CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Once or twice each spring, if you’re lucky, you can step into a sun-baked time machine and peek a few months into the future.

Ricky Tiedemann made his first start of the spring on Saturday afternoon against the Phillies, playing in front of a defense that manager John Schneider could click, copy and paste for Opening Day. Right out of the gate, the Blue Jays’ No. 1 prospect faced Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner, Bryce Harper and J.T. Realmuto.

Add it all up and Ricky T was looking at 14 All-Star appearances, eight Silver Slugger Awards and 856 home runs, all in the first inning. The Grapefruit League always offers glimpses, but rarely do we see something so close to the real thing. When it’s time for Tiedemann -- and that time is coming -- this is what it will look like.

“That was pretty cool, especially because I watched them growing up,” Tiedemann said of his first-inning matchups in a 13-5 Blue Jays win at BayCare Ballpark. “Especially being able to stand up on that mound against them was something special. I definitely wanted to show them what I have.”

Tiedemann’s day lasted just1 1/3 innings and 26 pitches, the final of which exploded off Nick Castellanos’ bat and soared over the right-field wall. It was a blip that came with a lesson, but otherwise, Tiedemann looked excellent. The 21-year-old sat comfortably near 97 mph with his fastball, and he was getting whiffs on his slider, setting himself up well early in counts.

One of the brightest flashes came early in the count against Turner. Tiedemann set Turner up with a slider for a called first strike, then he blew a 97.6-mph fastball by him, buzzing it above the edge of the zone. We’re starting to see how well these pitches can work together, especially when Tiedemann gives himself the high ground.

The Castellanos home run, on the other hand, can be Tiedemann’s homework. Early in camp, Tiedemann spoke about pitching like a true starter, not just a closer trying to stretch across multiple innings. That’s a mental exercise as much as a physical one, and 30 minutes after he strolled off the mound in Clearwater, those wheels were spinning.

“I was talking to the older guys and Chris Bassitt told me, ‘Don’t try to be cute,’” Tiedemann said. “There’s certain guys, obviously, who are great hitters on the other team. Don’t try to be cute. Stay in attack mode. When those guys start to hit you, it’s because you’re trying to be too cute with your stuff. That’s what you saw with the Castellanos at-bat. I fell behind 2-0, tried to get back in the zone with the fastball and just left one up, right in his bat path, because I was trying to be cute with my stuff.”

This thought process should impress you more than the radar-gun readings from Saturday. Plenty of young pitchers can throw hard, but fewer do it with control and even fewer do it with legitimate secondary pitches. Combine all of those things with an ability to self-evaluate and adapt, and you’ve shrunk it down to a small group of frontline MLB starters.

Tiedemann still has to make the big leagues, then travel thousands more miles to sniff that conversation, but you see the final stages of his development playing out all at once. He’s bulked up -- maybe Hulked up is more fitting -- and has the physical tools other prospects dream of. Then there’s the confidence of a player who has fully grasped what they’re capable of. He has the air, the posture, the across-the-clubhouse saunter of a pitcher who knows he can strike you out.

The mustache and a tattoo spilling out of left sleeve, onto the back of his pitching hand, only add to the mystique.

“Just overall, he’s comfortable,” said Schneider. “Not that he wasn’t when we first saw him, but he’s confident with his routines, what he’s trying to do, what he’s working on, all of that stuff. It’s the sign of a guy getting pretty close to the big leagues.”

Tiedemann’s next start will be closer to three innings. Bump that to four innings in the next outing and, as long as all goes well, Tiedemann should get close enough to what we’d consider a “normal” spring workload. His calf and hamstring issue in late February had threatened that, but this outing put him back on track.

That track is headed in one very obvious direction: to the big leagues. As long as this doesn’t become a matter of health, it’s a matter of time, and Saturday afternoon in Clearwater was the closest thing we’ve seen yet to a dress rehearsal.