Article: Blue Jays 2025 Top 20 Prospect Rankings: No. 5, Jake Bloss

[Simon Li]

Welcome back to the Blue Jays Top 20 prospect breakdown. This deep dive will focus on the number five prospect in the Toronto Blue Jays farm system, as the Jays Centre community voted on. Today, we talk about right-handed pitcher Jake Bloss.

Top 20 Prospects: #16-20
Top 20 Prospects: #11-15
#10: Charles McAdoo
#9: Khal Stephen
#8: Kendry Rojas
#7: John Kasevich
#6: Alan Roden

#5 - Jake Bloss - RHP - (Triple-A Buffalo Bisons)
Although Joey Loperfido and Will Wagner both were able to make it to the Toronto Blue Jays major league roster, Jake Bloss was the prized possession coming from the Yusei Kikuchi trade. Bloss was the 3rd round pick for the Astros in the 2023 MLB draft, receiving a $497,500 signing bonus, but immediately balled out by pitching to a 2.89 ERA and 3.36 FIP in 18.2 innings pitched in 2023 while running a 29.1% K rate.

In 2024, he started out of the gates running, dominating High-A to a 2.08 ERA and 2.81 FIP in 17.1 innings pitched, with a whopping 36.8% K rate. He earned a promotion to Double-A Corpus Christi, where he continued his success with a 1.61 ERA and 3.30 FIP in 44.2 innings pitched. The Astros, during that time, had their major league starting pitching get decimated by injuries, so less than one year after being drafted, Jake Bloss was promoted to the Big Leagues directly from Double-A. Although he struggled in his three starts, his progression was one of the more surprising stories in the minors. Bloss was put on the injured list with right shoulder discomfort but returned to the Astros Triple-A team, the Sugar Land Space Cowboys, for a single scoreless outing before he was traded to the Jays. Bloss struggled with the Blue Jays in Triple-A Buffalo, as he was dealing with fatigue from his first full professional season and tinkering with his arsenal, but it was an impressive year for the 23-year-old. 

What's to Like?
Bloss sits 92-95 mph on his fastball, but he has very good extension on his pitches at around 6.9 feet, as he stands at 6 foot 3 inches with long arms, which helps his velocity be perceived as faster than it actually is. In addition to the extension that he has on his pitches, Bloss’s fastball comes at a very flat vertical approach angle at -4.5 degrees, which results in his fastball playing up at the top of the zone, as the pitch gives off a rising or jumping effect which doesn’t move in the way that hitters are expecting or are used to. The righty's fastball also has above-average induced vertical break, averaging 18 inches, making his fastball play up as it also helps it simulate rising action on the fastball. His fastball also has some form of cutting action with a 4.8-inch horizontal break to the arm side. These traits on the fastball give it a 64 grade on Thomas Nestico’s pitch model and a 107 tjStuff+, and he had induced over a 28% chase rate and a 24% whiff rate in his 31 1/3 innings in Triple-A. 

Bloss also has a deep arsenal, with five distinct movement profiles, which makes it difficult for hitters to time up their swing when he’s sequencing and locating well. His best secondary is his slider, which he uses 24.8% of the time and behaves more like a gyro slider, with 5.3 inches of vertical break and 5.1 inches of horizontal break, sitting 87 mph. Bloss graded out well with a 103 tjStuff+ in Triple-A, with a 127 stuff+ using Eno Sarris’ model in his short stint in the majors. Bloss also throws another slider variant in his sweeper, which has a 12.4-inch glove side break and sits in the low 80s; it generates whiffs at a 36.4% clip. He also has a curveball with good depth and break that he mixes in, which he used more as a weapon to lefties than he threw in the upper 70s.

Bloss’ sinker is an interesting pitch, as the Jays had him throw the pitch more after trading for him, and Eno Sarris’ model thought it was a good pitch in the majors, with a 112 stuff+. Bloss had trouble commanding it in Buffalo, with a 36.7% zone rate, but it got batters to chase 38.7% of the time, and when it got hit, he managed to induce weak contact. Lastly, he throws a changeup (also called a splitter), which provides him another option against lefties but lacks the movement and velocity separation to be a strong weapon in his arsenal.

What to Work On?
Bloss struggled with his command in his first professional season, so his walk rates improved from a 15.2% walk rate to a much better 9.5% walk rate in 2024. That, however, came at the expense of his strikeout rate dropping around 6% compared to 2023. Astros GM Dana Brown noted that Bloss may have been pounding the zone a little too hard, which explained the reduced K rate. This suggests that his command isn’t as polished as it needs to be to be an effective MLB starter, as after he was promoted from Double-A, he couldn’t zone his pitches as effectively.

Since Bloss was rushed through the minors, he’s still figuring out how to effectively land his breaking balls for strikes, especially his sweeper and curveball, with below-average strike rates at the higher levels. In addition to his command not being fully up to par yet, Bloss’ sequencing isn’t fully seasoned yet, either. He’s still figuring out the optimal ways to set a hitter up to strike him out with two strikes, and with his large arsenal, he’s still figuring out how to keep hitters off-balanced without getting too predictable.

The Jays have been tinkering with his pitch usage after the trade, which explains some of the poorer results in Triple-A Buffalo. Lastly, Bloss has been more of a five-and-dive pitcher throughout the minors, rarely going past five innings, and his stuff starts to degrade after 50 or so pitches. It seems like he was also getting tired at the end of the season with his fastball tjStuff+ tailing off as he threw more pitches. He hasn’t pitched this kind of workload before this and did have a shoulder issue, but he may still need to build up to handle heavier workloads.

What’s Next?
Bloss will likely start the season in Triple-A Buffalo, being one of the first starters if any of the Jays’ more established starters end up on the IL. He’s hoping to repeat the success he’s found rocketing up the minors in 2023 and 2024, and with some added polish, he could be a key contributor to the Jays' success in 2025 as the 6th or 7th starter behind Yariel Rodriguez. Most of his key competitors, Adam Macko and Kloffenstein, dealt with some injuries at the start of spring training so that Bloss could set himself apart from the rest of camp with solid performances. Turning just 24 years old in June, he still has a lot of time ahead of him to make contributions to the Jays, and if all goes well, he could slot into a mid-rotation slot in the near future with Bassitt and Scherzer becoming free agents after the season.

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[Owen Hill]

How real do we think the 97-98 in yesterday's ST game was?  Pretty skeptical he's actually touching that in his first spring appearance but if he has that in the tank Bloss is a whole lot more exciting.

[Terminator]

1 hour ago, Owen Hill said:

How real do we think the 97-98 in yesterday's ST game was?  Pretty skeptical he's actually touching that in his first spring appearance but if he has that in the tank Bloss is a whole lot more exciting.

Yeah I'm pretty skeptical that it's actually 97-98. But even if he can sit at 95 that would be a boost to his profile when he was sitting at 93-94 last year.

[Simon Li]

2 hours ago, Owen Hill said:

How real do we think the 97-98 in yesterday's ST game was?  Pretty skeptical he's actually touching that in his first spring appearance but if he has that in the tank Bloss is a whole lot more exciting.

I think for an abbreviated start it's possible that he can have that in the tank, but I don't think he'd be able to handle that over a starter's workload. If he ever needs to be converted to a reliever that's an encouraging sign.

Last season he had one tracked pitch at 96 mph, so even being able to top out at 97-98 would be pretty big for him.

I am a little skeptical of Boston's radar gun from yesterday, they don't have Statcast so it may just be a mis calibrated radar gun. IIRC they had Corey Kluber hitting 95 mph in 2023 and that couldn't possibly have been right.

[Brock Beauchamp]

I don't know, guys are so intense with their offseason regimes nowadays that maybe he's just throwing that hard. Some guys come into camp with low velo, just as everybody did decades ago, but some guys train so hard in the offseason that they enter camp at 100%, or close to it.

The other day a young Twins starter who sat 94 last season threw a 97mph pitch in his first appearance.

Personally, I struggle to see how this is good for young arms but I don't know anything about biomechanics.

[Laika]

The Boston broadcasters were pointing out Bloss's velo on air. They weren't doing that with any other SP as far as I remember. If the gun was hot you think they would have been gushing about their own guys. 

[BatFlip]

Great article Simon.  Looking forward to the top 4.