Toronto Blue Jays 2026 Top Prospect Rankings: No. 9 Yohendrick Pinango

[Simon Li]

Jays Centre is counting down the top 20 prospects in the Toronto Blue Jays organization. Check out prior entries in the series here:

• No. 20 to 16
• No. 15 to 11
• No. 10

No. 9: OF Yohendrick Pinango (New Hampshire, Buffalo)

PA	H	2B	3B	HR	OPS	wRC+	wOBA	K%	BB%	SwStr%	Whiff%	PULL%	CENT%	OPPO%	LD%	GB%	FB%	IFFB%	SB	CS	SB%	90th EV
533	117	29	2	15	.790	122	.362	20.1%	13.1%	7.5%	20.2%	42.3%	23.1%	34.6%	23.0%	24.7%	34.3%	28.0%	6	0	100%	108.8

Yohendrick Pinango had a breakout season with the Jays in 2025, just after getting acquired from the Chicago Cubs in exchange for Nate Pearson at the 2024 trade deadline.

Pinango was always and still is a data darling, but he finally parlayed that into real-life results this past season. He was Rule 5 eligible this offseason, and the Jays left him unprotected, to the dismay of many prospect watchers and analysts, but he was not selected, and the Jays subsequently re-signed him to a minor league contract.

The outfielder was merely an afterthought in the roller coaster trade deadline for the Jays in 2024, as they made a flurry of trades, and he struggled to perform in his first stint in the Jays organization. Pinango got out of the gates hot in 2025, however, torching Double-A New Hampshire in his second go-around there. In 47 games and 192 plate appearances, Pinango scorched for a 169 wRC+, slashing .298/.406/.522. He was promoted to Triple-A Buffalo and fell back down to earth, hitting just under the league average; however, that doesn’t tell the whole story.

Despite Pinango’s performance dropping off after reaching Triple A, the underlying metrics still supported stronger results from him going forward. Pinango paired strong contact metrics (87.4% zone-contact rate, 20.2% whiff rate) with consistent hard contact due to his fast bat speed (91.9 mph average exit velocity, 108.8 mph 90th percentile exit velocity). He is also disciplined, although a bit passive, with a 39.2% swing rate and just a 25.6% chase rate. The issue with his offensive profile is his launch angles. When Pinango is making the most impact on the ball, his launch angles are suboptimal, resulting in lower liners or grounders instead of balls lifted in the air. He’s able to spray the ball with his current launch angles, being adept at hitting the ball the other way. Still, there is a ton of power for Pinango to unlock if he can start lifting the ball consistently. If he can tap into that, he could have 20-plus home run power.

Defensively and on the basepaths, Pinango is quite limited. He did steal 100% of the bags that he attempted in 2025, but he runs poorly, which carries over to his defense. His already limited defensive profile due to his build and height forces him to play corner outfield, and with his below-average speed, he’s below average there as well. That limits his floor and ceiling, as his bat is the only carrying tool for Pinango. 

The Jays are still quite loaded in the outfield, with Daulton Varsho, George Springer, Jesús Sánchez, Myles Straw, Nathan Lukes, RJ Schreck, and Jonatan Clase all potentially being ahead of Pinango on the depth chart. When Anthony Santander gets healthy, he’ll also be in the mix. Pinango's path forward to the major leagues will need to come off of an excellent second stint in Triple A, where he will hope to show that his underlying batted ball data can turn into real production. 

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