Blue Jays Minor League Recap: Strong Pitching Performances and a Lot of Movement Through the System

CURRENT W-L Records

• Buffalo Bisons: 34-47
• New Hampshire Fisher Cats: 31-46
• Vancouver Canadians: 40-34
• Dunedin Blue Jays: 37-38
• FCL Blue Jays: 26-16
• DSL Blue Jays Blue: 8-13
• DSL Blue Jays Red: 10-11

Transactions

• 07/02/25 - Toronto Blue Jays optioned LHP Mason Fluharty to Buffalo Bisons.
• 07/02/25 - New Hampshire Fisher Cats placed RHP Johnathan Lavallee on the 7-day injured list.
• 07/02/25 - New Hampshire Fisher Cats activated RHP Grayson Thurman.
• 07/01/25 - Buffalo Bisons sent LHP Amir Garrett on a rehab assignment to Dunedin Blue Jays.
• 07/01/25 - Buffalo Bisons activated LF Alan Roden.
• 07/01/25 - Toronto Blue Jays optioned LF Jonatan Clase to Buffalo Bisons.
• 07/01/25 - Toronto Blue Jays recalled SS Leo Jiménez from Buffalo Bisons.
• 07/01/25 - Dunedin Blue Jays sent OF Braden Barry on a rehab assignment to FCL Blue Jays.
• 07/01/25 - Dunedin Blue Jays activated 2B J.R. Freethy from the 7-day injured list.
• 07/01/25 - LHP Mason Olson assigned to FCL Blue Jays.
• 07/01/25 - New Hampshire Fisher Cats activated RHP Nate Garkow from the 7-day injured list.
• 07/01/25 - New Hampshire Fisher Cats transferred RHP Grayson Thurman to the Development List.
• 07/01/25 - New Hampshire Fisher Cats activated RF Je'Von Ward.
• 07/01/25 - New Hampshire Fisher Cats activated LHP Kendry Rojas.
• 07/01/25 - LHP Kendry Rojas assigned to New Hampshire Fisher Cats from Vancouver Canadians.
• 07/01/25 - 2B Jay Harry assigned to Vancouver Canadians from New Hampshire Fisher Cats.
• 07/01/25 - RF Je'Von Ward assigned to New Hampshire Fisher Cats from Vancouver Canadians.

Buffalo Bisons
Buffalo (2), Rochester (1) - 7/1
Box Score

The Buffalo Bisons kicked off the week with a series against the Rochester Red Wings. The Red Wings got the game going right away in the top of the first inning. Yohandy Morales blasted a 410-foot home run to center field off of newly acquired Toronto Blue Jays prospect Robinson Piña. It was the only run Piña would give up, as he went two innings, striking out four, and only allowing two hits. The Red Wings' starting pitcher, Bryce Conley, was masterful, with the Bisons struggling to get any hits. Buffalo only had two hits through five innings, but in the sixth, they got to Conley and the pitcher who replaced him. Riley Tirotta singled, Will Robertson moved him to third with a double, and then Orelvis Martinez tied the game at one with a sacrifice fly. Ali Sánchez brought Robertson home on an RBI single to give Buffalo the one-run lead. Anders Tolhurst, who came in for Piña, pitched beautifully for six innings, giving up just one hit, no runs, no walks, and striking out six. The Bisons would go on to win the game, 2-1. 

Will Robertson: 1-1, 1 R, 0 RBI, 2 BB, 0 K, 1 2B

Anders Tolhurst: 6 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 6 K

Buffalo (2), Rochester (1) - 7/2
Box Score

In the second game of the series, Rochester again took the early lead in the top of the first, this time on an error from Buffalo first baseman Rainer Nunez that let a runner get to third base, followed by a Morales sacrifice fly. Buffalo answered quickly with Jonatan Clase hitting a single and stealing second base. Two groundouts would move him to third and then to home, tying the game at one. In the top of the third, Nick Schnell for Rochester homered to right field, a two-run shot. Again, Buffalo answered immediately, this time from a Joey Loperfido double that scored Josh Rivera. In the fifth, doubles were wild, as Tirotta, Robertson, and Nunez doubled in runs to give Buffalo a two-run lead. Rochester only had two hits after the Bisons’ starting pitcher left the game. The relief pitchers shut down the Red Wings, as Buffalo went on to win 5-3. 

Joey Loperfido: 2-3, 1 R, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 0 K, 1 2B

Ryan Burr: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K

New Hampshire Fisher Cats
New Hampshire (5), Portland (11) - 7/1
Box Score

New Hampshire began a series with Portland on Tuesday evening, and it was full of excitement on the field. The Fisher Cats got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the first with a solo home run from Jace Bohrofen. It was his 10th long ball of the season, but only his fifth since May 1. In the bottom of the second, New Hampshire struck again; Eddinson Paulino hit a single, followed by Gabriel Martinez's first home run of the year. Up 3-0 and with Trey Yesavage on the mound, New Hampshire was in the driver's seat and cruising along. Unfortunately, the steering locked up for them. Yesavage had a little trouble in the top of the second, surrendering two singles, but nothing more. Then, in the top of the third inning, Portland's bats got to Yesavage. A double and two walks loaded the bases, followed by a wild pitch that scored a run, and then a three-run home run by Zach Ehrhard. Yesavage was chased from the game at that point, with New Hampshire trailing by one. In the sixth, Bohrofen manufactured a run to tie it up by walking, stealing second, and then scoring on Paulino's single. In the eighth, Cade Doughty's double scored a run and gave New Hampshire the lead back. Portland got a sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth to tie it back up and send it to extra innings. Both teams failed to score in the tenth, but Portland dropped a six-spot on New Hampshire in the 11th and took the series opener, winning 11-5.

Jace Bohrofen: 2-5, 2 R, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K, 1 HR, 1 SB

Pat Gallagher: 3.2 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 4 K

New Hampshire (4), Portland (1) - 7/2
Box Score

On Wednesday night, New Hampshire was in a battle to get back in the win column against a tough Portland team. Charles McAdoo started things off with a bang for New Hampshire in the bottom of the first inning, hitting his 10th home run of the season. It was a two-run blast to left field, scoring Jackson Hornung, who had doubled earlier in the inning, extending his Double-A hit streak to eight. In the bottom of the second, Jacob Sharp added to the lead with an RBI single. Hornung then continued his hot hitting and knocked in Martinez with a single. Grant Rogers was on the mound for New Hampshire and had an excellent game. He went through the first three innings, only giving up one hit. Ehrhard got to Rogers in the top of the fourth with an RBI double. It was his only blemish on the night, as he threw a quality start across seven innings, striking out four, and giving up just the one run. Alex Amalfi came in for him in the eighth and shut down Portland in the last two innings, as New Hampshire got back in the win column with a 4-1 win. 

Charles McAdoo: 2-4, 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 K, 1 HR

Grant Rogers: 7 IP, 9 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K

Vancouver Canadians
Vancouver (1), Everett (2) - 7/1
Box Score

The Canadians hosted the Everett AquaSox for this series, and they unfortunately couldn’t do much offensively despite the quality start from Jackson Wentworth. The offense mustered up only five hits and one walk, as they went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position. Wentworth did give up the first run on a solo homer in the third inning, and allowed another run in the fifth, but the offense did not pick up the slack despite a solid performance. Irv Carter came in and pitched three scoreless innings, as he’s improved immensely since coming off the development list. He’s now pitched to a 3.79 ERA/2.92 FIP with a 25.0 K% to a 5.0 BB% in 19 innings after revamping his cutter. Eddie Micheletti Jr. knocked in the only run of the night for Vancouver with a sac fly in the seventh to score Arjun Nimmala, but that was all they could get. 

Victor Arias: 2-4, 1 3B, 1 K

Jackson Wentworth: 6 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 3 K
Wentworth didn’t have the strikeout stuff he had in his last outing but still went six innings for the second straight start after not reaching that mark prior. The 22-year-old fifth-rounder has taken to the challenge of starting off his pro career in High-A Vancouver quite strongly, with a better-than-average FIP on the season now. 

Vancouver (7), Everett (3) - 7/2
Box Score

Vancouver’s offense bounced back after nearly getting shut out the night before. The first three innings were quiet for both teams, but then Nimmala broke the tie with an RBI single to left field to score Cutter Coffey. Nimmala then stole second base, and the catcher made an errant throw that allowed Sean Keys to score from third. Micheletti hit his own single to right field to score Nimmala for a three-run inning. In the sixth inning, some poor defense after a double from Micheletti led to a bases-loaded situation, where Victor Arias capitalized with a bases-clearing triple to double the lead for the Canadians. Meanwhile, Gage Stanifer put on a dominant performance for the Canadians, only allowing a single hit in 5.1 innings with nine strikeouts. Javen Coleman continued the excellent pitching, striking out two himself without allowing a hit or a walk. Hard-throwing Julio Ortiz came in after, and although he didn’t give up a hit, he ended up walking five batters and allowing three runs to score. Yondrei Rojas cleaned up the mess with a two-inning save, striking out four batters without allowing a hit, as the Canadians one-hit the AquaSox.

Sean Keys: 3-4, 1 R, 1 2B

Gage Stanifer: 5.1 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 9 K
Stanifer barely faced any traffic. Although he walked a few batters, he always managed to strand them without them being able to move up, even showing off a nifty pickoff throw in the first to end the inning. Stanifer was in control all game and was touching 96 on the fastball at times. 

Dunedin Blue Jays 
Dunedin (3), Lakeland (10) - 7/1
Box Score

The Flying Tigers came to visit the D-Jays, and Landen Maroudis was hoping to carry some strong success in his recent starts over to this game. Unfortunately, Maroudis struggled to find the zone, lasting only one and a third innings of work, walking four batters, hitting one, and giving up six runs. Eliander Alcalde came on in relief and pitched well as a bulk reliever, only giving up one hit to prevent the lead from ballooning more than it already had. It took until the sixth inning for the Dunedin Blue Jays to score, as Zack Lee was finally replaced by Ronny Chalas, who gave up three runs on a Yhoangel Aponte sac fly and Manuel Beltre’s third homer of the season, which scored Alexis Hernandez as well. Appearing on a rehab assignment after he suffered an injury in spring training, Amir Garrett recorded his first strikeout in the Jays organization, but Bennett Flynn came in right after and gave up four runs to put the game out of reach for good. Nate LaRue had his best appearance for the Jays, as he struck out three batters in two no-hit innings, but the Jays did not score after the sixth inning. 

Manuel Beltre: 1-2, 1 R, 2 RBI, 2 BB, 1 SB, 1 HR

Eliander Alcalde: 2.2 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 3 K

Dunedin (0), Lakeland (2) - 7/2
Box Score

The pitching was a lot better in game two of the series, but the offense couldn’t capitalize on any opportunities this time. After five solid innings from Austin Cates, Gilberto Batista came in and allowed two runs in the seventh inning. Unfortunately for the Jays, that was the only time they could score, as they left nine men on base and went 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position. Rehabbing Alex De Jesus and Sam Shaw both had multi-hit games, but the rest of the lineup didn’t do much to help them score. 

Alex De Jesus: 2-3, 1 BB, 1 2B

Austin Cates: 5 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K
Cates has been the best pitcher in Dunedin after the more high-profile pitchers were promoted to Vancouver. His fastball was up a couple of ticks to 92 mph this outing, and it showed with five scoreless innings. It also helped his splitter play up. The fastball still had his signature high-ride, and he pounded the zone. The seventh-rounder has a 1.89 ERA in his last nine appearances, and his fastball has slowly been ticking up. 

FCL Blue Jays
F-BLU (9), F-PHI (4) - 7/1
Box Score

Sann Omosako got the start for the Blue Jays' club and was very good over five innings. He gave up a game-tying home run to Raylin Heredia in the bottom of the first, but after that only allowed four more hits and didn't allow another run. The Blue Jays' squad scored often in this one, putting up multi-run innings in the third, fifth, and sixth frames. Yorman Licourt had the big hits, racking up four of them on the day; two were RBI doubles and one was an RBI single. Up 9-1 after the sixth, the Phillies would tack on three more runs, but it wasn't enough as the Blue Jays won 9-4. 

Yorman Licourt: 4-4, 1 R, 3 RBI, 1 BB, 3 2B

Sann Omosako: 5 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K

DSL Blue Jays Blue 
D-BJB (3), D-CUR (2) F/8 - 7/1
Box Score

Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the third inning, BJB got a single back to the pitcher from Rafael Flores, then Franklin Rojas came to the plate and blasted his first home run of the season to left field and gave them the lead. CUR tied the game in the bottom of the sixth and sent it into extra innings. BJB kept CUR from scoring in the eighth, then played small ball to score the winning run. Darwin Núñez bunted to move Cristopher Polanco to third, and Juarlin Soto had the walk-off hit, scoring him. BJB won this game 3-2.

Franklin Rojas: 3-4, 1 R, 2 RBI, 1 HR

Jose Andrades: 3 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K

DSL Blue Jays Red
D-BJR (8), D-TI1 (10) - 7/2
Box Score

Tuesday morning's game was one decided by big innings. TI1 scored six in the bottom of the first inning on an RBI single, RBI double, and two two-RBI singles. BJR got one run back in the top of the second when Luis Felipe scored on a wild pitch. The top of the fourth would be BJR's big inning. They got one on Diego Arce's single that scored Kennew Blanco. Later in the inning, Felipe grounded out, scoring Arce. After Wilmer Blanco was hit by a pitch, Juan Sanchez doubled home two and then scored on a wild pitch. Blanco wrapped up the inning by doubling in two more runs and giving BJR an 8-6 lead. In the bottom half of the inning, TI1 got a run back when they scored on a wild pitch. BJR was still in line for the win in the bottom of the sixth inning, as Kendrick Hernandez came to the plate with two men on base. His at-bat ended with a ball being sent over the left field wall for a three-run home run, which ultimately was the game winner. BJR fell down on the island, 10-8.

Kennew Blanco: 2-4, 1 R, 2 RBI, 2 2B

Johandi Medina: 3 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K

Toronto Blue Jays Minor League Players of the Period

• Pitcher of the Period: RHP Gage Stanifer (Vancouver): 5.1 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 9 K
• Hitter of the Period: OF Yorman Licourt (FCL Blue Jays): 4-4, 1 R, 3 RBI, 1 BB, 3 2B

Prospect Summary (Last 3 Days)

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