Blue Jays Minor League Recap: The Bats Start To Get Hot

CURRENT W-L Records

• Buffalo Bisons: 11-16
• New Hampshire Fisher Cats: 9-13
• Vancouver Canadians: 12-11
• Dunedin Blue Jays: 12-11

FCL Blue Jays: 0-0 (Season not started)
DSL Blue Jays: 0-0 (Season not started) 

TRANSACTIONS

• 04/30/25 - Toronto Blue Jays selected the contract of LHP Eric Lauer from Buffalo Bisons.
• 04/30/25 - Dunedin Blue Jays placed OF Braden Barry on the 7-day injured list
• 04/30/25 - Dunedin Blue Jays placed C Brock Tibbitts on the 7-day injured list
• 04/30/25 - Toronto Blue Jays signed free agent LHP Giacomo Taschin to a minor league contract
• 04/29/25 - LHP Jimmy Burnette assigned to New Hampshire Fisher Cats from Buffalo Bisons.
• 04/29/25 - Toronto Blue Jays optioned 3B Will Wagner to Buffalo Bisons
• 04/29/25 - Toronto Blue Jays optioned RHP Paxton Schultz to Buffalo Bisons
• 04/29/25 - Dunedin Blue Jays placed OF Yeuni Munoz on the 7-day injured list
• 04/29/25 - New Hampshire Fisher Cats activated CF Dasan Brown from the 7-day injured list.
• 04/29/25 - New Hampshire Fisher Cats activated 2B Cade Doughty from the 7-day injured list
• 04/29/25 - New Hampshire Fisher Cats transferred OF Devonte Brown to the Development List.
• 04/29/25 - LHP Jimmy Burnette assigned to New Hampshire Fisher Cats from Buffalo Bisons.

Buffalo Bisons
Buffalo (1), Iowa (9) - 4/29
Box Score

The Buffalo Bisons kicked off a series against the Iowa Cubs on Tuesday, and it was jam-packed with top-end prospects. Cade Horton took the mound for Iowa and looked very much like a legit, future major league starting pitcher. He shut down Buffalo from the start of the game and went through six innings. Joey Loperfido got things started in the first inning though, with a 377-foot home run to right field. The Bisons would tack on two more hits versus Horton, but nothing else, even after he came out of the game. The offense was just nonexistent again, with just three total hits.

On the pitching side for the Bisons, Lazaro Estrada got the start and pitched solidly over four innings. He gave up eight hits, but managed to limit the damage to just three earned runs, helped by his five strikeouts on the day. Connor Overton took over for Estrada, and the game went sideways, with Iowa adding six more runs over two innings to push the game well out of reach. 

Joey Loperfido: 1-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, 0 BB, 0 K, 1 HR
Loperfido launched his third home run of the season off of Horton in the first inning. Loperfido has been slowly finding his swing in the last week or so, going 7-for-26 with two home runs over his last seven games. 

Lazaro Estrada: 4 IP, 8 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 K

Buffalo (10), Iowa (8) - 4/30
Box Score

The Wednesday game between the Bisons and Cubs turned into a shootout, with the first team to 10 runs taking the game. Buffalo scored first and put up a lot of runs in the second inning. Christian Bethancourt got things started with a three-run home run, after Rainer Nunez and Will Robertson got on base. Two walks would again put runners on base, and Buffalo capitalized with a two-RBI single from Loperfido. Davis Schneider would put a bow on the inning with an RBI triple. In the bottom of the third inning, Bisons starter Anders Tolhurst gave three of those runs back, on a Matt Shaw double and a Moises Ballesteros home run.

Buffalo and Iowa would trade runs in the fourth inning, making the score 7-4 with Buffalo leading. In the fifth, a Josh Rivera double put Buffalo up four runs. That lead was short-lived, as Ballesteros homered a second time and Jonathon Long went deep as well to make it 8-7. A Bethancourt sacrifice fly and a Schneider double would jump Buffalo's lead to three, at 10-7. Iowa would add a run in the bottom of the ninth, but Buffalo would shut the door, finishing this barn burner with a 10-8 victory. 

Joey Loperfido: 2-5, 2 R, 2 RBI, 2 1Bs, 0 BB, 2 K, 1 SB

Andrew Bash: 2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 1 K

New Hampshire Fisher Cats
New Hampshire (5), Portland (9) - 4/29
Box Score

New Hampshire opened a new series Tuesday against the Portland Sea Dogs. The weather was a wonderful 83 degrees, and the bats for both teams were alive in this game. Devereaux Harrison was touched up a lot, starting with three runs on two home runs in the second inning by Portland. Then another three runs on a walk and three singles in the third inning. New Hampshire tried to stay within striking distance, scoring two runs in the second inning on a groundout and a walk. Back-to-back doubles in the third inning by Dasan Brown and Cade Doughty would score a run. The Fisher Cats would add two more in the fourth inning on a double by Charles McAdoo, bringing them to within one run at 6-5. Unfortunately, that is where the scoring would end for New Hampshire, as they only managed three more hits the rest of the game and would lose by a final score of 9-5.

Charles McAdoo: 2-5, 2 RBI, 2 2B
McAdoo has been struggling for most of the season so far, but on Tuesday, he was dialed in with a couple of doubles. It might just have been the horrible weather early in the season that had taken the bite out of his bat. A turnaround in May might just be what he needs to salvage his season. 

Ryan Jennings: 2.1 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K

New Hampshire (3), Portland (2) - 4/30 - Game 1
Box Score

In the first game of the doubleheader on Wednesday, New Hampshire sent CJ Van Eyk to the mound with the hopes that he could eat some innings and not tax the bullpen. He did just that, as he went six innings after a rough beginning in the first where he gave up a run. Jace Bohrofen would even the game up in the bottom of the first inning on his fifth home run of the season. Portland would take the lead back on a home run by Mikey Romero. The game would sit there until the bottom of the sixth inning, when a bases-loaded single would score two runs and give New Hampshire the lead in the shortened game. Hunter Gregory would come into the game in the top of the seventh inning for Van Eyk and close it out for the win, 3-2. 

Ryan McCarty: 2-3, 2 RBI, 1 K
It was McCarty's second multi-hit game of the year and his first multi-RBI game. 

CJ Van Eyk: 6 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K
Van Eyk has struggled a lot this season, but with this nice performance, he brings his ERA down to 6.46. It also gives him something to build on as the calendar turns over to May.

New Hampshire (2), Portland (3) - 4/30 - Game 2
Box Score

In game two of the doubleheader, New Hampshire would flip to the away team. Portland would strike first in the bottom of the first inning on a Blaze Jordan single and a Tyler Miller double. New Hampshire would rally for a run in the next half inning via a Yohendrick Pinango double that scored Gabriel Martinez. Bobby Milacki would give up a run for New Hampshire when Portland's Jhostynxon Garcia tripled and scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the third inning. Pinango got New Hampshire one run closer in the top of the sixth inning by way of a solo shot to center field. The bats fell silent from there, as the Fisher Cats lost game two of the doubleheader 3-2. 

Yohendrick Pinango: 2-4, 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 1 2B, 1 HR
Pinango ends the month of April as the hottest hitter on the team. 

Geison Urbaez: 3 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K

Vancouver Canadians
Vancouver (15), Hillsboro (9) - 04/29
Box Score

Vancouver faces the Northwest League-leading Hillsboro for the first time this season. The Canadians came out swinging, with a 3-0 bottom of the inning with Sean Keys scoring two off of a two-RBI double and Hornung knocking in Aaron Parker on a sac-fly. Jackson Wentworth wasn’t at his best, giving up five walks on the night, but still managed to only allow two runs to score in 3 2/3 innings of work. Walks were contagious this game, as although Wentworth let in a couple of runs on two sacrifice flies by the top of the third, the Canadians scored a few of their own through a double steal from Nick Goodwin and Jackson Hornung in one of the greatest baserunning sequences you could see. It seems like the pitcher Liam Norris was rattled after that, as he gave up three walks, including a bases-loaded one to Parker. Cutter Coffey drove in two more on a single, and Keys singled right after to bring the lead to 9-2.

The Hops chipped a bit away on the lead in the sixth, but the Canadians scored five more in the bottom of the eighth to make it 15-5. Hillsboro fought back a bit in the ninth, but at that point it was too late, as Julio Ortiz gave up four runs, but JJ Sanchez ultimately closed the game out. 

Victor Arias - 4-6, 3 R, 1 RBI , 2 K
Arias had himself a four-hit night, scoring three times. Arias has now pushed his batting average over .300 again, and he’s been a staple at the top of the lineup for the Canadians. 

Pat Gallagher - 1.1 IP, 0 ER, 3 BB, 1 K, W

Vancouver (9), Hillsboro (6) - 04/30
Box Score

Vancouver continues to out-hit the Hops, this time with Arjun Nimmala leading the way with his seventh multi-hit game. The Canadians scored seven runs in the first three innings to make it really hard for the Hops to come back from. Chay Yeager, who has been excellent all season, finally hit a speed bump after a scoreless inning, where he let in three runs on two hits and two walks in his second inning of work on the night. Bo Bonds was excellent though, pitching two innings and getting the save to give the Canadians a 2-0 series lead. 

Arjun Nimmala - 3-5, 2 R, 2 RBI, 2 2B
Nimmala has absolutely taken to High-A, pushing his OPS up above .900 with 2 extra base hits on the night. He’s continuing to hit for power, but he’s cut his K rate down to 21.3% while walking 8.5% of the time. The talented shortstop had a slight setback with a shoulder injury midway through the month, but other than that has looked like the best player on the Canadians, and he’s only 19 years old!

Juaron Watts-Brown - 4.0 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 10 K
Watts-Brown is a stuff monster; his fastball-slider combo is incredibly hard for batters to hit, and his first five outs on the night were all strikeouts. Watts-Brown ended his outing with five more strikeouts and generated 15 whiffs on the night.

Dunedin Blue Jays
Dunedin (4), Clearwater (5) - 04/29
Box Score

This was the first series rematch for the Dunedin Blue Jays, who lost the opening series to Clearwater one game to two. Gilberto Batista didn’t have his best start, allowing four runs in five innings of work. Still, the Jays were able to score four runs on the Threshers thanks to the middle of the lineup, with Duran, Aponte and Toman all with some early clutch hits. Johan Simon came into the sixth and allowed a run, but Dunedin couldn’t muster any other runs, even when loading the bases in the bottom of the ninth. 

Tucker Toman - 2-4, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 K, 1 2B
Toman has struggled recently, so having a solid game like this one could hopefully boost his confidence and help him find the production he had early in the season. 

Bennett Flynn - 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K

Dunedin (0), Clearwater (4) - 04/30
Box Score

Dunedin was silenced against Clearwater, as no one was able to threaten with only five hits and one walk. In fact, the Jays only got one at-bat above the minimum, as both Arnold and Jean Joseph hit into double plays. Cates pitched decently, but gave up three solo shots by the fourth inning. The bullpen made its best attempt to claw its way back, and even the catcher-turned-pitcher Nate LaRue made an appearance, though he gave up the fourth and final run of the game. 

Yhoangel Aponte - 1-2, 1 BB, 1 K
Aponte was the only Dunedin Blue Jay to get on base multiple times this game. 

Eminen Flores - 2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K

FCL Blue Jays
No games

DSL Blue Jays
No games

Toronto Blue Jays Minor League Players of the Period

• Pitcher of the Period: RHP Juaron Watts-Brown (Vancouver) - 4.0 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 10 K
• Hitter of the Period: OF Victor Arias (Vancouver) - 6-11, 6 R, 1 RBI, 2 K, 

Prospect Summary (Last 2 Days)

1. Arjun Nimmala (Vancouver) - 3-9, 4 R, 1 2 RBI, 1 BB, 2 K, 2 2B
2. Trey Yesavage (Dunedin) - DNP
3. Ricky Tiedemann (Buffalo) - DNP
4. Orelvis Martinez (Buffalo) - 0-3, 0 BB, 1 K
5. Jake Bloss (Buffalo) - DNP
6. Alan Roden (Toronto) - DNP
7. Josh Kasevich (Buffalo) - DNP
8. Kendry Rojas (Vancouver) - DNP
9. Khal Stephen (Dunedin) - DNP
10. Charles McAdoo (New Hampshire) - 4-11, 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 3 K, 2 2B
11. Adam Macko (Buffalo) - DNP
12. Landen Maroudis (Dunedin) - DNP
13. Fernando Perez (Vancouver) - DNP
14. Will Wagner (Toronto) - Graduated
15. Johnny King (FCL Blue Jays) - DNP
16. Brandon Barriera (Dunedin) - DNP
17. Emmanuel Bonilla (FCL Blue Jays) - DNP
18. Juaron Watts-Brown (Vancouver) - 4.0 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 10 K
19. Eddinson Paulino (New Hampshire) - DNP
20. Dahian Santos (New Hampshire) - DNP

Interested in learning more about the Toronto Blue Jays' top prospects? Check out our comprehensive top prospects list that includes up-to-date stats, articles and videos about every prospect, scouting reports, and more!