Blue Jays: Two Pitching Prospects Selected to All-Star Futures Game

Earlier today, the Toronto Blue Jays tweeted out that their top pitching prospect Ricky Tiedemann and #19th ranked Yosver Zulueta had made the roster for the MLB All-Star Futures Game.

The 19-year-old Tiedemann has been nothing short of superb throughout his young professional career. The left-hander was the Blue Jays third round pick (91st overall) in the 2021 MLB Amateur Draft and he agreed on a $644,800 signing bonus to turn professional.

Prior to the MLB Draft, Tiedemann was ranked on the MLB Top Prospect List at #125 and Jays Journal contributor Nick Prasad explained how fluent and repeatable his delivery was.  Tiedemann has shown his development throughout the season as he dominated Single-A baseball in Dunedin to start the year.  During his first stop, Tiedemann made six starts, pitching a combined 30 innings and posting a 1.80 ERA with a minuscule 0.80 WHIP while striking out 49 batters.

In the middle of May, the 6’4″ left-handed hurler was moved up to High-A Vancouver to pitch for the Canadians and has been equally dominant.  Tiedemann has made an additional seven starts in Vancouver and up until his most recent start had not allowed more than two runs in any of his appearances.  On July 1, he allowed three runs over five innings earning his first loss with the Canadians.  In total during the 2022 season, Tiedemann is 5-2 over 63 innings (13 starts) allowing just one home run, while posting a 1.71 ERA, 0.81 WHIP, and averaging 13.7 strikeouts per nine innings.  This is all while being one of the youngest players in both leagues.

The Blue Jays’ top pitching prospect Ricky Tiedemann has dominated two levels of baseball in 2022 to start his young career.

MLB Top Prospects currently has Tiedemann listed as the 64th top prospect in all of baseball, Toronto’s third-best prospect (behind Gabriel Moreno and Orelvis Martinez) and the top pitching prospect in the organization.

It is easy to get caught up and excited over prospects, but you have to wonder if the Blue Jays will move Tiedemann up to Double-A New Hampshire this season.  Tiedemann turns 20 years old in August and I believe there is a scenario that if he continues his dominance, the Blue Jays call him up to the club in 2023.

MLB Also announced that another pitching prospect for the Blue Jays, Yosver Zulueta, was also selected for the Futures Game.  Zulueta was an international free agent signing from 2019 out of Cuba and has made 10 combined starts between Dunedin, Vancouver, and New Hampshire this year.  The 24-year-old was called up to the Fisher Cats on June 30 and had a rough first appearance that night allowing two runs over 1.1 innings pitched. Prior to his callup, Zulueta amassed a 3.80 ERA through six starts in High-A Vancouver while striking out batters at an 11.8 K/9 rate.