The Jays haul at the MLB draft and the upcoming trade deadline are featured in this edition.

First things, first: let’s get to the most recent news.

Tiedemann Under the Knife:

To the surprise of very few, top prospect Ricky Tiedemann, who has missed much of the last two seasons, will undergo the full Tommy John procedure at the end of the month, effectively wiping out much of 2025. Tiedemann joins Brandon Barriera, Landen Maroudis, and Alek Manoah in rehab - all have undergone some form of UCL surgery since the start of the season.

The question is obvious, the answer not so much: why the rash of injured UCLs? It’s an industry wide problem - according to Jon Roegele (@MLBPlayerAnalys on X), at least 54 pitchers in professional ball have undergone UCL surgery this season, compared to 109 in 2023, to say nothing of the scores of high school and college hurlers who have had it. While there are a plethora of factors, much of it comes down to pitchers throwing too hard too soon. Doctors claim the UCL doesn’t fully mature until age 25; many pitchers younger than that are throwing on something of a razor’s edge. But much of the issue seems to come down to several common factors: poor mechanics, overuse, and inadequate strength and/or flexibility training. Off-the-record conversations I’ve had with several people in the Blue Jays organization suggest that the player development staff needs to look at how their pitching prospects ramp up in the spring.

Two seasons ago, the sky seemed the limit for Tiedemann. To his credit, he began to take his off-field training more seriously after that season. Now, we’re likely looking at 2026 for him to have any impact at the big league level despite that.

Yesavage Beast

Shoutout to Blue Jays Nation contributor @_bkuh_ for this spreadsheet (Yesavage not included):

Blue Jays Amateur Scouting Director Shane Farrell’s eyes must have gotten as big as saucers when the East Carolina ace’s name was still on their draft board when it came Toronto’s turn to pick in the first round.

Trey Yesavage may have dropped due to concerns about a collapsed lung he suffered when undergoing a dry needling treatment earlier this season. For the uninitiated, dry needling (to this non-scientfic mind) is an alternative treatment, right up there with cupping - which some athletes swear by. There were also whispers that some teams didn’t like his arm action, but you certainly can’t argue with the results.

Yesavage does have an over-the-top delivery, which is rare in this day and age of pitchers using a lower angle to create some deception. It does give him a downward plane on his fastball. Yesavage is a polished pitcher with a four-pitch mix and advanced command of his repertoire.

There is everything to suggest that this is a future fixture in the Toronto rotation. I listened to a podcast this week that suggested that because this draft was college-heavy for the Jays, it was an indication that President/CEO Mark Shapiro and GM Ross Atkins are trying to win now. Yes, they are trying (despite what some fans might thing) to win now, and both know the draft is how a competitive team sustains itself. They also know that most draftees are a couple of seasons away, so that claim from the hosts seems contradictory. The truth is, this was a college-heavy draft, a trend in which the game has been leaning for several years, and with the number of full scholarships college baseball programs apparently about to triple, that will only continue. With the Short Season level eliminated after the COVID year for largely cost-cutting reasons, MLB will be quite happy to let college baseball take on more of the task of player development.

Yesavage may reach the big leagues quickly. I won’t go out on a limb and say he ends up in Toronto as early as next season, but if he’s healthy he should start the season in AA. From there, it’s anyone’s guess, but the Blue Jays have no doubt taken a long hard look at how they develop pitchers in light of the rash of UCL surgeries that have occurred in the system, and I suspect they will err on the side of caution for Yesavage.

Other picks who stood out…..

-3rd rounder Florida HS RHP Johnny King was a huge sign. One of the youngest players in the draft, he has been twice named SW Florida High School player of the year. Scouting reports say King has a feel for spin, great athleticism, and a metric ton of projection. Yes, the Blue Jays have not exactly had success with HS pitchers taken in the top of the draft, but it was a coup to get King to forego his commitment to Miami. There is plenty of development ahead of him, but this just feels like a great pick. Maybe this is the guy they get the spring ramp up right with.

-4th rounder Sean Keys from Bucknell, the same school that produced Hall of Famer Christy Mathewson. A power-over-hit tool guy like Keys is something of a departure for hitting prospects the Blue Jays have taken over the past several years (with middling results to date). It will be fun to watch him develop.

-12th rounder Carson Messina, a South Carolina prep RHP. A big-bodied kid, he already sits in the 90s, and possibly has the frame to keep that velo and add more. Messina’s mechanics and command will need refining, but this feels very much like a steal along the lines of Nolan Perry.

The Deals

Let’s start with the Danny Jansen deal with the Red Sox, because like most people, I have a soft spot for Jano.

When I was in my first few years of blogging about the Blue Jays system, I reached out to a number of players on Twitter. Several did not respond, but among two who did and with whom I developed a correspondence were Jansen and Jordan Romano when they were in A ball.

I would ask Jansen about some of the pitchers he handled, and he always responded. When he had a breakout in the plate with Dunedin, he told me that it was a result of new eyewear - a reporter on the Blue Jays beat (who I will not mention) picked that up and used their Sportsnet credentials to land an interview with him about the updated prescription. Said reporter never gave me credit, and is now in another line of work. I’m not in this to break stories, but every so often something lands in my inbox or DMs that I just have to share - perhaps karma was at work here with that individual.

Considering Jansen’s struggles at the plate and his expiring contract, it would appear that the return was underwhelming, but at the very least, it’s added some depth to a system that really could use it. INF Cutter Coffey has some pop, and makes good swing decisions, but his overall hit tool has been described as fringy. The 2nd round pick from 2022 likely will shift his strong arm (he received draft consideration as a pitcher) to 3rd when he reports to Vancouver. (….he played there in his C’s debut last night)

SS Edinson Paulino, who will head to New Hampshire, was also included in the deal. He’s ranked in the middle of the Sox’ Top 30 list for several years. Perhaps the highest upside of the three players the Blue Jays received in the deal belongs to 19 year old RHP Gilberto Batista, who had some issues with command in the Complex League this year. Baseball America had this to say:

His low-90s four-seam fastball has scraped 95 mph this year, but he has thrown it for strikes less than 60% of the time so far. He also mixes in an upper-80s cutter, a mid-80s changeup with tumble and fade and a mid-80s vertically-breaking slider.

There is a lot to work with already, in the mold of say a Fernando Perez (more on him below).

As word leaked out the day before the trade deadline about the deal the Jays had with the Astros for Yusei Kikuchi, the initial return in RHP Jake Bloss was eyebrow raising by itself; when we learned later that UT guy Joey Loperfido and 2B Will Wagner were included, well - this may have been the steal of the whole deadline.

Bloss reached the majors in only his second pro season, and adds starting depth to an organization that desperately needs it. Loperfido brings versatility and has transformed from hit-over-power into a player with some pop, yet another commodity in short supply in the system. Wagner brings the bloodline the Blue Jays seem to love into the organization; he also bolsters the infield depth.

The consensus in the industry appears to be that this was a huge overpay by the Astros. Time will tell, but this was certainly an upgrade to the talent in the upper level of the system.

Moments before the deal with the Astros was announced, Justin Turner was removed from the first game of the Blue Jays doubleheader at Baltimore, having been dealt to the Mariners for OF R.J. Schrek. Schrek was a 9th round pick out of Vanderbilt last year which suggests Org Guy talent, but BA calls him on the best stories in the Seattle system this year, pointing out his 17% barrel rate, which allowed him to reach AA in his first full pro season.

In late August, 2019, I sat in the stands behind home plate in Buffalo to watch a Nate Pearson start. These seats are generally populated by wives/girlfriends, and visiting parents - I was at this game courtesy of a parent of a Bisons player who is no longer in the organization. We sat beside Pearson’s parents, and in a word, they were intense.

Now, I have sat beside my share of intense parents at swim meets and soccer games while I watched my own kids compete. You always want your kids to do well, and your focus tends to be singular when they are playing, but the beauty of baseball is that you have two and a half minutes of downtime between innings to check your phone, socialize, stand up, and take a breath.

Such was not the case with Mr and Mrs Pearson. Now, I’m sure that they are nice people, but they were so locked into their son’s performance that idle chit-chat between innings was not for them. I’m not a gregarious, outgoing person, but I have learned - to some degree - the skill of small talk, but the pair was not interested in the slightest. As someone who has watched Pearson’s ups and downs since joining the organization, I’ve often thought about that day. They moved nary a muscle between innings during his outing, as if being silent, still, and glued to their seats would somehow will their son to the big leagues.

So, it came as a bit of a shocker that Pearson, just days after saying that he would be in favour of transitioning back to a starting role, was traded to the Cubs. Maybe that musing about starting was testing the waters, so to speak, and perhaps the Blue Jays made it clear that they were not interested, and the trade came about to give the soon to be out of options Pearson a chance with a different organization, one that might be open to him going back to being a starter. His Cubs debut was…..rocky.

OF Yohendrick Pinnango appears to be the centrepiece of the deal for the Jays. Many have pointed out that he’s spent parts of four seasons in A ball, but with the elimination of the Short Season level after 2020, that’s not all that unusual. BA tabbed Pinnango a riser in the Cubs system in their mid-season evaluation:

He hits the ball plenty hard, and early in the season showed a dramatic improvement in his approach at the plate. His miss and chase rates are all manageable, and he’s done a much better job of getting the ball in the air since moving to Double-A

SS Josh Rivera reached AA this year in only his second pro season, and while he was acquitted himself well defensively, he has only 10 extra base hits on the year.

It seems like weeks ago now, but the trade that got the deadline deals going for Toronto was the one that sent Yimmy Garcia to the Mariners for OF Jonatan Clase and C Jacob Sharp.

I saw a lot of Clase when he was in the Northwest League, and there’s no doubt he’s an exciting player. Clase has game-changing speed, but he also has a tendency to chase. But he give the organization base-stealing ability which is sorely lacking. Sharp adds some catching depth to the system. He’s not the biggest guy in the world, but he is sturdy, and as he showed in his second AB with Vancouver, he has a bit of pull side pop.

And as I was about to send this out, the Jays traded struggling reliever Trevor Richards to the Twins for light-hitting SS Jay Harry. Maybe a change of scenery will be good for Richards. Jay is a contact-oriented, glove-first player who has been overmatched against High A pitching so far this season. He does have a bit of sneaky power that maybe the player development staff can unlock. And just before the deadline came the news that Kevin Kiermaier was sent to the Dodgers for reliever Ryan Yarbrough. The final deal involving prospects saw Isiah Kiner-Falefa head to the Pirates for AA OF Charles McAdoo. McAdoo, a distant cousin of former NBA star Bob McAdoo (shoutout to my fellow Buffalo Braves fans), is the kind of high risk/high reward bat the organization has shied away from drafting, but obviously they feel there’s enough upside to warrant this deal. BA calls McAdoo one of the biggest surprises in the Pirates system this year.

All in all, the Blue Jays did well at the deadline. Of course, they did not expect to be sellers this year, but such is life. They have not acquired a Top 100 prospect, but neither has anyone else. Upside is valued so much that no one is giving it away for a rental. To give you an idea - Bloss, who has back of the rotation potential, was the second-highest prospect (going by BA’s rankings) traded. At this stage, it’s more about building depth than it is about getting future All Stars.

Do these deals mean the Blue Jays will be back in contention next season? Not by themselves, but they will enable the club to get below the competitive tax threshold. That, combined with the salary that has been freed up, should make the Blue Jays fairly significant players in the free agent market. What these trades will likely do is upgrade the talent level in the organization, and possibly provide currency for deals in the offseason. No one wanted the Blue Jays to be sellers this year, but the club has made the most of a bad situation.

One final note: RHP Fernando Perez, who right now is the best active pitching prospect in the organiztion (LHP Adam Macko, shut down earlier in the month, is in the middle of a throwing progression to determine his readiness to return to action) was removed from his start last Friday after only 2.2 innings. After hitting a batter, Perez walked off the mound, prompting a huge conference of Dunedin players and managers on the field. While it was easy to say, “here we go again….” there was no indication that Perez had injured himself. He was removed from the game for precautionary measures, but from both the video and people I’ve talked to in the organization, heat exhaustion was the likely culprit. Those of us who live north of the border and grumble about heat waves know nothing of the outdoor sauna that is the Florida State League in late July. All indications are that Perez is healthy and good to go for his next start.