Spring Temperature Check: Who's Hot and Who's Not in Blue Jays Camp?

Spring training can feel sluggish at times. The initial buzz of pitchers and catchers reporting is long gone, and the euphoric high of finally getting game action has faded. Opening Day is still more than two weeks away. If spring training had its own version of the regular season's “dog days,” we’d probably be in them by now. 

The good news is that competitive baseball is still on TV. With the World Baseball Classic underway (go Team Canada!), and with 13 players from the Blue Jays organization away representing their countries, opportunities have opened for players still in Blue Jays camp who normally wouldn’t receive an extended look.

As always, the usual spring training caveats apply. Players might be experimenting with new mechanics or just simply focused on preparation rather than results. It's almost impossible to learn much from one game or one week of baseball games, and that's especially true in March. Still, strong performances and struggles are worth noting. Last week, we noted some observations from the first week of spring, and now that the sample has grown a little, it's time for another check-in. One young infielder has been impossible to ignore, while a familiar face on the roster is still searching for his first real swing of the spring.

Stats updated prior to split-squad games on March 8.

Who's Hot?

Max Scherzer: Early velocity suggests the veteran might have more in the tank than expected.

Don’t look now, but he’s doing it again. Scherzer made his spring debut for the Blue Jays on Saturday and looked like he was already in midseason form. He faced 12 batters, retired 11, and the only runner to reach base was promptly erased on a double play.

The key number in this start: 95.6 mph. That was the velocity of a fastball he threw in the first inning, and it's a mark he didn’t reach at all in the spring of 2025. It’s only one outing, but he passed his first test, as the future Hall of Famer prepares for his 19th big league season

Josh Kasevich: The young prospect has been turning heads in all aspects of the game.

Every spring training, there is one player who forces you to take notice. That player for the Blue Jays has to be Josh Kasevich.

Kasevich (Jays Centre's No. 11 prospect) has been impressive in all aspects of the game. At the plate, he’s hitting .389 with a .450 on-base percentage and has yet to strike out. He’s showing his skills on the basepaths with two stolen bases, tied for the team lead this spring. He’s flashed the leather as well, including a diving stop up the middle against the Phillies on Saturday.

While he’s currently not on the 40-man roster, he’s checked every box this spring, and if the Blue Jays were strictly building their best 26-man roster based on spring performance, Kasevich would have a compelling case. Opening Day is still a long shot, but his odds of making an appearance with the team this summer have increased dramatically with his performance this spring.

Brendon Little: New pitches and big velocity are turning heads early in camp.

The last time we saw Brendon Little on a major stage, he allowed Freddie Freeman’s walk-off home run in the 18th inning of Game 3 of the World Series. Naturally, there were questions about what Little might look like coming into 2026.

So far this spring, the answer has been encouraging. He has yet to allow a hit and has struck out 46.2% of the batters he’s faced. It also appears he’s expanded his arsenal, adding a slider and a four-seam fastball that touched 98.1 mph to go along with his sinker and knuckle curve.

Command has always been the question with Little, but early results suggest the wipeout stuff is still very much there.

Who’s Not?

Gage Stanifer: The results haven’t been pretty, but the sample size is tiny.

Stanifer (Jays Centre'S #6 prospect) was exceptional in 2025, posting a 2.86 ERA and 13.17 K/9 in 110 minor league innings. This spring provided an early look at the 22-year-old, but the results have been rough so far.

He’s recorded just five outs and carries a 16.20 ERA. Command has been the main issue, with two walks and one hit batter.

Stanifer’s ceiling remains sky-high, but this spring has also highlighted some of the development areas he’ll need to address this season.

Arjun Nimmala: The tools remain exciting, but the bat hasn’t gotten going yet.

Nimmala (Jays Centre'S #3 prospect) entered his second big league camp with plenty of attention. Unfortunately, the first handful of games haven’t gone the way he would have hoped.

After a 2025 season that featured flashes of high-end talent mixed with extended slumps, the bat hasn't heated up this spring. In 16 plate appearances (prior to his game on Sunday), he had just two hits and seven strikeouts.

The tools are still very obvious; he remains a top-100 prospect for a reason. Yet, his development is still very much in progress.

Davis Schneider: One of the quietest cold streaks in camp so far.

It hasn’t been much discussed, but Davis Schneider is having a rough spring. His 22 plate appearances are tied for second on the team, but he has just one hit, a single, to show for it.

Schneider's roster spot appears relatively safe as a right-handed option who gets in against left-handed pitching, but with Eloy Jiménez and Kasevich having good spring trainings of their own and making their own cases for roster spots, it's worth keeping an eye on how Schneider finishes camp.

In spring, these things can change quickly; a two-home run day by Schneider or Nimmala changes the narrative rapidly, and there is still plenty of time for players to get hot. We will see how things look in a week's time, or more importantly, by Opening Day.