highest contact rate among triple-A players. And he demonstrated an all-fields approach, hitting more balls the opposite way than he did to his pull side or back up the middle.

How much power he’ll ultimately hit for remains a question. But he did have Buffalo’s fourth-highest average exit velocity, behind Will Robertson, Addison Barger, and Jonatan Clase. Even if he can merely make a tweak to get more of his contact off the ground — Kasevich has regularly run groundball rates above 50 per cent — the 23-year-old could help the Blue Jays backfill for any up-the-middle injuries this season.

SP Jake Bloss

There was so much excitement around Toronto’s surprising trade deadline acquisition of Bloss, along with Joey Loperfido and Will Wagner from the Houston Astros for Yusei Kikuchi, that it was easy to overlook what a crazy 2024 he had.

Bloss began the year at high-A, was in double-A by the beginning of May, and a big-leaguer in June as the Astros scrambled to cover for a rash of pitching injuries. From there he bounced between the majors and triple-A, battling sporadic shoulder fatigue, before changing organizations at the deadline. In all, Bloss pitched for five different teams at four separate levels over 24 outings.

So, maybe it shouldn’t have been a surprise that his gas tank ran low in September, as Bloss finished his season with a string of disappointing starts at triple-A. Just as it shouldn’t be a surprise if he shines in Grapefruit League play this spring and gets out to a strong start with Buffalo in April.

Bloss’s 93-94 m.p.h. heater plays up thanks to well above-average extension, which is part of the reason why he earned a 25-per-cent whiff rate with the pitch in the minors last season. All of his pitches benefit from that extra tick of perceived velocity, and while none of them will jump off the page metrically, the depth of Bloss’s arsenal allows him to mix and match with carrying fastballs, a pair of sliders moving to his glove-side, a curveball, and a changeup pronating arm-side.

That gives him the tools to pitch quality starts at the highest level, which is what the Blue Jays will no doubt be asking him to do at some point this season when they need a rotation backfill.

SP Adam Macko

Joining Bloss in the first layer of Blue Jays starting depth in 2025 will be Macko, who got out to a strong start last season at double-A before a forearm issue sidelined him for nearly two months. He returned towards the end of the season and got to triple-A for his final start of the year, which is where he’ll begin 2025 awaiting his first call to the majors.

The soon-to-be 24-year-old has battled injuries throughout his professional career, which has capped his innings total in a single season to last year’s 93.1. But when he’s been on the mound, the left-hander has used his low-to-mid-90’s fastball effectively to set up a slider and changeup in the low-80’s, plus a big, loopy low-70’s curveball that would make Chris Bassitt proud. It’s that arsenal depth that gives Macko the look of a back-end starter in the making.

Macko still has work to do to command his pitches more consistently and limit walks before anyone’s installing him in a big-league rotation. But the Blue Jays had 10 different pitchers start games last year, which was still below MLB average. It’s a good bet that at some point this season Macko’s first big-league opportunity will present itself.

RP Mason Fluharty

Genesis Cabrera and Tim Mayza combined to throw 87.1 innings for the Blue Jays last season, but with both now out of the organization the club is going to need some left-handed relief help from within. And Fluharty’s positioned as well as anyone in the system to fill the void.

The 23-year-old — five years younger than the average age in triple-A last season — worked to a 3.63 ERA over 67 innings with Buffalo in 2024, carrying a serviceable 18.4-per-cent strikeout-minus-walk rate. He was lights out against same-sided hitting, as you’d expect, striking out a third of the lefties he faced. But he fared fine against right-handers, as well, holding them to a .727 OPS and .650 xOPS in an International League environment where the league-average OPS was .763.

The soft-tossing Fluharty mixes a high-spin, 88-m.p.h. cutter with a slider that averaged 17 inches of glove-side movement last season, the fifth-most of any triple-A left-hander. Fluharty’s slider produced a 39.3-per-cent whiff rate as batters hit .188 against it and chased a third of the time when he threw it outside the zone.

If it was the early 2000’s, Fluharty would be a perfect LOOGY and carve out a 15-year career facing one or two hitters at a time. But the three-batter minimum complicates things, and Fluharty’s attempts to develop a two-seamer or changeup that pronates in the opposite direction of his cutter and slider haven’t taken.

Still, the Blue Jays are short on left-handed relief and Fluharty has shown the ability to go multiple innings. That gives him a couple clear pathways to the Blue Jays roster this summer.

SP/RP Ryan Jennings

The Blue Jays got looks at how Jennings played from both the rotation and bullpen last season, giving him 11 starts with high-A Vancouver to begin the year before shifting him into late-game leverage with double-A New Hampshire. He performed well in both roles, working to a 1.93 ERA with a 17.6 K-BB% over 60.2 innings overall before going to the Arizona Fall League and making nine scoreless relief appearances while striking out 36.8 per cent of the batters he faced.

And while clubs will always exhaust every last opportunity a prospect has of developing into a starter, 2024 was the second consecutive season Jennings has begun in the rotation only to be sidelined by a mid-year elbow issue. Nearing his 26th birthday this June, the right-hander’s most realistic pathway to the majors may be as a bulk reliever capable of taking a full trip through a lineup. And should that need arise for the Blue Jays this season, Jennings will likely hear his phone ring.

Armed with a mid-to-high 90’s fastball, hard slider, low-80’s curveball, and split-changeup, Jennings has all the weapons for that multi-inning role. And when he’s on, it’s easy to see why the Blue Jays keep trying him as a starter. But the durability concerns and sporadic bouts of wildness could be limiting factors.

The club won’t close the rotation door until it must, but when the right-hander makes his big-league debut it’ll almost certainly be in a relief role. And considering how many pitchers get churned through big-league rosters these days, it’s a pretty good bet that we see it at some point this season.

SP Trey Yesavage

It would take a very specific string of circumstances for the Blue Jays to consider promoting Yesavage to the majors this season after selecting him with the No. 20 overall pick in last July’s draft.

The team would have to be a late-year contender and tapped out of viable rotation or bullpen options. Yesavage would have to be healthy, effective, and shy of any workload limitations. The club would need to be convinced that he was mentally prepared for the stress of being thrown into a playoff race and that the potential of a bad outcome wouldn’t be disastrous for his development. It’s a far likelier bet that we won’t see Yesavage until 2026 at the earliest.

But the belief internally is that the 21-year-old’s present stuff is good enough to get major-leaguers out and that his delivery is polished enough to begin 2025 as high as double-A. Another potential plan would be to keep him in Florida for the first month of the season, avoiding the New Hampshire cold while preserving innings in case they’re needed later this year.

After throwing 93.1 innings for East Carolina last season, Yesavage has already established a solid workload base and could extend to 120-125 innings this year if his stuff holds up. That means he could make 20 minor-league starts at an average of five innings and still have runway left over if he’s needed in the big-leagues come fall. And if he isn’t but still needs more work, the Arizona Fall League is always there to get those innings in.

It's a very long shot — a lot must align for it to become reality. But crazier things have happened. And Yesavage possesses one of the more advanced arms in a Blue Jays organization that’s struggled to churn out big-league starters from within.