This story was excerpted from Keegan Matheson’s Blue Jays Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
TORONTO -- We’re just a week into the Minor League season, but so many things come into focus quickly.
Beyond the rosters and assignments, it doesn’t take long to see which pitchers have carried their spring hype over into real games and which hitters are already advanced for their level.
Now that everyone’s settled in, these are the stories you need to know from each level.
Triple-A Buffalo Bison: Chad Dallas, Adam Macko emerging
Most Blue Jays fans have heard Macko’s name simmering over the past couple of seasons. The Canadian lefty ranks No. 21 on the club’s Top 30 prospects list. Macko is fresh off a strong performance for Team Canada in the World Baseball Classic and is 25, so at this point, the “prospect” development is over. He’s a legitimate option and already on the 40-man roster, so that call could come any time.
Opening the season with five scoreless appearances only helps Macko. He’s been passed over for other arms like Lazaro Estrada, Austin Voth and Josh Fleming, but that’s more about role than talent. The Blue Jays have needed three-plus innings of length, while Macko is shortened into a 1-2 inning role.
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Dallas, on the other hand, is quietly one of the best stories in this system. Finally back from Tommy John surgery, the well-liked righty has allowed just one run over his first 10 1/3 innings. Dallas had some prospect shine prior to a rough 2024 season and his surgery, but he could quickly put himself back on the Blue Jays’ radar. Anyone who can pitch bulk innings without making a mess is valuable at this point, and Dallas will have plenty of people in the organization rooting for him.
Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats: Javen Coleman
The Blue Jays’ No. 23 prospect looks fantastic to open the season with New Hampshire, striking out seven over four innings of scoreless ball.
Coleman is a nondrafted gem, one of the Blue Jays’ better finds after he ran into injuries and never fully established himself at LSU. Coleman is being used as a true reliever, too, so we can skip past any conversations about starting or bulk relief roles. The 24-year-old generated some buzz in Spring Training, too, after getting some looks on the MLB side.
The Blue Jays have done well acquiring and developing some of their own relievers, like Mason Fluharty and Braydon Fisher. If they can turn this into a more consistent pipeline, though, that would be incredibly helpful and help them avoid situations like the past week with a DFA churn. Coleman could be next in line and won’t need to spend much time in Double-A if this continues.
High-A Vancouver: Arjun Nimmala back for more
There’s been some debate around Nimmala, the Blue Jays’ No. 3 prospect and No. 71 in baseball, returning for another lap in High-A Vancouver. I love the decision.
Nimmala faded down the stretch last season, something he’s worked to correct by packing on more muscle. After an excellent month of April and May, Nimmala’s offensive numbers simply weren’t there the rest of the way, so this is Nimmala’s opportunity to prove that he can avoid that cliff and sustain his production, which is off to a fine start this year.
In past years, Nimmala was given aggressive assignments, first to Single-A Dunedin as an 18-year-old in 2024, then to High-A Vancouver as a 19-year-old. Those were calculated challenges from the Blue Jays, who believed his maturity would soften the challenge of more advanced competition. For Nimmala to make the jump to Double-A at 20, though, it needs to be production that’s forcing the move, not just the organization’s internal belief.
This will be a crucial stretch of development for Nimmala.
Single-A Dunedin: JoJo Parker settling in
The Blue Jays’ No. 2 prospect hasn’t set the world on fire just yet with a pair of doubles through the first week, but he’s made some sharp plays in the field and was building a ton of momentum late in Spring Training in Minor League games.
Every arrow is still pointing up with Parker, who had coaches and development staff raving throughout camp. Eventually, third base is a likelier home for Parker, but we could end up having a similar conversation to those we once had about Bo Bichette: As long as the defense is even passable, he’ll hit enough to make us forget about it.
Parker’s offensive upside is rare, though. There’s true star potential here, and you’ll start to see it soon.