Blue Jays Minor League Highlights Thread

[Brownie19]

I think everyone should assume that Ricky is dead until he proves otherwise.  

[Eat My Shatkins]

12 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

I think everyone should assume that Ricky is dead until he proves otherwise.  

Unfortunately yes, I thought this was going to be his year and he has elbow soreness before he even got started. Crazy.

It's May and he hasn't pitched an official inning yet

[JaysFan99]

4 hours ago, Brownie19 said:

I think everyone should assume that Ricky is dead until he proves otherwise.  

He's just Nate Pearson to me right now. 

[jmomcc]

Just saw Pinto is back in double A after rehabbing at low A i think. 

He seems to get hurt alot but he is one guy who i've seen play a few times in vancouver and i've always just liked him. He's small but has a big league swing imo. He had a homer and walked today. 

[John_Havok]

I'm just wondering when they're gonna lift the reigns of Johnny King a bit. Kid is still being limited to 55-60 pitches per outing and he's had 5 starts this season. Last night's start he was through 4 innings at 56 pitches (so under 15 pitches per inning which is good) and lifted. 

[Brownie19]

5 minutes ago, John_Havok said:

I'm just wondering when they're gonna lift the reigns of Johnny King a bit. Kid is still being limited to 55-60 pitches per outing and he's had 5 starts this season. Last night's start he was through 4 innings at 56 pitches (so under 15 pitches per inning which is good) and lifted. 

I have no idea, but I wonder if he has trouble sustaining his stuff deeper in games?  Maybe just being overly cautious too.  He needs to cut the walks, but so far so good with the results.

[John_Havok]

2 hours ago, Brownie19 said:

I have no idea, but I wonder if he has trouble sustaining his stuff deeper in games?  Maybe just being overly cautious too.  He needs to cut the walks, but so far so good with the results.

That could be an explanation in that they want to see more efficiency, but at the same time they're slowing down his stamina development keeping him at 60. It would seem more prudent to keep increasing the pitch counts even if he's not being incredibly efficient. He is a bit of a unit at 6'3" 210 so maybe they don't have those stamina concerns and are confident he can ramp up quickly if needed. 

[Laika]

I think it's just their pitching progression development model now

Tiedemann was a 2021 draftee who threw 78.2 innings in 2022 across three levels (aggressive promotion to AA) and he was going 5 innings or at least 4 in most of those starts, until he hit AA. 

King was a 2024 draftee who threw 61.2 innings in 2025, between the complex and A ball. They weren't as aggressive with him. Did not push his levels and did not push his innings. 

Similar kind of stuff but RT would have been more polished right away (walk rate tells us that). 

King being 19 for three more months, I bet they just want to see close to 100 healthy innings for him this year. Maybe not even that many. They probably regret pushing RT to AA back in 2022 and regret not building up his innings more deliberately. 

There are not a lot of other Toronto data points. Here are all of the High School SP they drafted and signed after the RT draft:

• Nolan Perry - had injury issues 
• Stanifer - wasn't very good in 2023, 2024 but they let him loose in 2025 at 21 years old when his talent broke through
• Maroudis - got hurt in 2024
• Carson Messina - elbow soreness took his whole season, will be on the FCL roster this year to start, huge helium potential if he has his velo still 🔥
• Troy Guthrie
• Johnny King

I think the youngest MLB SP who was a domestic draft pick was Elmer Rodriguez. He was a 2021 draftee. His progression:

2022: 38.1 innings, 2023: 55.1 innings injury (King is here), 2024: 89.2 innings, 2025: 150 innings 

[John_Havok]

4 minutes ago, Laika said:

I think it's just their pitching progression development model now

Tiedemann was a 2021 draftee who threw 78.2 innings in 2022 across three levels (aggressive promotion to AA) and he was going 5 innings or at least 4 in most of those starts, until he hit AA. 

King was a 2024 draftee who threw 61.2 innings in 2025, between the complex and A ball. They weren't as aggressive with him. Did not push his levels and did not push his innings. 

Similar kind of stuff but RT would have been more polished right away (walk rate tells us that). 

King being 19 for three more months, I bet they just want to see close to 100 healthy innings for him this year. Maybe not even that many. They probably regret pushing RT to AA back in 2022 and regret not building up his innings more deliberately. 

There are not a lot of other Toronto data points. Here are all of the High School SP they drafted and signed after the RT draft:

• Nolan Perry - had injury issues 
• Stanifer - wasn't very good in 2023, 2024 but they let him loose in 2025 at 21 years old when his talent broke through
• Maroudis - got hurt in 2024
• Carson Messina - elbow soreness took his whole season, will be on the FCL roster this year to start, huge helium potential if he has his velo still 🔥
• Troy Guthrie
• Johnny King

I think the youngest MLB SP who was a domestic draft pick was Elmer Rodriguez. He was a 2021 draftee. His progression:

2022: 38.1 innings, 2023: 55.1 innings injury (King is here), 2024: 89.2 innings, 2025: 150 innings 

Fair and reasonable. 

I wonder what the micro looks like ... like, do they tell him, you have 60 pitches to get as far as you can, or you're going to go 4, don't worry about the pitch count so much.  Somewhere in between? 

[Laika]

13 minutes ago, John_Havok said:

Fair and reasonable. 

I wonder what the micro looks like ... like, do they tell him, you have 60 pitches to get as far as you can, or you're going to go 4, don't worry about the pitch count so much.  Somewhere in between? 

Probably more about the pitch count than anything but they would also have a fatigue model that uses all of this info:

• Pitch count
• Inning count
• Pitches per inning
• Number of up-downs 
• Maybe other stuff like weather, pitch types being thrown, favourite mario kart character, sexual preference, what he had for breakfast, girth, and so forth 

There is science based on their fatigue unit regression models, and that is distilled to the stupid coaches and is probably something like: 70 P max, and 3 up-downs max, and never 35+ P in one inning

[Olerud363.354]

On 5/1/2026 at 9:00 AM, John_Havok said:

Kid is still being limited to 55-60 pitches per outing and he's had 5 starts this season. Last night's start he was through 4 innings at 56 pitches (so under 15 pitches per inning which is good) and lifted. 

Keeping some bullets for September/October?

[hanton]

big test for Arjun

[jmomcc]

1 hour ago, hanton said:

big test for Arjun

He is going to be the 5th youngest guy in double A. Very excited to see how he goes. 

[Laika]

Perry and Cates moving too 

 

[Olerud363.354]

Anecdotally we see a lot of guys hit .220 .320 .400 in Vancouver then .350 .450 .700 in New Hampshire which is a much better hitters park (AFAIK).  I exaggerate, and really only one guy I know of off-hand, Keys. 

Though Vlad, Barger, Biggio, all broke out in New Hampshire surpassing their previous performance. 

If Nimmala was a bit injured last year, suffers from some bad batted ball luck, and Northwest (Seattle effect) humidity has an effect then he could put up some nice numbers in New Hampshire. 

[Olerud363.354]

Cursed season.  Even this thread isn't updated much as all the minor leagers have their averages crash to .200.  

In the old days of Bo, and Vlad and Kirk and Moreno and even Biggio bumped 5 times a night with their latest accomplishment.

[Eat My Shatkins]

Juan Sanchez has a .321 OPS in low A so far. Jesus

Jojo Parker has gone ice cold.

 

[Olerud363.354]

8 hours ago, Eat My Shatkins said:

Juan Sanchez has a .321 OPS in low A so far. Jesus

Jojo Parker has gone ice cold.

 

Just seems to me college stats, dominican league stats and scouting don't totally correlate with performance as much as full season stats season to season correlate with each other. 

Anecdotal but you can look at a guys Dunnedin stats and if you read them right you can predict Vancouver stats and how they will progress.  You can look a guys Dominican/College Stats, scouting reports, draft position, and they mean s*** until they prove they hit in Dunnedin for 2 months. 

Jo Jo Parker does have lots of walks and steals though.  Like a 20-25 k/bb or something.  I think that is something positive as opposed to guys we''ve seen come through and put up a 3 to 30 bb/k (Bonilla I think at the even lower complex team).  

[Brownie19]

9 hours ago, Eat My Shatkins said:

Juan Sanchez has a .321 OPS in low A so far. Jesus

Jojo Parker has gone ice cold.

 

This type of optimism will not be tolerated on this board.  Stupid wishful thinking of fans 😒

[Olerud363.354]

11 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

This type of optimism will not be tolerated on this board.  Stupid wishful thinking of fans

Seen this show time and time again.  What did Goerge W. Bush say fool me once shame on you, fool me twice... shame on you too?  I can't remember.

No such thing as a hitting prospect until they hit well at full season ball for 6 weeks.

No such thing as a pitching prospect ever!

[Laika]

Carson Messina had a good first outing 

Hype 

No idea what his velo was 

[Brownie19]

45 minutes ago, Laika said:

Carson Messina had a good first outing 

Hype 

No idea what his velo was 

That's nice to see.  Was he hurt all last year?

[Laika]

Just now, Brownie19 said:

That's nice to see.  Was he hurt all last year?

Yup. Elbow inflammation, he threw at the start of the year then got hurt and threw a bit at the end of the year. 

Reading between all the lines, my guess is that there was no structural problem and they were just being very safe with him. 

[Brownie19]

11 hours ago, Eat My Shatkins said:

Juan Sanchez has a .321 OPS in low A so far. Jesus

Jojo Parker has gone ice cold.

Sanchez's wRC+ is currently 5.  That's wild.  He might need to go get a real job.

 

[Olerud363.354]

50 minutes ago, Brownie19 said:

Sanchez's wRC+ is currently 5.  That's wild.  He might need to go get a real job.

 

He'll have to report to work at 7:00 in the morning to play in the 10:00 game at the Florida Complex League.  After a couple of years there he will come back just like Bonilla and do OK in Dunnedin, on pace to get to Buffalo by 2032 and maybe a cup of coffee like Orelvis (though even Orelvis handled everything great until New Hampshire). 

[Olerud363.354]

Just now, Olerud363.354 said:

He'll have to report to work at 7:00 in the morning to play in the 10:00 game at the Florida Complex League.  After a couple of years there he will come back just like Bonilla and do OK in Dunnedin, on pace to get to Buffalo by 2032 and maybe a cup of coffee like Orelvis (though even Orelvis handled everything great until New Hampshire). 

If after all that it doesn't work out by 2033, or he gets caught using fertility drugs, then he will have to get a real job with Orelvis. 

[jmomcc]

I personally would not write off Sanchez yet

[Olerud363.354]

7 minutes ago, jmomcc said:

I personally would not write off Sanchez yet

Only 58 at bats I think.  Plus this is at Dunnedin.  Bonilla did this in the even lower level FCL which I assume Sanchez will be sent to shortly if not as we speak.   Hopefully he turns it around soon. 

[Spanky__99]

Holy f*ck someone unplug Olerud man?!

 

[Eat My Shatkins]

1 hour ago, jmomcc said:

I personally would not write off Sanchez yet

Definitely not writing him off, it's a fairly small sample size. I was just legitimately shocked, the guy destroyed rookie ball last season.