No. 13 prospect produces first career multihomer game

September 23rd, 2022

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Barger produces first multihomer game of his career (Sept. 22)
Addison Barger has decided to finish the year off showing his power.

The No. 13 Blue Jays prospect had his first multihomer game of his career as he went 2-for-3 with two long balls and four RBIs in Triple-A Buffalo’s 10-2 win over Rochester.

The 22-year-old went on a power surge, hitting a solo shot to right field in the fifth inning and three-run blast to right-center field in the sixth inning. Barger also showed off his ability to be patient at the plate, earning walks in the third and eighth innings.

The shortstop’s showcase of power brought his long ball tally to 25 and improved his slash line to .308/.378/.556 between High-A, Double-A and Triple-A. -- Edwin Perez

Robberse strikes out career-high nine for Fisher Cats (Sept. 17)
MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Sem Robberse saved the best for last, and he may have given more than Toronto something to think about along the way.

The Blue Jays' No. 7 prospect set a career high with nine strikeouts and allowed just one unearned run on three hits and one walk over six innings in Double-A New Hampshire’s 5-1 win over Harrisburg at Delta Dental Stadium in the MLB Pipeline Game of the Month.

The lone tally against the 20-year-old right-hander came in the first inning when top Nationals prospect Robert Hassell III reached on an error by second baseman Hugo Cardona and then scored on a double by the following hitter, Wilson García. A single by Trey Harris and walk by Jackson Cluff loaded the bases before Robberse escaped with a punchout of Yasel Antuna.

“I can't really do much about it,” Robberse said of the first inning. “I was already making good pitches. So I was just sticking to it, maybe adding a little bit more conviction into it, and it worked out the rest of the way. I made sure I didn't really get into my own head and just kept doing the same thing. It worked out.” Full story »

No. 3 prospect Martinez hits 30th homer of the season (Sept. 16)
Orelvis Martinez has clobbered his way to an impressive benchmark.

The Blue Jays' No. 3 prospect hit his 30th home run of the season during the Double-A Fisher Cats' game against the Senators on Friday night. His latest display of raw power was a towering fly ball that cleared the left-field wall and tied the game at two in the fourth inning.

An international signing in 2018, the shortstop fell two home runs short of the 30 mark last year, and he became just the 14th Minor Leaguer to do it in 2022.

Martinez doesn't sport the most impressive contact skill or on-base percentage, but one thing he's had figured out all year has been the long ball. The 20-year-old entered Friday with a .202 average and a .725 OPS across 117 games with New Hampshire in 2022.

A couple of adjustments and consistent contact may be the missing ingredient to expedite Martinez's path to the big leagues. -- Julia Kreuz

Brown homers twice in Canadians' playoff opener (Sept. 12)
The game may not have gone his team's way, but Dasan Brown made his presence felt in the Northwest League Finals opener.

The No. 30 Blue Jays prospect led off the game with a homer and added another in his next at-bat during High-A Vancouver's 10-3 loss to Eugene at PK Park. It was the first multihomer game as a professional for Brown, who went deep six times in 307 at-bats during the regular season, twice for the Canadians.

A native of Canada, the 20-year-old was the 88th overall pick in the 2019 Draft but struggled with consistency in his first two seasons. After batting .222 and .212 in 65 games in 2019 and 2021, Brown turned a corner this year. He finished the regular season with a .283/.383/.420 slash line, 28 extra-base hits, 24 stolen bases and 65 runs scored in 84 contests across three Minor League levels.

He saved his best for last, batting .298 with an .803 OPS in 40 games after his promotion to Vancouver in July. -- Michael Avallone

Juenger impressing in Triple-A bulk role (Sept. 10)
is one of the most interesting development cases in the Blue Jays' system, being brought along in a bulk relief role rather quickly. The 2021 sixth-round Draft pick, who turned 22 on Aug. 9, has already reached Triple-A Buffalo, where he owns a 3.00 ERA in 13 games.

This recent stretch has been Juenger’s best, though, including two innings of shutout ball on Sept. 9 with three strikeouts. Juenger, Toronto's No. 8 prospect per MLB Pipeline, has struck out 96 batters over 80 innings between Double-A New Hampshire and Triple-A this season, and by the time Spring Training opens next February, he’ll be a legitimate arm to watch in the bullpen competition. Juenger could fill multiple needs for the Blue Jays, both as a strikeout arm and a multi-inning reliever, and he has been one of the bigger successes in the system in 2022.

Doughty homers twice, including walk-off (Aug. 21)
Cade Doughty belted three homers in his first nine games at the Single-A level. In his 10th, he left the yard twice.

Toronto's No. 11 prospect cranked a solo home run in the bottom of the seventh and then finished off a rally by clobbering a walk-off solo shot in the bottom of the ninth to lead Dunedin by visiting Jupiter, 6-5.

Doughty was hitless in his first three trips to the plate when he connected on his first dinger of the afternoon, taking the fifth pitch he saw from Hammerheads reliever Kyle Crigger and depositing it over the wall in left-center field to cut his team's deficit to 4-3.

Two innings later, with Dunedin having rallied from down 5-3 to tie the game, Doughty waited just two pitches before ambushing an offering from Dale Stanavich and sending it out to left-center, as well.

Taken by the Jays out of LSU with the 78th overall pick in the 2022 Draft, Doughty made his professional debut on Aug. 9. Through his first 10 games with Dunedin, the infielder is batting .341/.426/.805 with five homers and 14 RBIs.

Martinez sets Fisher Cats' single-season homer record (Aug. 21)
Orelvis Martinez has been hitting homers at a prodigious pace all season. Now, it's led him to the record books.

Baseball’s No. 73 overall prospect crushed his 28th home run of the year to set a new single-season mark for Double-A New Hampshire in a 6-1 win at Hartford.

Martinez’s record-setting home run came in a key moment as the Fisher Cats broke open a scoreless game in the sixth inning. After Luis De Los Santos hit an RBI double to get New Hampshire on the board, Martinez brought him home on a two-run smash to left field.

The dinger was Martinez’s only hit of the day but continued a powerful stretch for the infielder. Though he has just seven hits over his last 12 games, six of those have gone for extra bases with four leaving the yard. Full story »

Tiedemann deals three no-hit innings (Aug. 19)
Ricky Tiedemann
has started to settle into Double-A baseball.

The Blue Jays’ No. 2 prospect struggled in his second game of Double-A as he allowed four runs off four hits in two innings. The 20-year-old bounced back in a big way as he struck out five in three no-hit innings of work in Double-A New Hampshire’s 2-1 loss to Hartford.

The lefty was dealing throughout his start, as he retired 9 of the 10 batters he faced. Tiedemann finished the night with 41 pitches – 25 of them strikes – in his start.

He lowered his ERA to 2.26 and brought his K tally to 115 in the 75 2/3 innings he has pitched this season. -- Edwin Perez

Orelvis enjoys another multi-homer game (Aug. 16)
Orelvis Martinez isn’t exactly a finished product yet at Double-A New Hampshire. But the Blue Jays’ No. 3 prospect has shown he can impact any game with his power.

Martinez proved that again, homering twice in the Fisher Cats’ 5-1 win over Hartford. It was the fourth multihomer game of the season for Martinez, who has hit .212 but with 27 home runs in the 20-year-old’s first season at Double-A. Martinez also drove in four runs, his second 4-RBI performance in the last seven games. 

While swing-and-miss issues mean Martinez might need some extra time to iron out his approach at Double-A, it’s been a productive year overall for the precocious slugger. His 42 extra-base hits in 95 games are tied for fifth-most in the Eastern League, and lead all players in Toronto’s system. -- Joe Trezza

Single-A Dunedin twirls combined no-hitter (Aug. 14)
Ian Churchill concluded his first week in professional baseball with an achievement most players never get to claim.

Churchill, Toronto's 10th-round pick in last month’s Draft, tossed a perfect ninth inning to secure a combined no-hitter for Single-A Dunedin, who beat the Tampa, 5-0.

Overall, it was a four-pitcher effort for the Florida State League club. Starter Kendry Rojas worked the first two innings before giving way to Cooper Benson, who did the bulk of the work with four solid frames. Sam Ryan went six up, six down in the seventh and eighth before Churchill, making just his second appearance since joining the team, slammed the door. Full story »

Tiedemann returns to make Double-A debut (Aug. 5)
Ricky Tiedemann made his last start July 8 with High-A Vancouver, but the Blue Jays' No. 3 prospect had since been on the club’s Development List, doing some extra work at the Blue Jays’ player development complex. This also helped to manage Tiedemann’s workload in his first season as a pro. 

His Double-A debut with New Hampshire on Aug. 5 was excellent, which shouldn’t surprise anyone. The gifted left-hander pitched three shutout innings, allowing just one hit and striking out five on 46 pitches. Forget the Blue Jays’ system, Tiedemann has been one of the hottest prospects in Major League Baseball this season. He’ll be the story of the spring when camp opens in Dunedin, Fla., next February. Keep Alek Manoah’s accelerated timeline in mind, because the Blue Jays could be very aggressive with Tiedemann.

Martinez (No. 7) hits game-winning homer (Aug. 4)
Fresh off making the Blue Jays' Top 30 prospect list, Gabriel Martinez made sure to seize the spotlight.

Toronto's new No. 7 prospect hit a fifth-inning two-run homer for the Single-A Dunedin Blue Jays to give his team a 3-2 win over the Lakeland Flying Tigers on Thursday. It was Martinez's 11th homer of the year in what is shaping up to be a great season for the 20-year-old.

Martinez owns a .292 average, an .846 OPS and 46 RBIs in 2022, with the majority of his appearances coming at the Single-A level. The outfielder, who was unranked by MLB Pipeline before the 2022 MLB Trade Deadline, signed with Toronto out of his native Venezuela in 2018. He projects to become just the type of player the Blue Jays have valued of late: a contact hitter with low swinging-strike rates. Add some power to that -- and good defense as a corner outfielder -- and his rapid ascent through the prospect rankings starts to make a lot of sense.