After covering 32 prospects last week, we’re back to do the top 8. Today, four pitchers in the upper minors with different ceilings and 2026 outlooks.
8. Fernando Perez, RHP, age 22 (DOB: 2/12/2004), grade: 40+, 2025: 10th
Signed out of the Domincan Republic in 2022, Perez was a steady one-level-a-year guy until 2025, when he outclassed the Northwest League (3.05 ERA, 81:19 K:BB ratio over 20 starts and 94 innings) and forced his way up to AA New Hampshire as a 21 year old
Perez is a hard player to rank. He sits 92-93 and touches 95 with his fastball without exceptional movement, neither of his breaking balls are MLB average, and while his change-up will flash it’s not a plus pitch. However, his easy, almost casual looking high three quarters delivery generates exceptional, maybe 70 grade command. He can put any of his four offerings anywhere he wants with regularity.
As a result of his excellent placement, he doesn’t issue walks (5.6% for his career) and doesn’t give hitters anything over the heart of the plat to work with (0.52 HR/9 in 2025 and similar in previous years). He doesn’t miss a ton of bats, but he does everything else about as well as you can.
There’s a risk that Perez’ approach simply runs out of road, and that MLB-calibre hitters can square his ho-hum stuff up even when it’s on the black. Without a true out pitch, there’s also something of a cap on his upside. The best hope is that they Jays’ strength and conditioning staff, which I’ve seen multiple outlets describe as among the best in the game right now, are able to get a little more out of his 6’3” frame. He doesn’t look gangly or physically immature the way players who are about to add a bunch of strength usually do, but he is young and he isn’t a small guy, so it’s certainly possible. In the dream scenario, extra muscle gets him up into the mid-90s more consistently while adding bite to his breaking balls, in which case he could be a #2/3 starter. A mid-level outcome is a #5 starter who’s vulnerable to good hitting but who can limit base runners enough to churn through innings, while the downside is that he just isn’t able to get outs against MLB hitters and stalls out in AAA.
7. Adam Macko, LHP, age 22 (DOB: 12/20/2000), grade: 45, 2025: 8th
Every year there’s a guy I don’t think I’m going to have all that high in my rankings who, once I sit down and put together the probabilities that we use to underpin the expected value scores, just has to be up there. This year it’s Macko. He didn’t perform great in Buffalo’s rotation last season, but he held batters to a 73% contact rate overall and just under 82% inside the zone, both of which are solidly above average and represent steps forward over his superficially more impressive 2024.
Macko grew up in Slovakia, a noted baseball hotbed, and learned to pitch from watching YouTube. He moved to Canada and was drafted by the Mariners in the 7th round of the 2019 draft out of the noted baseball hotbed (but mostly not sarcastic this time) of Vauxhall High School in Alberta. He worked his way up to A+ in the Seattle organization before coming to Toronto in the Teoscar Hernandez deal. From there he’s gone one level at a time, establishing himself in Buffalo in 2025. He’s been maddeningly inconsistent, dealing with both actual injuries and fluctuations in his stuff and command. On the right day, he’ll spot 94-96 with a crisp slider and promising change, while on the wrong day he’ll be missing the zone entirely and sitting 91 with shaky secondaries. Things seemed to click a bit in the second half last year after a demotion to a long relief role. He sat closer to the top of his velocity range in three inning appearances and allowed just a 64% contact rate, generating 29 Ks and 61 swinging strikes in 26.0 innings while keeping his walks (6) under control.
I think that’s Macko’s most likely role going forward: a high quality multi-inning reliever who can make the occasional 5 and dive spot start. If that brings out the good version of him, the one with three 55 grade pitches that he can locate, more often, he could be an actual weapon on a good team. There’s still some hope that he finds a way to harness that quality in the rotation, in which case there could be a #3 starter in there, but that would take achieving a consistency that we haven’t yet seen from him.
6. Jake Bloss, RHP, age 24 (DOB: 6/23/2001), grade: 45, 2025: 7th
Bloss was a third round pick by out of Georgetown by the Astros in 2023. He was rushed all the way up to the majors in 2024 as they dealt with a spate of rotation injuries, before ultimately headlining the return Toronto got for sending Yusei Kikuchi to Texas. He struggled in Buffalo after the trade, and also looked shaky in early 2025 before ultimately going down for Tommy John surgery in May.
Bloss takes a big, powerful stride down the mound and gets plus extension. That allows his four seam fastball, which sits 92-95 and touches 98, to play as a close to plus pitch in spite of average velocity and movement. He has two breaking balls, a sweepy slider that also looks to be above average and a big two-plane curve that’s good for stealing called strikes. There was some indication that he was working on redeveloping his change-up last year, going to a split grip and throwing it significantly more often. It’s a potential average pitch right now. Bloss struggled to find the plate last season, but that was likely a reflection of his injury and he generally displays average command. It’s a solid, well rounded arsenal without a standout weapon but with good depth and variety.
We’re basically punting on Bloss this year. We’re willing to write off his rough start last season to the developing elbow injury, and since the return rate is so high for TJ these days we we don’t meaningfully ding his future value at this point. The risk has gone up slightly, but it’s still the look of an MLB-ready #4 starter.
5. Ricky Tiedemann, LHP, age 23 (DOB: 8/18/2002), grade: 45+, 2025: 6th
Another year, another hope that Ricky Tiedemann finally gets healthy. The Jays’ 2021 third round pick out of Golden West College in California exploded onto the scene in post-draft workouts, showcasing a massive jump in velocity and a nasty arsenal that by the end of 2022 had vaulted him to AA and to a place among the top pitching prospects in the game. Then the elbow injury bug bit. He missed two and a half months out of the middle of the 2023 season and battled multiple issues in 2024 before giving in and getting surgery. He’s been back this spring, although the Jays are being ultra-cautious and shut him down for two weeks in early March after some elbow soreness.
When he’s healthy, Tiedemann might have the nastiest stuff of any lefty in the minor leagues. His fastball sits 94-96 and touches 98 with massive arm side run. Tiedemann pitches from the extreme first base side of the rubber and has a low and long arm action, meaning the ball comes out way on the left side of the plate. For lefties it feels like the ball is coming from behind their backs, while for righties the fastball seems aimed at their chests until that big run pulls it back into the zone. He pairs the heater with a slider that has big frisbee break the other way, eating lefties alive while stealing strikes from right handed hitters who think it’s going to be in the other batter’s box until it darts over the plate. His change is a clear third pitch, but it’s still got a shot to be average or a little better. Before the elbow injuries Tiedemann repeated his delivery smoothly and consistently and looked to eventually get to average command, no mean feat with stuff this bendy.
It’s all a question of health. If his body is able to withstand 150+ innings, Tiedmann’s ceiling is nearly unlimited. If he can’t do it, the upside is capped but he could be a true closer in the bullpen with the quality of his stuff. Unfortunately, at this point we have to consider the risk that he can’t even do that regularly. That said, he’s still just 23, and rather than a spate of separate injuries it looks like one big one that took a while to figure out. Now that his elbow’s cleaned up, he reportedly has better range of motion than he’s had since being drafted. Always a physical specimen, he’s worked on leaning his body out a bit, going from a power lifter-shaped 255 in camp in 2024 to a looser, leaner 235. Take all that with the usual grains of salt for “best shape of his life” stories in February, but for now we’re going to continue to dream.