Official MiLB/Prospects Thread

[Terminator]

The Gage Stanifers and Kenry Rojases stepping up like this is a great development for the farm system on the whole but they've also played their way into being good trade chips at the deadline.

"The Top 10 pitcher in the system" types who make for great pieces in a trade package.

[John_Havok]

19 minutes ago, Terminator said:

The Gage Stanifers and Kenry Rojases stepping up like this is a great development for the farm system on the whole but they've also played their way into being good trade chips at the deadline.

"The Top 10 pitcher in the system" types who make for great pieces in a trade package.

You're not wrong, I just don't see many arms available the Jays need to add that I'd want to part with them over. 

There was an MLB article/list of 20 starters who could be traded at the deadline, and ...its uninspiring to say the least

[Eat My Shatkins]

Speaking of intriguing pitching prospects, I wonder how high up in the system Johnny King will make it this year? Rocking almost 16K/9 through his 1st 30 innings at CPX and Low A.

[Laika]

Can't see him getting promoted again but scouts seem to love him 

[Spanky__99]

Yeah, I doubt we see him climb much more, but he's been impressive, so young too.

[Ray]

Super enthused about what I'm seeing from Kendry Rojas. The delivery is smooth and repeatable, and its looking like he's flashing two plus secondary pitches in a changeup and slider.

The thing holding him back last year was apparently his fb velo was 91-92 mph, but it's looking more 94-95 mph this season. Obviously no SP is untouchable in trade talks, and I would flip him as part of a package if we could get a controllable starter like Joe Ryan, but I really think Rojas has the potential to be a solid #2 one day.

 

 

[Ray]

I think its safe to say at this point that Enmanuel Bonilla won't be anything. I know the IFA market is a crapshoot, but it's really disappointing to see how he's completely stagnated at Rookie Ball. I believe he got the biggest bonus in Jays history for a J2 signing ($4.1M), and that was even despite the fact that he's a corner OF profile which we never sign. They must've thought the bat was incredibly special to commit that number to a corner OF.

 

 

[Brownie19]

16 hours ago, Ray said:

I think its safe to say at this point that Enmanuel Bonilla won't be anything. I know the IFA market is a crapshoot, but it's really disappointing to see how he's completely stagnated at Rookie Ball. I believe he got the biggest bonus in Jays history for a J2 signing ($4.1M), and that was even despite the fact that he's a corner OF profile which we never sign. They must've thought the bat was incredibly special to commit that number to a corner OF.

 

 

He looks like a lost cause.  It happens.  These kids move to another country, away from their home and family.  They are also becoming adults and there are all kinds of new distractions that may impact their development.  Too bad though.

[jmomcc]

Absolutely no data to judge this on but i feel like spreading the money around is a better international strategy. 
 

I hope we don't trade Rojas because he gives off real 4/5th starter for the jays as soon as next season vibes. With maybe more. 

[John_Havok]

9 hours ago, jmomcc said:

Absolutely no data to judge this on but i feel like spreading the money around is a better international strategy. 
 

I hope we don't trade Rojas because he gives off real 4/5th starter for the jays as soon as next season vibes. With maybe more. 

That's certainly a possibility. Rojas, along with Bloss, Estrada, Manoah, Macko, Francis, Lucas, Pina... those are probably the guys fighting over the 4-10 spots in the rotation/depth chart in the coming seasons unless something changes (it probably will). Hell, half those guys are injured currently or just coming back from injury. 

If I had to pick 3 of that list... yeah i'd probably go with Manoah, Rojas and Estrada as the guys that actually look like major league starters to some degree. The rest are just holding on to the "barely relevant" category due to current injury, just coming back from injury or just plain sucking in Buffalo. 

The wildcard in there is Angel Bastardo who might recover enough to throw some innings this season, hopefully being buried in the minors for rehab without having to be added to the 40 man. Hopefully he can be a something down the road too if he can refine his command enough. 

[Eat My Shatkins]

3 hours ago, John_Havok said:

That's certainly a possibility. Rojas, along with Bloss, Estrada, Manoah, Macko, Francis, Lucas, Pina... those are probably the guys fighting over the 4-10 spots in the rotation/depth chart in the coming seasons unless something changes (it probably will). Hell, half those guys are injured currently or just coming back from injury. 

If I had to pick 3 of that list... yeah i'd probably go with Manoah, Rojas and Estrada as the guys that actually look like major league starters to some degree. The rest are just holding on to the "barely relevant" category due to current injury, just coming back from injury or just plain sucking in Buffalo. 

The wildcard in there is Angel Bastardo who might recover enough to throw some innings this season, hopefully being buried in the minors for rehab without having to be added to the 40 man. Hopefully he can be a something down the road too if he can refine his command enough. 

Also Tiedemann.

[Spanky__99]

 

Top MLB Prospect Performers In Every Organization At Midseason

July 17, 2025 Matt Eddy

 

Toronto Blue Jays

Khal Stephen, RHP
High-A Vancouver

The Blue Jays drafted Stephen out of Mississippi State in the second round last year, and while his first-half dominance was compiled against Class A hitters, the magnitude of his success stands out. The 22-year-old went 9-1 with a 1.75 ERA in 87.2 innings, striking out 97, walking 17 and allowing three home runs. Accordingly, the Blue Jays promoted Stephen to Double-A for the second half, where he will join 2024 first-rounder Trey Yesavage, whose 111 strikeouts rank third in the minor leagues. 

[John_Havok]

7 hours ago, Eat My Shatkins said:

Also Tiedemann.

I have tiedeman fighting for higher spot on the rotation with Yesavage. Their stuff is just too good for the back end. 

[John_Havok]

6 minutes ago, Spanky__99 said:

 

Top MLB Prospect Performers In Every Organization At Midseason

July 17, 2025 Matt Eddy

 

Toronto Blue Jays

Khal Stephen, RHP
High-A Vancouver

The Blue Jays drafted Stephen out of Mississippi State in the second round last year, and while his first-half dominance was compiled against Class A hitters, the magnitude of his success stands out. The 22-year-old went 9-1 with a 1.75 ERA in 87.2 innings, striking out 97, walking 17 and allowing three home runs. Accordingly, the Blue Jays promoted Stephen to Double-A for the second half, where he will join 2024 first-rounder Trey Yesavage, whose 111 strikeouts rank third in the minor leagues. 

Thats great for Khal and the organization. Cant wait

[Spanky__99]

11 minutes ago, John_Havok said:

I have tiedeman fighting for higher spot on the rotation with Yesavage. Their stuff is just too good for the back end. 

There's also Barriera, word is his stuff is the best it's been since he's been in the Org, he's scuffling badly with command early on, but that's expected coming off a long layoff and a major injury. Our pitching depth is looking fairly solid now, it's certainly great to see all these arms take huge strides forward this season.

[John_Havok]

19 minutes ago, Spanky__99 said:

There's also Barriera, word is his stuff is the best it's been since he's been in the Org, he's scuffling badly with command early on, but that's expected coming off a long layoff and a major injury. Our pitching depth is looking fairly solid now, it's certainly great to see all these arms take huge strides forward this season.

For sure he's a stuff guy, but he just so far away level-wise and health wise it will be a few years before he works his way into the conversation.

I guess Khal Stephen has worked his way into the convo now that he's up to AA. He's not a pure stuff guy so it will be interesting to see how it plays vs Yesavage.

[Laika]

Rojas might have some of the higher SP upside in the system. I don't think he's a backend SP prospect. 

All of Yesavage, Tiedemann, King, Stanifer, Rojas, have SP3 upside or more. IMO.

Stephen and Bloss might be more like SP4 upside but you can imagine them being better; Bloss' stuff was popping before injury and Stephen might have sneaky good stuff and command that lets it all play up to SP3. 

Obviously Maroudis, Barriera, maybe Messina, could be more than back end starters but it's too theoretical and remote for all of them. Just lottery tickets. 

The system has so much going on that you almost forget about people. I don't know enough about Watts-Brown to slot him anywhere but he's not a boring prospect either from what I have read and belongs in the above discussion somewhere. Guys with RP or SP5/6 projections, you just don't even think about anymore. Guys like Connor Cooke and Chad Dallas use to almost crack the team's top 10 prospect lists. Adam Macko is barely hanging onto relevance. 

Really, I don't remember the Jays farm system ever looking like this. Just so much going on. The Jays lead the AL East and have an exciting farm system at the same time. Wow. 

[Spanky__99]

9 minutes ago, Laika said:

Rojas might have some of the higher SP upside in the system. I don't think he's a backend SP prospect. 

All of Yesavage, Tiedemann, King, Stanifer, Rojas, have SP3 upside or more. IMO.

Stephen and Bloss might be more like SP4 upside but you can imagine them being better; Bloss' stuff was popping before injury and Stephen might have sneaky good stuff and command that lets it all play up to SP3. 

Obviously Maroudis, Barriera, maybe Messina, could be more than back end starters but it's too theoretical and remote for all of them. Just lottery tickets. 

The system has so much going on that you almost forget about people. I don't know enough about Watts-Brown to slot him anywhere but he's not a boring prospect either from what I have read and belongs in the above discussion somewhere. Guys with RP or SP5/6 projections, you just don't even think about anymore. Guys like Connor Cooke and Chad Dallas use to almost crack the team's top 10 prospect lists. Adam Macko is barely hanging onto relevance. 

Really, I don't remember the Jays farm system ever looking like this. Just so much going on. The Jays lead the AL East and have an exciting farm system at the same time. Wow. 

And it's glorious.

[Pendleton]

23 hours ago, Brownie19 said:

He looks like a lost cause.  It happens.  These kids move to another country, away from their home and family.  They are also becoming adults and there are all kinds of new distractions that may impact their development.  Too bad though.

The IFA system seems completely broken

[metafour]

On 7/15/2025 at 6:41 PM, Ray said:

I think its safe to say at this point that Enmanuel Bonilla won't be anything. I know the IFA market is a crapshoot, but it's really disappointing to see how he's completely stagnated at Rookie Ball. I believe he got the biggest bonus in Jays history for a J2 signing ($4.1M), and that was even despite the fact that he's a corner OF profile which we never sign. They must've thought the bat was incredibly special to commit that number to a corner OF.

 

The initial scouting reports on him from writers didn't even correlate with what he actually is. When he was signed it was made to sound like he was ~6'3 and projected to be a lumbering corner OF with huge power and a big arm. He actually isn't that big (6'1 ~190), has more speed than what anyone wrote about him at the time said, and he has played CF for most of his pro career. They rotate him in the outfield this season, but he still plays a lot of CF. His alleged power also obviously never materialized into anything, and I don't remember anyone really pointing out his exit velocities as noteworthy either.

Its a pretty interesting case study in trying to evaluate and gather info on these IFA kids who are coming to agreements with teams as early as ~13-14 and then not really competing in publicized games.

[jmomcc]

They were talking today on effectively wild about research on international signings and they said that basically there is no correlation between bonus size and success rate. 
 

We tend to give out big bonuses and should probably stop. 

 

[John_Havok]

Don't look now but Charles McAdoo is heating up. 

OPS by month to month:

April: .512

May: .640

June: .806

July so far: 1.068

23 years old. He, along with cash, was the return from the Pirates last year for IKF last year

[Pendleton]

3 minutes ago, John_Havok said:

Don't look now but Charles McAdoo is heating up. 

OPS by month to month:

April: .512

May: .640

June: .806

July so far: 1.068

23 years old. He, along with cash, was the return from the Pirates last year for IKF last year

McAdoo more of that 

[Pendleton]

 

[Ray]

Kendry Rojas shoved again 

 

[John_Havok]

18 hours ago, Ray said:

Kendry Rojas shoved again 

 

83 pitches this time out, 54 strikes. faced 18 hitters so twice through the lineup. Not overly efficient this time out, but still got the job done. 

 

[John_Havok]

Side note, Peyton "the Iowa Meat Truck" Williams has been sent to the developmental list. He's having a rough time in AA with just an 86 wRC+ and a 31% K rate. 

Hopefully they can get him back on track. 

[Vancouverite]

On 7/17/2025 at 5:54 AM, John_Havok said:

I have tiedeman fighting for higher spot on the rotation with Yesavage. Their stuff is just too good for the back end. 

Is Ricky T expected to be back throwing this season?

Pitching prospects are such a crap shoot but at this point im hoping Ricky can make an impact with Jays fairly soon even if its in a relief role

[John_Havok]

8 minutes ago, Vancouverite said:

Is Ricky T expected to be back throwing this season?

Pitching prospects are such a crap shoot but at this point im hoping Ricky can make an impact with Jays fairly soon even if its in a relief role

Hasn't been an update on his progress since June. His surgery was July 30, 2024 so any kind of return to ball this season would be pretty optimistic at this point

I think the last formal update had him throwing on flat ground from 120 feet

[Eat My Shatkins]

It'll be interesting to see which minor league arms the Jays part with at the deadline, but as of right now the Jays upper minors system looks like it's going to be stacked with starting pitching going into next season.

 

Tiedemann

Estrada 

Rojas

Yesevage

Stanifer 

Stephen

Barrierra

As well as guys like Bloss, Macko, Bastardo, Rogers and Watts-Brown kicking around.