3 Blue Jays prospects who are expendable, 2 they should keep for 2025

Keep: INF Orelvis Martinez

The Jays and their faithful had highly anticipated for the eventual arrival of power-hitting phenom Orelvis Martinez. For a Jays’ offense that have had its troubles scoring runs in recent times, they fully expected Martinez to provide a significant offensive impact the moment he joined the big league club. After all, he was coming off a strong 2023 minor league season in which he amassed 28 home runs and a whopping 94 RBI along with 70 runs scored in just 125 games played.

Despite starting the 2024 season with the Jays’ Triple-A affiliate Buffalo Bisons, Martinez continued to mash the ball while becoming the master of run production along the way. The Jays took notice and finally gave him his well-deserved promotion in June. However, after registering his first MLB hit in his debut against the Cleveland Guardians on June 21, Martinez would be handed a momentum-stopping 80-game PED suspension that would essentially wipe out the bulk of the remainder of his 2024 season. After coming back from his suspension, he would finish off the year in Buffalo and posted a final stats line of .267/.346/.523/.869 with 54 runs scored, 19 doubles, 17 home runs and 49 RBI in 74 total minor league games.

Despite missing out on a huge opportunity to fully develop his game in the big leagues and potentially locking down a permanent spot on the Jays’ big league roster, Martinez remains the most prolific hitting prospect within the organization. If taking a look back in the past couple of decades,, the Jays have had only been a handful of homegrown, power-hitting talents in Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette and Vernon Wells to show for. Due to its rarity in the organization’s history, Toronto must keep this precious asset at all costs as Martinez could become a huge difference maker for the club just like his predecessors in due time.

Expendable: OF Dasan Brown

A third round pick by the Jays from the 2019 MLB Draft, it has taken quite some time for outfielder Dasan Brown to develop his game in the past few seasons. Despite beginning his professional baseball career with the organization way back in 2019, the Canadian has only managed to reach Double-A level just this past year. With speed and defense being his main calling card, Brown has been working hard to develop his bat. But to date, it has produced just mixed results.

In 2024, Brown had made some progress in High-A Vancouver when he batted a solid .257 with a .774 OPS, with 51 runs scored, 15 doubles, 2 triples, 8 home runs, 39 RBI, 22 stolen bases and a 2:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 74 games played. However, following his promotion to Double-A New Hampshire, he struggled mightily to just a .217 average, .586 OPS, with 12 runs scored, 7 doubles, 1 triple, 0 home runs, 2 RBI, 13 stolen bases, along with a greater than 5:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 32 games of action.

At the rate at which things have been going for Brown, he is likely panning out to be a fourth outfielder that specializes in pinch running and defense at the major league level. With the Jays in dire need of offense more than anything at this moment, along with the presence of promising outfield prospects in Alan Roden, Charles McAdoo and even Jonatan Clase ahead of him in the prospect depth chart, there doesn’t appear to be a role for Brown with the club in the near future. As a result, he could serve better as trade bait for a team potentially looking for a young, defensive specialist off the bench to man their outfield late in games.

Keep: OF Alan Roden

Outfielder Alan Roden has been one of the fastest rising prospects in the Jays’ system in recent years. Taken in the third round just two years ago from the 2022 MLB Draft, Roden has progressed through four minor league levels in just a short time span. Other than his less-than-stellar showing with the Jays’ Single-A affiliate Dunedin to start his professional baseball career, he has actually been killing it in all the other levels ever since.

Despite starting this past season in Double-A New Hampshire, the tremendous growth and advancement of Roden’s game led to his eventual promotion to Triple-A Buffalo midway through the year. More impressively was the fact that his numbers actually improved after moving up to Triple-A, showing that he is well on his way in being able to handle MLB pitching soon.

In the end. Roden amassed a .293 average, .865 OPS, 72 runs scored, 26 doubles, 4 triples, 16 home runs, 75 RBI, 14 stolen bases, 64 walks and 75 strikeouts over 125 total games split between New Hampshire and Buffalo. On top of that, he has also displayed solid defence in the outfield, posting a strong .991 fielding percentage along with 9 outfield assists over 932.1 innings. With such a convincing performance, he was recently named the organization’s Minor League Player of the Year.

With the Jays not having a concrete plan in place for their left field position for 2025, along with the uncertainty of George Springer in an everyday role in the field going forward, Roden currently represents their best internal solution to their outfield. In fact, barring any major signings in free agency or acquisitions via the trade route, Roden looks MLB-ready and has a solid shot at making the Jays’ Opening Day roster in 2025 as of this moment.

Expendable: P Ricky Tiedemann 

For the Jays’ consensus No. 1 prospect across the industry in 2023, Ricky Tiedemann had an outstanding debut season in 2022 in which he advanced through three minor league levels. Over 18 starts, Tiedemann posted a 5-4 record with a sensational 2.17 ERA, 0.86 WHIP, giving up just 19 earned runs and 3 home runs all year, together with 29 walks and 117 strikeouts in just 78.2 innings pitched. He was so dominant that many were wondering if the Jays actually had the next Roy Halladay in their hands.

However, the subsequent two seasons has turned into somewhat of a nightmare for the 22-year-old left-hander. In 2023, Tiedemann primarily played for the New Hampshire Fisher Cats where over 11 starts, he compiled a dismal 0-5 record with a 5.06 ERA and 1.50 WHIP. But his dominant strikeout ability was still evident, as he fanned 58 batters in just 32 innings of work. However, over two months of his season was wiped out by a left biceps inflammation ailment, severely impeding his overall growth and development.

For this past season, things actually went from bad to worse despite Tiedemann getting the promotiom to the Triple-A level. He would only appear in eight minor league games in total, amassing a 5.19 ERA and 1.67 WHIP with 27 strikeouts in 17.1 innings pitched. His season would be cut short as he underwent Tommy John surgery on his left elbow to repair his UCL. With two consecutive years filled with inconsistency and injuries, Tiedemann saw his rankings in the MLB Top 100 Prospects list fall from his high rank of #32 in 2023 to completely off of the list by the end of 2024.

From the way things have been developing for Tiedemann, he appears to be painfully heading towards Nate Pearson territory, with injuries derailing what was supposedly a promising career ahead of them. As of now, Tiedemann still sits in the No. 4 spot in the organization’s top prospects list according to MLB Pipeline, so comparatively he still holds some tremendous value. As a result, rather than risk losing him later with diminished value, the Jays should fully take advantage of that while they still have the chance and use him as the centrepiece for any potential major trades that could help address the team needs.