With Buffalo wrapping up play at the AAA level on Sunday, the minor league season is over, at least as far as Blue Jays affiliates are concerned.

It was quite a year in the system, and not necessarily for positive reasons. Top pitching prospect Ricky Tiedemann had a second successive season marred by injury, resulting in him undergoing Tommy John surgery at the end of July. Tiedemann’s was just one of an incredible number of blown UCLs this season, joining Brandon Barriera, Landen Maroudis, Nolan Perry, Chad Dallas, and Carson Pierce (in addition to Alek Manoah) on the list of confirmed hurlers who have had surgery on their troublesome elbows this season.

In addition, top position player prospect Orelvis Martinez, after making his MLB debut, missed two and a half months of the season after a positive test for performance enhancing drugs.

Losing those two, plus the other names mentioned, was quite a blow to a system that has been somewhat emptied, due to several factors, over the past three seasons.

There were some positive stories in the system, but as someone in the organization told me, they accomplished more with the lower level guys than they did with the top ones.

Player of the Year

Step one in forgetting about this season is to celebrate some of those stories, starting with the continuing upward development trend of OF Alan Roden, who slashed .293/.391/.475 at two levels this year. Roden, who missed the last series of the season with a mild ankle sprain, got off to a slow start once he was promoted from New Hampshire to Buffalo, but over the last two months of the season was as hot as any hitter in the International League, and was the loop’s Player of the Month for August. You regular readers may recall my conversation with Roden as he adjust to life at AAA:

The transition to AAA has been, at times, difficult, and perhaps has taken longer than I would have liked. My thoughts on the largest difference between AA and AAA so far has been the maturity in the pitchers. While the “stuff” is probably fairly similar in most ways, the maturity of the pitchers, which involves command but also how they sequence their pitches and their tunnels, has been a constant learning curve. Continuing to find consistency is what I’m looking to do now.

While he got the majority of his reps in RF this season, Roden could easily transition to LF until the Blue Jays decide what to do with George Springer. With an overload of left-handed bats in the system, there is a possibility that his name may come up in trade discussions. But Roden, who hits left-handed pitching well and walks more than he strikes out, is a high baseball IQ player who would fit very well into Toronto’s Opening Day lineup. The front office may want to send him back to AAA for a few months’ more seasoning, but this is a player on the cusp of a big league job.

Pitcher of the Year

There was some competition, but ultimately RHP Fernando Perez gets the nod.

The hard-throwing Nicaraguan was challenged with an aggressive assignment to full season ball, and he did not disappoint. Even as he understandably tired in August (and was shut down, having blown past his career-high innings pitched several weeks earlier), but still led the organization in WHIP, and was among the leaders in K% (25%) and K-BB, and whiff rate (15%). All in all, it was an impressive season for a pitcher who turned 20 just as the season started.

Perez has a pitcher’s frame with lots of projection remaining (he’ll need to continue to add bulk), throws in the mid-90s, and challenges hitters - he does not walk a ton of guys. He represented the Blue Jays at the Futures Game in July.

Honourable mentions go to LHP Adam Macko, who looked poised for a possible big league spot start before going on the IL for two months in July. Fellow southpaw Kendry Rojas, who missed time of his own with Vancouver, came back in mid-season and was easily the ace of the C’s staff for the second half.

First Year Player of the Year

He did received some ABs in the Complex League, but Arjun Nimmala, after a rocky first half, showed why he’s so highly regarded.

Not only was the 2023 1st rounder one of the youngest players in the Florida State League to start the season, he was also one of them at the end. After hitting a home run in the first game of the season, Nimmala hit only .167 over the first six weeks of the season before being placed on the Development List.

While on the Devo, the player development staff worked with Nimmala on his posture, as well as his approach. A back injury delayed his return to the FSL, and it took some time for the adjustments he made to kick in, but Nimmala was very solid over the final six weeks of the season, posting a line of .290/.350/.617, and was named the league’s Player of the Month for August. And all season long, even when he struggled at the plate, his defence remained top-notch. With a young player with Nimmala’s profile, there’s always a chance he’s moved to a corner infield position, but he looks right now as a good a lock as anyone in the system to play big league SS.

Drawing walks is the one area Nimmala needs to work on. He did cut his K rate down from 39 to 28% from July to August, but the pitching he will face at the next level will be even tougher, and pitchers will be more able to exploit his lack of patience.

Big Arizona Sky

I’ve had the list of prospects headed to Arizona for further reps and seasoning for a couple of weeks, but out of respect for the staffer who gave it to me, I’ve held onto it.

Until now. Here’s who’s going:

-LHP Kendry Rojas

-RHP Jonathan Lavallee

-RHP T.J. Brock

-RHP Lazaro Estrada

-RHP Ryan Jennings

-2B Adrian Pinto

-1B Peyton Williams

-SS Eddinson Paulino

It’s interesting to see how the Arizona Fall League has changed since its inception. Originally intended as a sort of finishing school for top-level prospects in the mid-levels of team’s farm systems (from 2008-19, only one player below AA per MLB team was allowed; now it’s open to any player on an MiLB roster), a chance for players to get some added reps against elite competition in a more controlled environment than winter ball, it now seems to be a place for guys who missed time due to injury to get some accelerated development. And that’s the case for every player on this list: Rojas missed half the season, Brock almost all of it. Estrada and Jennings missed time last year, and both are darkhorse bullpen candidates next spring (Jennings in particular). Pinto and Williams missed substantial chunks of time both this year and last, and Paulino had a trip to the IL this year. Lavallee, drafted by the Twins, who released him late in the 2023 season, struck out 69 hitters in 49 IP at two levels this year, and was one of the best development stories in the system. He’s one of those big (6’4”/240), hard-throwing setup guys teams just never seem to have enough.