Blue Jays: Prospect Yosver Zulueta to miss remainder of 2021 season

One of the most intriguing players this year at Spring Training, Blue Jays prospect pitcher Yosver Zulueta was a name Jays fans had most likely never heard of until this season.

Signed by the ball club as an international free agent back in 2019, Zulueta was born in Remedios, Cuba, and was playing baseball in the Cuban National Series before defecting to Haiti. The right-hander would spend three years in Cuba’s top baseball league before defecting, making himself available to major league baseball teams a few months later. Currently ranked as the Blue Jays #21 prospect, the scouting report on the Cuban native is that he has a flamethrower of a fastball, known to touch between 97-99 MPH, with a curveball and change-up to complete the arsenal. He is expected to be stretched out as a starter as he works his way through the minor league system.

Although Zulueta signed with the Blue Jays in 2019, the hard-throwing righty had yet to pitch in a game for his new club when he was forced to undergo Tommy John surgery, a move that would see the right-hander not make a professional appearance until this season due to the minor league campaign being shut down last year. The 23-year-old would be called up to his first Spring Training with the Blue Jays earlier back in March, appearing in two games while giving up two earned runs, two walks, and striking out two batters in limited action.

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The prospect would be sent to Low-A Dunedin to begin the minor league season and started his first game against the Tampa Tarpons last Wednesday. He would be forced to leave the game in the first inning after suffering a knee injury while covering first base. While the team was hoping the injury wouldn’t be too serious, Scott Mitchell with TSN is reporting that Zulueta will be undergoing surgery and is going to be shut  down for the year.

This is a significant blow to the Blue Jays prospect charts just because of the potential Zulueta has to rise quickly through the organization’s farm system given his prior experience and his electric fastball.

He already has a few years of experience pitching in a Cuba’s top baseball league against competitors almost 5-10 years older than him, as well as the ability to throw hard, throw strikes, and start games. Even after undergoing Tommy John surgery, Zulueta was able to regain his early form and impress a lot of the Blue Jays players and staff with his composure on the mound and his ability to command the strikezone, using his arsenal to keep batter’s second guessing in the box.

Considering he already had snore professional experience under his belt compared to his Low-A counterparts, a strong start to the season could have seen him easily jump up to AA, with a potential call up to the major leagues next year if everything was to go right. This would imply that everything would go without a hitch for Zulueta, a feat that rarely happens when developing a potential starting pitcher in the farm system, but a challenge that could develop a reward in the form of a legitimate rotation contender entering the big league stage around his prime years.

While the 6’1 right-hander will now be on the shelf for the 2021 campaign, let’s hope a speedy recovery is in order for Yosver Zulueta and that his return to the mound can see him recapture the same form that impressed the Blue Jays management to take a chance on him back in 2019.